00:00Thank you, Chair Sanders. I, too, thank the teachers. I still remember the names of all
00:05my elementary school teachers, and particularly one who they all, I think, believed in a guy
00:12with a lot of ADD, a lung child, who couldn't focus, who didn't read during the day. And
00:18so one of them kept me afterwards and drove me home. Could you imagine that? She would
00:22drive me home after everybody had left because my ADD would not allow me to kind of focus.
00:27So I just applaud all the teachers. You are a formative and a child's experience. But
00:35as we begin to speak about the current state of K-12 education, we have to recognize the
00:40world as it is. Two-thirds of U.S. public school students don't read proficiently in
00:47fourth grade. Forty percent are essentially non-readers. Almost two-thirds of fourth graders,
00:55three-quarters of eighth graders are below proficient in math. Less than half of public
01:01school parents, less than half, say their child is definitely prepared academically
01:07for the next year. A related issue is the rising absenteeism. Twenty-eight percent of
01:14students miss nearly four weeks of the school year. Now, intuitively, but also borne out
01:22by research, students who miss more than four weeks have difficulty learning to read by
01:28third grade. Think about that. These are not middle schoolers or high schoolers skipping
01:34out when their parent's not watching. These are children less than their first, second,
01:40and third grade, and they're missing four weeks of school or more. And so if you don't
01:47learn to read by third grade, you don't read to learn after that. How do we get here? Well,
01:53in many places, primary and secondary education is broken. Schools have lost sight of their
01:59core mission of educating children. Some education leaders prioritize social agendas and progressive
02:05ideology over academic progress. This negatively impacts children's success. It leaves them
02:12ill-prepared to enter a competitive workforce. Now, parents, parents, studies show, are the
02:19most important educators in their children's life. I think I read once that the mother
02:26is the most determinative of a child's future in academic success, which kind of illustrates
02:35that the mother is the hand that rocks the cradle that rules the world. But unfortunately,
02:41many parents feel as if they've been forced to be bystanders or even silenced by fear
02:47of retaliation from school leaders. In 2023, 72 percent of parents considered moving their
02:54children to a new school, a 35 percent increase from 2022. Now, I have to point out that it's
03:01been more than a year and a half into this Congress and we're just now having our first
03:05hearing on K-12 education. We are the committee with jurisdiction over federal K-12 funding
03:12and we have a responsibility to examine this broken system. Our kids will spend roughly
03:1715,000 hours in school between kindergarten and twelfth grade if they are not learning.
03:24What are they doing? I'm not sure throwing more money at the problem is the solution.
03:31The committee needs to determine root causes concerning the state of public education and
03:38how to fix it. Now, one thing that cannot be ignored, we are spending more money per
03:44child on education than ever before in our nation's history. Somebody's got a pretty
03:53good phone over there, but they need to turn it off. Um, so if you look here, here's spending.
04:04Here's inflation. So spending has greatly exceeded inflation. But even beginning before
04:12the pandemic, we saw a decrease in math scores and a decrease in reading scores. The reading
04:19is fourth grade. The math is eighth grade. Now in 2021, Democrats through a partisan
04:26bill gave $121 billion in one time COVID spending with little accountability or requirements
04:34for how the money would be used. And it begs the question, where was it spent? Some school
04:40districts added new faculty positions like assistant principals that have limited impact
04:46upon classroom learning. There are now more staff collecting paychecks at schools than
04:51ever before. And yet we see grades falling. Now, let's be clear. Teachers are important.
05:00For a child to learn, they must have a teacher focused on teaching. But there's evidence
05:06anecdotal. Teachers are overwhelmed by policies that prevent them from truly managing classrooms
05:14and in some cases, ensuring the safety of their students. We'll hear more about this
05:19from one of our witnesses today. Now, the Democrat solution to this challenge has been
05:24to create a federal minimum salary for teachers. Improving teacher pay is important. In fact,
05:31out of 11 states that passed laws this year, increasing take home pay for teachers, 10
05:36have Republican led legislatures, including Louisiana. But the federal government dictating
05:42how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling
05:47to teach in the classroom. More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come
05:52up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve.
05:58This should not be the only hearing Congress has examining education. We need to understand
06:03shortcomings in K through 12 and commit to resolving them so kids can read and become
06:07productive citizens. With 11 legislative weeks left, it seems we're not going to get
06:12to this, but the longer we wait, the more students suffer. We need to be looking at
06:16different issues about, for example, how to address the learning loss and severe mental
06:20health issues among adolescents as a result of COVID school closures. We need to implement
06:25better strategies like the science of reading to address falling literacy rates so children
06:30can read properly and do not fall behind. We need to begin to screen for dyslexia, a
06:36condition which affects 20 percent of children but with undiagnosed condemns the child to
06:41underperformance. Now, how we need to address how schools, the negative impact of TikTok
06:47and social media on students and a phone should be in the classroom. And what are the costs
06:52of making school optional during the pandemic? What were those costs, as was done by many
06:58school districts across the nation? By the way, the committee also hasn't had a hearing
07:03to address our broken higher education system. We should be discussing the botched rollout
07:07of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, that delayed millions of students
07:12and families from accessing crucial financial aid information. Without this information,
07:18students don't know if and how they can afford college and may just decide not to attend.
07:24We need to address the rising cost of college that is crushing students and families, forcing
07:29them to take on more loans, which may or may not return on their investment. And we
07:34need to hold universities and the Biden administration accountable for the rising rate of anti-Semitism
07:39on campuses, which have culminated in violence and chaos. With the limited time left we have
07:44this Congress, I urge the chair to prioritize how we can help our students and keep them
07:49from falling behind. Our children, our country's future is at stake. With that, I yield.
07:57We will.
