▶ 0:09:35The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education will come to order. I note that a quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call recess at any time. Good morning. Academic excellence is the foundation of K-12 education. Every student deserves access to a great education, to to highest quality education possible. All students benefit when schools set high expectations and provide pathways to success.
▶ 0:10:03Policy makers and educators should focus on expanding access to rigorous academic These are common sense principles, and yet they are increasingly being abandoned in school districts across Instead of helping students overcome challenges and reach their full too many schools are prioritizing uniform outcomes or what is called equity over student achievement.
▶ 0:10:30Such policies do a grave disservice to all students and particularly limit those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We can see this trend in three areas: gifted and talented education, equitable equitable grading, and charter schools. Let's start with gifted and talented programs. These classes are overwhelmingly popular with parents.
▶ 0:10:53According to a 2024 EdChoice Morning Consult poll, 63% of parents said it was at least very important that their child's school offer advanced academic classes, while only 8% expressed that it was not important. There's also considerable evidence that gifted education is good for kids. As Johns Hopkins Professor Jonathan Plucker summarized the research, acceleration is one of the most studied intervention strategies in all of education with overwhelming evidence of positive effects on student achievement.
▶ 0:11:23Despite this, gifted education is under attack. In New York City, there are efforts to scale back the city's gifted and talented In California, San Francisco Unified actually spent a decade preventing advanced eighth graders from taking Algebra 1.
▶ 0:11:41Now, San Francisco eventually reversed course based on evidence that it actually harmed low-income and minority students, but not before California's Instructional Quality Commission urged schools throughout the state to eliminate K through 10 accelerated math. These policies are bad for everyone.
▶ 0:12:00They prevent high achievers from reaching their potential and make it more difficult for students of all achievement levels to receive the instruction that will lead them to Perhaps most perversely, these policies that are promoted in the name of equity actually deny students from less advantaged backgrounds the opportunities that will help them advance. And this has been validated by studies repeatedly.
▶ 0:12:24Academic research has shown that when you have objective identification standards in place for students eligible for advanced instruction, it actually triples the number of students from minority and low-income backgrounds that are enrolled in those programs.
▶ 0:12:41And the reason that perversely these sort of policies that are promoted in the name of equity actually widen achievement gaps is that our public school system is, of course, where students can get a education that's open to all, that doesn't cost anything.
▶ 0:12:58And so when you close off that pathway for access to advanced learning, then it's only those who have the means to seek out other pathways, such as tutoring, such as private schools, such as enrichment enrichment activities and extracurriculars, who have access to Another misguided policy is so-called equitable grading.
▶ 0:13:21Despite its laudable goals, in practice this recent innovation often means that common sense practices, such as penalizing late work and failing students for cheating, are deemed problematic. Portland Public Schools offers a case study. Teachers weren't instructed Teachers were instructed in 2023 to discard traditional yardsticks of student student performance, including homework assignments, attendance, and small evaluations like quizzes.
▶ 0:13:45It's hard to imagine what policy could what a policy that could be more destructive to academic excellence, student motivation, and integrity than this. This false notion of equity in practice limits student growth and widens achievement gaps. Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the opposition to charter schools, which are perhaps the greatest force for expanding educational opportunity in America today.
▶ 0:14:10Stanford's noted the CREDO studies have shown that urban charter students gain 40 additional days of learning in math. That is a remarkable result. There's virtually no other education reform with such a track record of success.
▶ 0:14:25Yet all too often, instead of trying to replicate these results for all students, political interests have attacked charter schools and their leaders, denied them equal funding, capped their expansion, and propagated myths in an attempt to deny the charter success story. Here are the ultimate stakes in this discussion today. By any measure, America is falling behind other nations when it comes to academic achievements in our schools.
▶ 0:14:54We see this in test results now. We also see it in terms of how many leading researchers our country is producing in key STEM areas as opposed to other countries. This is a grave threat to our future. And we must act with urgency to change the trajectory. That will involve many important reforms to make our schools work better for students, but above all, it requires a renewed commitment to excellence in American education.
▶ 0:15:23With that, I yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. And and thank you to the witnesses for your testimony. I'll start by saying that gifted and talented programs, advanced placement AP, International Baccalaureate IB, and dual enrollment courses, they do offer extended and expanded opportunities for students. But I'll also note that engaging rigorous coursework that expands critical thinking skills should be available to every student regardless of the existence of special programs.
▶ 0:15:52It's one of the primary goals of ESSA's Title IV A student support and academic enrichment provisions on well-rounded education. But as is the case with all curriculum decisions, the federal government's role is to provide funding and research, not to decide what is taught or how in what type of program. Decisions about curriculum and screening for these programs are made by states and local districts.
▶ 0:16:14Because of that, the selection process and makeup of programs like gifted and talented they vary widely from district to district. That being said, one unfortunate reality does hold true regardless of locality. The students who benefit from the system are disproportionately white and wealthy.
▶ 0:16:34In many districts, access depends heavily on parent advocacy, early prior placement decisions, teacher referrals, or simply whether a student attends a school that offers advanced coursework. As a result, access to advanced coursework options can vary sharply by race, by income, by English language ability, geography, and school type.
▶ 0:16:55Black and brown students are more likely to be denied access to those programs, and students with disabilities often lack access to rigorous coursework even when they have the potential to succeed academically with or without reasonable accommodation. I will note that it's an ongoing challenge to understand the majority's position in this committee. It seems that it's all about local control unless and until it's something that the majority wants to have Congress decide.
▶ 0:17:20I also challenge the title of today's which is how equity policies undermine excellence and harm students. Let me be clear, equity and excellence do not conflict. Well-designed, evidence-based equity practices allow all students to reach their full potential without being hampered by bias, information gaps, or resource limitations. It is both cruel and factually inaccurate to argue that expanding access to gifted programs makes them less excellent.
▶ 0:17:49All students should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and get the education that's best suited for them, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or zip code. Students sitting side by side with peers who look or sound different from them doesn't diminish the learning experience. It improves the learning for everyone. Widening the doorway to excellence is not the same as lowering the ceiling.
▶ 0:18:14What does harm students, however, is that schools and districts are struggling from a lack of resources, in part because of Republican policies, including a tax on public education. The Trump administration is illegally dismantling the Department of Education, causing chaos and confusion for districts, schools, and families.
▶ 0:18:33Secretary McMahon has frozen funding, delayed grant awards, and awarded waivers to states use to use funding however they wish, weakening accountability measures put in place by Congress to guarantee the equitable distribution of funds. This administration has fundally fundamentally harmed the ability of Congress to improve and strengthen our public school system. And as I've I've I have pointed out to this subcommittee and to the full committee ad nauseam, the federal government does not dictate curriculum.
▶ 0:19:01But it does, and it should, promote equity in education and close funding gaps so all students have the opportunity to succeed. This has been the federal role in education since then President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law in the 1960s.
▶ 0:19:20Importantly, researchers at the Institute of Education Sciences, IES, they conduct critical work to understand, for example, how gifted and talented programs can remain academically rigorous while accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. Unfortunately, the Trump administration's disastrous cuts to IES funding decimated their ability to continue studying these trends and guide states and districts to the best practices for gifted education.
▶ 0:19:47I hope my colleagues who care so much about this topic will join me in advocating to reinstate IES funding. Without long-term sustained federal investment, schools and educators will lack the tools, the resources, and importantly, the research they need to teach all students effectively. Instead of throwing taxpayer dollars at school voucher systems, we should be putting that money toward the public education system, which has been the backbone of this country for century, and where about 90% of all US students attend school.
▶ 0:20:17Finally, a word about test scores, which I know several witnesses will discuss. Assessments are important, but the well-intentioned yet disastrous in implement implementation, No Child Left Behind, led to high-stakes testing that was used in a punitive way, which in turn led to narrowed curriculum, teaching to the test, and a distrust in standardized testing.
▶ 0:20:39What we need is high-quality assessments that are used by educators with assessment literacy to inform instruction, not to punish schools or students. And we should also stop comparing the US and our test scores, which come from more than 12,000 very diverse school districts with test scores of students in countries with universal health care, robust early childhood education, paid family leave, and in some cases a lot less poverty, all of which matter to student success.
▶ 0:21:08So, instead of demonizing public education, Congress should be uplifting it. We must give schools, districts, and the states the resources they need to succeed to fill the opportunity gaps. And of course, we must conduct oversight of states so all students have those opportunities, and the opportunities and the skills they need to thrive. I look forward to today today's conversation, and I yield back.
▶ 0:21:32Pursuant to committee rule 8C, all members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format by 5:00 p.m. 14 days after the hearing. And without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material noted during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. I'll now introduce our witnesses. Our first witness is Mr. Daniel Buck, research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute here in Washington, Our second witness is Ms.
▶ 0:22:03WaiWah Chin, founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York in New York City. Our third witness is Ms. Michelle Turnage-Young, senior counsel and co-manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Washington, D.C. And our fourth witness is Mr. Paul Runkel, senior director of K-12 Initiatives at Defending Education in Arlington, Virginia. We thank our witnesses for being here today and look forward to your testimony.
▶ 0:22:33Pursuant to committee rules, I would ask that you each limit your oral presentation to a 3-minute summary of your written statement. As committee members have many questions for you, the clock will count down from 3 minutes. However, pursuant to committee rule 8D and committee practice, we will not cut off your testimony until you reach the 5-minute mark. I'd also like to remind the witnesses to be aware of your responsibility to provide accurate information to the I'll first recognize Mr. Buck for your Good morning, Mr.
▶ 0:23:03Chairman, Ranking Member Blumenauer and distinguished members of the committee. During my time as a Title I teacher in Title I schools, I watched as expectations for students only got lower and lower, all in the name of equity.
▶ 0:23:18Every standard to which we used to hold students, from memorizing basic math facts to writing a simple paragraph with proper grammar, was deconstructed by I watched as their policies ruined schools and codified into law the soft bigotry of low expectations.
▶ 0:23:37And I sit here today frustrated because those who champion equity advance the policies that make schools only worse for our The clearest and most recent example of this trend is Mayor Adams' promise to eliminate eliminate it gifted and talented education in New York City.
▶ 0:23:54Despite his own privileged educational journey from the Bank Street School for Children with an annual tuition over to the elite Bronx High School of Likewise, in 2014, San Francisco removed the option for eighth graders to take algebra, which resulted only in fewer students taking advanced classes overall and larger achievement gaps on standardized tests. Removing gifted programs doesn't solve inequities.
▶ 0:24:23Instead, it closes off often the only routes that underprivileged students have to advance learning and the career pathways that come from it. At the school and district level, equity grading. These are policies of lenient grading scales, no zeros grading, no homework, um unlimited retakes, no late work penalties. This equity grading is yet another policy pushed by progressives that accomplishes lower standards and depressed achievement.
▶ 0:24:51Large majorities of teachers oppose it and several studies have confirmed that students learn more and achieve more when they face tougher grading. If you allow students to turn in shotty work, late work, or no no work at all, then that is precisely what they will Conversely, if you set high standards, hold students to them, they will reach them, and they will be grateful for it in the long run. Many prominent Democrats have also opposed charter schools, despite the fact, as you alluded to, Mr.
▶ 0:25:21Chairman, that attendance at urban charter schools results in the equivalent of 40 additional days of learning per year in math and 28 additionally days of learning per year in reading. Expanding access to charter schools is arguably the single most promising policy to close the achievement gap, and yet Democrats oppose them regardless. In every case, progressives have implemented a regime of equity in which everyone gets nothing.
▶ 0:25:50And in every case, the policy solution is simple. Keep standards high. I've had a front-row seat in schools for the last decade, watching as progressives have waged damaging wars against merit, all in the name of equity. I want to thank this committee for the opportunity to speak, and I implore you all to reject equity policies and instead adopt an excellence agenda focused on high standards, merit, and academic rigor. Thank you again. Thanks very much. I'll next recognize Ms.
▶ 0:26:21Chin for your testimony. Uh distinguished chairman, ranking member, and subcommittee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify. a friend, a school parent who's volunteered countless hours to starting a new school in New York City called Next Gen Technologies High and also worked closely with a principal, found
▶ 0:26:51a principal, found a and got a thousand applicants to this new school. Two-thirds of them black and Hispanic, the applicants. Yesterday, it was announced by the chairman of the board, the what we call the policy education policy panel, said that for equity purposes, we will stop and end Next Gen.
▶ 0:27:22Next Generation Technologies was supposed to address AI, computer science, technology issues for kids of any race, economic background. This was killed. What is equity, which stops our next What matters to our next generations? Merit matters.
▶ 0:27:54Merit matters every time you board a plane, you turn on your phone, you do an internet search. When you're on the operating table, you don't want a surgeon chosen by You want one chosen by merit.
▶ 0:28:14We need high objective standards in our schools at every level, especially in American innovation, prosperity, and national security rely on our top world-class STEM talent. And how are we doing? The US spends among them most per student in the world. Yet, our outcomes lag top-performing countries, and we don't produce the high-skilled workforce that we need.
▶ 0:28:45By eighth grade, American students trail top-performing countries in math roughly 3 to 4 years. They don't catch up, either. By age 15, they're still 3 to 4 years behind. These are based on TIMSS and PISA scores, assessments that are very By our nation's own report card, only 22% of our 12th graders, and these are the ones who are still in school, are math proficient, and pre-math proficiency is a very low
▶ 0:29:15standard. These aren't small gaps. This is system-wide failure. And what are we doing? With districts reducing rigorous academics in favor of non-academic frameworks like social-emotional learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, and equity initiatives that take time from core academics and inject social or political agendas into the classrooms.
▶ 0:29:42Merit-based programs like gifted and talented and accelerated tracks, which have long helped advance students learn at the right pace are being as in New York, we've mentioned it several places here already, reduced or diluted due to Selective public high schools that historically produced top STEM talent face challenges. They are also being attacked.
▶ 0:30:06Nationally at top rated schools like Virginia's Thomas Boston Latin, and New York specialized high schools Stuyvesant, Bronx Science have relied on objective merit-based exam admissions. Recent changes for equity though have lowered standards, reduced advanced coursework, discriminated against Asian Americans, and weakened academic results. This is the wrong direction.
▶ 0:30:34We've already lost our global lead in STEM from AI to semiconductors to quantum computing. Lowering standards and abandoning merit only widens gaps. Instead, we should expand high quality merit-based schools and programs, strengthen objective academic measures, and support accelerated New York specialized high schools show what merit can do. These are poor kids in most cases in these schools.
▶ 0:31:03Their graduates include 15 Nobel That's more than what most countries in the world have. And include generations of innovators whose work benefit all humanity. When we abandon merit, we harm our shared future. For America's future, we must recommit to excellence, rigor, and merit. Thank you. Thank you very much.
▶ 0:31:31I will next recognize Ms. Turnage for your Turnage Young for your testimony. Good morning, Chairman Kiley, Ranking Member Bonamici, and other distinguished members of the Thank you for the opportunity to My name is Michelle Turnage Young. I serve as Senior Counsel and Co-Manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational or LDF for short.
▶ 0:31:57Founded by our nation's first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, LDF is America's premier law organization fighting for racial As a nation, we cannot afford to forego the benefits of the talents of any of our children.
▶ 0:32:14Our national security, our ability to compete in a global economy with scientific and technological innovation, and the health of our democracy depend on producing leaders, workers, and a well-educated, civically engaged citizenry capable of navigating and thriving in our increasingly racially Given this, every child should have equal access to a quality public education, regardless of their income, where they are growing up, or their racial
▶ 0:32:44and ethnic background. Yet this administration has attacked policies that are both legal and necessary to ensure that students that all students are afforded equal educational opportunities. In particular, this administration has attacked efforts to remedy the vestiges of de jure segregation, instruction about systemic racism, programming, training, and affinity groups that support students, and efforts to remove obstacles that unfairly deny students
▶ 0:33:14a fair chance to compete for admission to selective programs. There is no basis for the federal government's narrative that equity policies or diversity, equity, and inclusion are somehow incompatible with the pursuit of excellence and high Rather, by supporting students and ensuring that measures of merit are actually objective, these policies heighten standards and promote Rooted in decades of efforts to achieve
▶ 0:33:45quality for all, well-designed diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs are not only but they have helped open doors for millions of Americans by addressing discrimination and ensuring that everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, religion, creed, disability status, national origin, and more, has equal access to For example, universal screening for gifted and talented programs has been attacked as an equity policy.
▶ 0:34:14However, one study showed that merely giving every child a chance to take the IQ test, instead of only screening those referred by teachers, resulted in a 180% increase in the share of disadvantaged students who were identified as gifted, including many Black and Hispanic students, low-income students, English language learners, and girls.
▶ 0:34:36Rather than attacking lawful efforts to advance equal educational opportunity, LDF urges Congress to take to work to take these five steps towards ensuring that all students have a fair shot at getting a high quality public education.
▶ 0:34:52Congress must use its authority to immediately halt all efforts by the current administration to unlawfully dismantle the US Department of Second, Congress should increase Title I funding, incentivize state and local educational agencies to implement evidence-based policies that support students, and expand grant programs that advance school desegregation, like the Equity Assistance Center program and the Magnet School Assistance program.
▶ 0:35:20The Magnet School Assistance program provides critical funding to support the development and operation of magnet schools that bring together students of different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, while the Equity Assistance Center provides support to schools in complying with our federal anti-discrimination laws. Third, Congress should repeal the federal private school voucher program, and reinvest in public education that serves all students.
▶ 0:35:45Fourth, Congress should help create the conditions necessary to welcoming professionals from all walks of life into the ranks of the nation's cadre of Fifth, Congress should work to ensure that the US Department of Education, the US Department of Justice, and other federal agencies are fulfilling their mandate to enforce anti-discrimination That means that rather than abandoning some school desegregation cases and ending others, the United States Department of Justice should fulfill its obligation
▶ 0:36:16to ensure that school districts that previously engaged in de jure segregation cure their long-standing constitutional violations by eliminating the vestiges of de jure segregation to the extent possible so that students can enjoy an equal opportunity to get an education.
▶ 0:36:33That also means that the Department of Education, other federal agencies, and other federal agencies should cease their attempts to end instruction on systemic racism, programming, training, and affinity groups that support students, and efforts to remove obstacles that unfairly deny students a fair chance to compete for admission to selective programs. In sum, talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.
▶ 0:36:58In order to achieve excellence, leverages the full universe of talent in this country, Congress must work to eliminate entrenched barriers to equal opportunity that can unfairly disadvantage many hardworking, talented students. Thank you. Thank you very much. And lastly, I will recognize Mr. Runco for your testimony. Chairman Kiley,
▶ 0:37:20Ranking Member Bonamici, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me. My name is Paul Runco, and I'm the senior director of K-12 Initiatives at Defending Education. A growing number of American public schools are minimizing or eliminating merit-based opportunities in the name of so-called equity initiatives. These policies reduce academic rigor, complicate the measurement of student and ultimately leave all students worse including those they are meant to help.
▶ 0:37:50First, gifted in gifted education and advanced learning opportunities are increasingly being throttled. Across the country, school systems have reduced or eliminated gifted and talented programs and access to advanced In theory, this would level the playing In practice, it slows the progress of high-achieving students, while failing to meaningfully support those who are academically struggling. The real-world ramifications of limiting merit-based opportunities are clear.
▶ 0:38:20In San Francisco, the district eliminated algebra one in middle school for over a decade, arguing that it would improve equity. It did not. Only recently has the district restored algebra as an option at all middle schools after a test period showed that students with access to algebra made dramatic academic gains.
▶ 0:38:40Second, grading practices are being altered in ways that can obscure student So-called equitable grading policies have been implemented in school These approaches remove accountability measures such as penalties for late work, attendance, or even cheating. In some cases, they establish grade floors, giving students a minimum grade regardless of performance. While these changes may increase reported grades, they do not necessarily indicate increase to learning.
▶ 0:39:09More importantly, these policies risk sending the the message to students that effort and mastery are optional. But accurate grading is not punitive, it is essential. Students and families deserve clear, honest feedback about academic progress so that gaps can be addressed. Third, we are seeing a broader cultural shift away from recognizing and celebrating academic excellence.
▶ 0:39:34In some district some districts, traditional forms of academic recognition have been scaled back or Examples include eliminating the honor of valedictorian, discontinuing honor rolls and class rankings, and not designating honors classes on official school transcripts. These decisions reflect a view that celebrating excellence is harmful to the success of struggling learners.
▶ 0:40:00But intentionally not recognize achievement does nothing to address gaps in student performance. It simply makes them harder to identify and address. In conclusion, merit-based education is not about giving opportunities to some students over others. It is about ensuring that every student is challenged, evaluated honestly, and allowed to reach their full potential. We have a responsibility to help all students become the best versions of themselves.
▶ 0:40:28Expanding access to gifted and talented programs, maintaining high standards in grading, and recognizing achievement are not barriers to bridging academic gaps. They are essential to addressing them. Thank you. Thank you very much. Under committee rule nine, we will now question witnesses under the five-minute rule, and I will first recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Walberg of Michigan, for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for having this hearing.
▶ 0:40:55It's increasingly uh at least um visible to me as I watch and and then hear what's being said that there is a whole industry that speaks to And wants that continuation because it proffers them the ability to have and funding that they wouldn't get otherwise. And it's hurting kids. And it's hurting our future.
▶ 0:41:24And the prop up the US Department of Education when they cannot show one since 1980 and three trillions of dollars spent, and our scores are going down, and we're falling behind other world countries. So, I'm glad you had this hearing today. Gifted, talented, um uh expansive education opportunity seem just to be common sense.
▶ 0:41:51I won't take time to define that right So, but thank you for the panel for being here. Mr. Buck, one common critique we hear of gifted education is that it's bad for minority students. I have three minority granddaughter students who, if they don't have gifted opportunities, they will be wasted in their academic excellence opportunity. That's not just saying because I'm their I watch them. I see what they can do.
▶ 0:42:21In reality, I think that gifted programs are a vital lifeline for marginalized to get education they need. Do you agree with me, and why? Thank you for your question, and yes, absolutely, I agree with you. Um I worked in the highest crime zip code in Milwaukee, and there I taught some of the most gifted students that I ever had the pleasure to teach.
▶ 0:42:45Um when it came to their standardized test scores, they uh blew out of the water students that were from the other side of the tracks. And it's essential that they have access to gifted and talented programs because without the resources that come with affluence, the leisure time from coming from a two-parent household, often the only chance they have at gifted and talented programming, any kind of advanced coursework, is through schools. They cannot afford additional tutoring, they cannot af- ford um you know, all of these uh uh supplemental educational opportunities.
▶ 0:43:15So, gifted and talented programs are their chance to get those. And the research finds that students from impoverished backgrounds, gifted and talented programs disproportionately benefit them for this reason without spillover negative effects for anybody else in the school. Yeah, they're going to get gifted and talented programs, just depends what those are. Yeah. And we want the positives with the education opportunity. Thank you. Ms. Chin, thanks for the work you do in charter education.
▶ 0:43:42Another argument we hear sometimes is that wealthy students benefit the most from gifted programs. And that disadvantaged students are rarely accepted to these programs. Why do you think gifted programs are essential to low-income families? Uh I would say on the contrary that uh it that uh the the disadvantaged are not doing well on this.
▶ 0:44:06If anything, I agree with you that we have to continue these programs because they help the disadvantaged. Uh without that, the wealthier people can probably find their ways, okay? They know where to go and get the tutoring, have the educational opportunities, but I think that we have to have gifted and talented programs larger, faster, more widespread to every corner of this country. And that's the way we're going to be able to reach all of the students.
▶ 0:44:37They benefit. That's true equal opportunity, isn't it? Absolutely. Thank you. Uh Mr. Ronco, you mentioned that parents over surprise, surprise, parents overwhelmingly um want more education opportunities and options for their kids in high uh quality programs. And I think most most parents want the best education opportunities for their kids.
▶ 0:45:00Why do we uh or excuse me, what do we know about how much parents want these programs when Democrat politicians constantly seem intent on cutting off these options? There's two things that come to mind when you pose this question. The first is uh there was a poll done last year uh by a group called PLACE NYC, a great parent group out of New York City, um after uh Mayor Mamdani had said that he wanted to get rid of gifted and talented in kindergarten.
▶ 0:45:29And their poll showed that nearly half of those parents surveyed would not enroll their children in New York City public schools if the gifted and talented program was eliminated. So, that's a fair chunk of parents. Also, when San Francisco Unified had reintroduced algebra into middle school, the school board president had said at the time, quote, "Families want to see a public school system that offers rigorous coursework." Well, thanks for that, and I yield
▶ 0:45:59back. Uh the ranking member, Representative Bonamici of Oregon, is recognized.
▶ 0:46:04Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses. Interesting conversation, and uh certainly with uh gifted and talented programs, they're designed to help students meet their full potential. Every student should have an opportunity to meet their full potential. Uh and Mr. Chairman, uh I I just wanted to to ask a question. Um uh Ms. Turning Turnage Young, excuse me. In Oregon, more than half the state is federally owned land.
▶ 0:46:29So, many rural schools have faced years of budget instability, staffing shortages, and aging infrastructure, making consistent federal support through the bipartisan secure rural schools legislation essential to meeting baseline educational needs. These communities, like many rural areas, uh depend on federal investment to provide students with stable and high-quality educational opportunities.
▶ 0:46:49So, So, from your perspective, as a civil rights litigator, is sustained support for rural schools an equity-based initiative, and how does providing rural communities with the resources they need can how does it contribute to meeting the educational needs of their students and advancing equal opportunities Thank you for that question. LDF has the honor of representing many students who attend rural school districts.
▶ 0:47:15And so, we're familiar with a dynamic where the school district itself might not have the most robust property tax base, and because of that, they might have less funding to fund teacher salaries and the salaries of school mental health professionals and others who are supporting our students. Um the school the securing rural schools program is essentially uh closing that funding gap for many of our schools across the country.
▶ 0:47:41That is absolutely a program that is just as much an equity program as many of the different initiatives that have been attacked for being equity programs um recently. Um I would say that educational institutions, workplaces, health care systems, the military, and more have used programs that have been attacked as equity programs to develop programs and policies that are rooted that are rooted in fairness and are responsive to everyone's needs.
▶ 0:48:06These are programs that are helping to ensure that all of us, regardless of where we live, who one is, what social or economic barriers uh one faces, can receive fair treatment and have fair access to the resources necessary to actually have equal access to opportunities. Thank you. I I want to get to another question. I appreciate that.
▶ 0:48:25Um in 2017, the United States Supreme Court ruled that school districts must provide individualized education programs, or IEPs, that are appropriately ambitious and reasonably calculated to foster academic progress for students with disabilities. And although these decisions are made at the local level, the Department of Education does play a critical role in providing guidance, technical assistance, and oversight to see that school districts are meeting this obligation to disabled students. So, again, Ms.
▶ 0:48:52Turnage Young, Congress charged the Department of Education with implementing IDEA. Are you concerned that this administration will shift responsibility for IDEA out of the what's left of the Department of Education as they've done with other programs? And what would such a shift of responsibility mean for students with Yes, um LDF is concerned about um the moving of many of the responsibilities of the US Department of Education out of that department.
▶ 0:49:21That department has long handled those matters. They've developed uh expertise, institutional memory concerning how to best serve students in that way. And so, by introducing these changes, we risk not serving students as well.
▶ 0:49:34Notably, in fiscal year 2024 alone, OCR or the office for civil rights of the US Department of Education received nearly 23,000 complaints overall and 37% of those were actually alleged disability Unfortunately, from what we know of the way that that office is currently operating, those complaints are not being attended to which of course denies our students an equal opportunity to get an education. Appreciate that. I have another question.
▶ 0:50:02Again, Miss Attorney Young, we heard some comparisons this morning United States students test scores. United States has thousands of school different school districts, different school boards across many states obviously. Would students do better in school if we had what these other countries have many of them they have a national system but they also have universal health care. Parents have paid leave.
▶ 0:50:31Early childhood education and child care is accessible and affordable and that makes a big difference and how kids start in in school and in life. So would would do these comparisons make sense to compare the thousands of school districts across the country with countries that have universal health care and low poverty rates? No, that comparison is not apt because as you pointed out many of those factors absolutely do affect your ability to excel in school.
▶ 0:51:01If we want our children to excel, we need to make sure that they have the cognitive space to actually focus on learning. We don't want them to be worried about am I safe? Do I have a place to eat? Am I going to be subject to racial discrimination?
▶ 0:51:16And so all of the programs that we have to ensure that our students are receiving the supports that they need and also any anything that we can do to make sure that those families are receiving the support that they need to create those conditions that are kind of I I I my time is expired. I yield back. I'll now recognize myself for 5 minutes. I first want to address the the point that was just raised.
▶ 0:51:39This idea that we can't expect students in this country to achieve at the same levels as other countries because of things like health care access and poverty rates. I just want to say that nothing could be more contrary to the principles of this committee. We believe that every child deserves access to a great education. We believe that students of all backgrounds have the capacity to succeed and we reject the systematic lowering of expectations that has condemned far too many kids in this country to a subpar education.
▶ 0:52:09What equity really ought to mean is not lowering expectations for everyone. What it should mean is giving every child the access to an education that students at Success Academy have for example in New York, a school that has much higher poverty rates than surrounding school districts but that actually is the top performing charter network or school district in the entire state of New York out of hundreds of districts. That's what equity truly means.
▶ 0:52:35And secondly, I reject the notion that the United States should just settle for not having the best schools anywhere in the world or that we can't have that until we solve other problems. I believe that US schools should be the best that exist anywhere. I think it's a travesty that is not the case now but I think that we can change that if we return to educational excellence and high expectations as our guiding A question for Miss Chen.
▶ 0:53:05Thank you very much for your testimony. As we've discussed in my state California, we've seen some of the worst of these policies. For example in San Francisco, they said no one gets access to 8th grade algebra. The point was raised that you know everyone should have access to these sort of programs. Well in San Francisco, they said no one should have access to them.
▶ 0:53:26And now we see this playing out in for example UC San Diego which is a very good school has seen the rate of student number number of students who are required remedial math we can't even do middle school math grow to one out of every eight students. So could you tell us a little bit more about sort of the downstream consequences of these sort of I agree with you completely here. This is defining defining merit downwards.
▶ 0:53:52Once you say that you're going to use equity to make access, what will happen is that you have to lower the standards for everybody and that impacts everybody in this room. Okay? It's not just those students who get in who should not be able to do that. That means that you will not provide all of these skills, these resources and subjects that should be covered very early.
▶ 0:54:15That hurts everybody not just those students who can't take it but the students who should be taking it and all of us who should be benefiting from it. That's right. Miss Attorney Young, thank you as well for your testimony. You know in California, they've attacked high performing charter schools again and again and when I was in the legislature during one of these rounds of attacks they tried to limit the number of charters. Several local chapters of the NC NAACP actually opposed what these proposals were trying to do and came out in support of charters.
▶ 0:54:44So would you agree that attacks on high performing charter networks like KIPP KIPP or Success Academy work against the interest of equity? What's really important from our standpoint is ensuring that all students have equal access to a high quality But the question about attacks on high performing charters working against the interest of equity, would you agree?
▶ 0:55:11LDF doesn't have a position on charter schools but we do have a position on making sure that all students to the extent that charter schools are going to be provided we want to make sure that all students have equal access to them and certainly we want to make sure that we're not divesting from traditional public schools in the process since 90% of our students attend school there. Thank you. Mr. Buck, we've seen that actually you know some of these policies have started to be pulled back.
▶ 0:55:38In San Francisco for example, they overwhelmingly rejected after a decade of this failed experiment denying 8th grade math. In many colleges that stopped using standardized tests, they've now reinstituted the standardized test. So do you think that maybe the pendulum is starting to swing back towards sanity here and there's an opportunity to return to a paradigm of I certainly hope that the pendulum is swinging back to a place of sanity.
▶ 0:56:05I think a lot of people were tricked up by kind of nice sounding rhetoric about equity but they're starting to see the consequences of these policies. You can say what you you know what you're actually trying to do we're going to advance equity but when the results are as you said just more students taking remedial math in um standardized test scores going down, achievement gaps widening, um it doesn't really matter what your rhetoric is when
▶ 0:56:35those are the results in reality. Thank you very much. I now recognize Representative Adams for 5 minutes. I'm sorry, Representative Lee for 5 Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I just want to start by making sure that we're all on the same page because I hear a lot about what equity is or isn't. So if each witness could just answer the following questions with just a yes or no. First one. Is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act an equity policy, Mr.
▶ 0:57:06No. Miss Attorney Young. Miss Chen. No. Mr. Buck. How about Title IX? Is that an equity policy? Same order. No. Is the ruling from Brown versus Board of Education to desegregate schools an equity policy? No.
▶ 0:57:35thank you so much for that. Republicans holding a hearing titled how equity policies harm students and witnesses that don't know if if you all will be able to identify what an actual equity policy is but it lets us know exactly where they stand. You either believe that every child in this country deserves access to education or you don't.
▶ 0:57:54But the idea that it's harmful to give people a level playing field within systems that were directly created to disadvantage them isn't just absurd, it is perpetuating the very racist systems that conservatives pretend never existed in the first place. Our country doesn't just have an explicit you know KKK racism problem. We have institutionalized systemic racism.
▶ 0:58:19We need equity policies because we have disparities and gaps that were created by policy decisions. Black children were not denied access to schools because they lacked intelligence or merit. They were denied because they were black. And there were systems created around that that continue to bolster that segregation. Redlining, urban renewal, the GI Bill.
▶ 0:58:43These are all government policies implemented to advantage one community to the disadvantage of another. The government then bears responsibility for remedying the harm that it created. That's what equity is. So instead of saying that we're lowering expectations by saying that hey, if a child is hungry, they probably won't perform well. If a child unstable housing that they might not perform. If a child can't access a doctor, they might not perform.
▶ 0:59:11That's not lowering expectations, that's raising the expectations for a government that is the wealthiest in the in the world and in assuming that it can and should do better for all of its So I just want to say the Department of Education is using its increasingly limited capacity to issue guidance that would revoke federal funding from schools over equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Miss Turner-Young, the the LDF sued the Department over the guidance of this guidance on behalf of the NAACP. What was the outcome of that lawsuit? We prevailed.
▶ 0:59:42And this right uh so to be clear, uh it was vacated. They it was unconstitutionally vague, right? Despite this important win, um this conservative's crusade against equity is still harming students. It is. Unfortunately, the threat to revoke federal funding has a vast chilling effect on educators and um you know, school leaders across the country.
▶ 1:00:03Um so, school leaders would like to hire additional teachers to serve their students, but they don't know whether the funding is going to disappear or vanish, and they're going to have to lay off that person 2 weeks later. Um the uncertainty has been a real problem. Um the Dear Colleague Letter, for example, came out in February of 2025. Um that's Black History Month. Many Black History Month programs were canceled. Uh reading programs were canceled.
▶ 1:00:30Um talks by physicians were canceled, um ostensibly because the position was black. Um coursework in various areas was canceled. Um and unfortunately, not all of those policies and practices have been reinstated, and so unfortunately, our students are missing out. Thank you. Um I just want to say that they're using the same playbook that they've used for for decades. They're dismantling Department of Ed, using the same states' rights uh argument by uh used by the masses resistance to desegregation.
▶ 1:00:56Very quickly, in your testimony, you talked about how far we are still from realizing the promise of Brown and how this administration is actually moving away. What are the most important steps we can take to ensure that black, brown, and other marginalized students have equitable access to education in this So, first of all, equity and excellence go hand in hand, right? So, desegregating our schools actually led to opportunity gaps closing in such a way where we saw students achieving excellence, and we've retreated from that. So, we can do There are many things that Congress can do, right?
▶ 1:01:24Congress can invest in um programs that incentivize desegregation. They can invest in the school assistance programs. They can invest in the equity assistance centers program, and they can use their influence to ensure that our federal agencies are doing what they can to ensure that school districts are curing those constitutional violations and remedying the vestiges of de jure segregation to the extent possible, so all of our students can enjoy an equal opportunity to get an education. Thank you so much. I yield back.
▶ 1:01:53Representative Ruili of Ohio is Well, thank you, Chairman. Mr. Ronco, equitable grading policies create wasted When expectations are lowered in the name of fairness, all students realize that excellence is no longer required in We already see this effect of these ideas with absurd policies like that are happening right now in Georgia Tech.
▶ 1:02:19Their grading guidelines say that even should not affect a student's letter grade. Meanwhile, in Ohio, we take the opposite approach. Our state law requires that public school districts implement a student acceleration policy for advanced learners, not take these away from them. So, Mr. Ronco, I guess the question at hand is a two-part question. With everything that we saying today in are we wasting potential with these equitable grading policies?
▶ 1:02:49And also, are we setting all our students, not just some of them, all of them up for failure in the future? Thank you for the question. What we've heard from parents [clears throat] on this issue is that equitable grading practices are low lowering standards across the board. So, I'll give you a couple of examples. If uh a student gets to retake a test maybe once, twice um for equitable purposes, why would a student study for the test for the first time?
▶ 1:03:15If a high-achieving student doesn't have to go to class or they don't have to hand in their homework, but they could just ace the test at the end of the why wouldn't they just do that? And so, these are the concerns our parents have, and not setting good habits in school is not going to set them up uh for success in life. Don't you think that the challenges of academics in the different projects that you have in trying to beat your other classmates will elevate all boats of every kind of imagination?
▶ 1:03:46That's exactly right, and there's a lot of argument that gifted and talented programs, advanced coursework, um have some adverse effects of other students. That's completely untrue, and to your point, in some instances, you would expect that these um students, the lower-performing students, would actually benefit from these because the the teaching can be uh geared towards their academic abilities. Thank you for your time. Uh with that, I yield my time back to the chair. Representative Adams is recognized.
▶ 1:04:16For 5 minutes. [snorts] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the witnesses for being here. Mr. when we talk about equity today, some try to frame it as something new or controversial, but the truth is, this country has always had identity-based policies, just not always ones that expanded opportunity. Before Brown versus the Board of Education, we had laws and systems that deliberately separated students, underfunded schools, and limited access based on race, income, and zip code.
▶ 1:04:46And while Brown made it clear made it clear that separate is not equal, we know that more than 70 years later, we're still dealing with the consequences of those decisions. We see it in how schools are funded. We see it in access to experienced teachers. We see it in which students are more likely to to have advanced coursework and which students are left out. Ms.
▶ 1:05:08Turner-Young, from your work as a civil rights attorney, can you briefly help us understand how equity focused focused policies today are part of fulfilling the promise of Absolutely. Um I'll talk a little bit about the work that our equity assistance centers do.
▶ 1:05:30These are centers that were funded in order to help our schools desegregate, in order to help our schools um comply with federal anti-discrimination laws. Um as I'm sure all of you know, um the racially discriminatory administration of discipline um is negatively correlated with student achievement, right? And so, you know, if you take a child out of that instructional space, um they're not getting their lesson.
▶ 1:05:58Um that is not positively correlated with academic success. Um so, those equity assistance centers have actually worked with schools to ensure that their disciplinary policies are being enforced consistently, to ensure that it's not being enforced um arbitrarily, and to ensure that they are not removing students from classrooms unnecessarily. And that actually is something that has yielded results.
▶ 1:06:23We've seen schools that have uh had their discipline rates uh greatly improve, and those students are better able to take in those lessons and
▶ 1:06:32Okay, I want to move on. So, we can't we can't talk about academic achievement without talking about what students are carrying with them into the classroom. Right now, we're facing a real mental health crisis among young people. Students are dealing with stress, anxiety, and pressure from from every direction, academics, social expectations, family responsibilities. And we know this matters because when a student's struggling emotionally, it directly impacts their ability to focus, to learn, and to stay engaged in school.
▶ 1:07:02And research shows that that mental health is not separate from academic success. It is foundational to it. That's why Congress took action through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to invest in school-based mental health supports because we understand that that schools are often the first place students can access help.
▶ 1:07:22But but at the same time, we've seen actions from this administration that have created instability, cuts to Medicaid that schools schools rely on for services, and the sudden cancellation of mental health grants that schools were depending on only to reverse course after public pressure. And that kind of uncertainty does not just affect systems, it affects students in real time. So, Ms.
▶ 1:07:45Turner-Young, can you speak uh briefly to the role that federal investments play in supporting student mental health in schools, and what happens to students, especially those in underserved communities, when those supports are weakened, delayed, or taken away altogether? Thank you for that question.
▶ 1:08:05Um what comes to mind for me is actually a rural school district um that hired several school mental health providers in the wake of federal funding allowing for those positions to be filled. And unfortunately, uh relatively recently, that funding was cut, and so they had to let those professionals go.
▶ 1:08:26Um the school administrators there um talked about how important it was that the students had access to those resources, um the students, you know, were able to become more available to academic learning because some of the other concerns in their lives were being addressed, right? The students um were able to work through some things and be available to, you know, excel in math, English, all of the things.
▶ 1:08:53So so So, let me ask you, uh based on your work and the research in the space, how should we be thinking about the real barriers to academic excellence in this country, and what does it look like to expand opportunity in a way that that maintains rigor, but ensures that talent the and potential, not background, determine who gets access to it. You got 4 seconds. Absolutely. It means funding initiatives that can support our students. Thank you very much. I yield back.
▶ 1:09:23Representative Harris of North Carolina is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of the witnesses for your testimony. I've certainly enjoyed reading testimonies and apologize for being in and out between committee hearings this morning. The goal of our education system should be to provide students with a well-rounded education that focuses on core academic subjects, helps them develop their talents, and prepares them for the future.
▶ 1:09:48I've had the privilege of holding a front-row seat watching my wife and daughter, both teachers, who have tirelessly work each year, day in and day out, to help students succeed. Unfortunately, across the country, we've seen programs that were created to help students succeed be reduced or even completely eliminated.
▶ 1:10:07An example of one of these programs is the gifted and talented program that provides students that need an additional academic challenge with advanced coursework geared toward keeping them engaged in school and helping them grow academically.
▶ 1:10:22Despite several studies showing the positive benefits of accelerated programs, including one study that examined about 100 years of research on accelerations' impact on K-12 academic achievement, and found that acceleration appeared to have a positive, moderate, and statistically significant impact on students' academic achievement. There are critics, however, that argue the opposite of these findings. Mr.
▶ 1:10:48Runco, you mentioned that gifted programs work well for students who are admitted, but many critics think that gifted programs make everyone else worse off. What would you say to those concerns? Does the existence of gifted programs hurt low-performing students? To my knowledge, there's no evidence that supports that academic programs for high learners had adverse effects on other learners.
▶ 1:11:14As I mentioned earlier, in some cases, it might benefit low-performing students because the instruction can be tailored then to their academic ability. Well, when you look at gifted education, it becomes increasingly apparent that while over 37 states set aside education funding for programming for gifted and talented students, including North Carolina, from which I come, the implementation of this funding and how it is used has varied quite significantly.
▶ 1:11:41In fact, a 2019 survey of over 2,000 schools found that most gifted and talented programs focus on activities, projects, and games rather than advanced instruction. Mr. Buck, I want to come to you. I've long believed in the importance of gifted education, and every single student should have the opportunity for the best education possible. At the same time, I'm sure we can all agree that there are ways that gifted programs can be implemented more effectively so they work better for students. What advice, Mr.
▶ 1:12:11Buck, would you give to a state and local leader who wants to make sure their gifted program uphold academic excellence and are open to all students with the necessary academic skills? Thank you for the opportunity to talk about some positive policies. I think there are three things to keep in mind.
▶ 1:12:29The first one is to expand If we don't If we think not enough students are getting into these programs, the the best course isn't just to shut them all down, but to expand the opportunity to the the number of seats so more students can have access to them. Improve to make sure we are getting accurate measure of what students know and don't know and who should be in them. And then the third one is to make these programs as robust as possible.
▶ 1:12:58Like you said, most schools, it's just an additional activity, some set-aside time, maybe a challenge problem that they go home with at the end of the night instead of separate coursework, accelerated classes, something a little more robust that really challenges these students in a meaningful way. Thank you, sir. Another practice that's entered education is equitable grading we've talked about.
▶ 1:13:20Instead of assigning grades based on the completion and quality of a student's work, equitable grading demands that grading be oriented towards eliminating bias and promoting equity in society. What many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle argue is equitable grading practices are required to eliminate historical racial discrimination. But despite what many say it was set out to do, equitable grading has lowered the standards. Mr. Buck, you mentioned that many schools have adopted equitable grading policies.
▶ 1:13:51The theory seems to be that teachers shouldn't give students zeros for work they never did, allow unlimited test retakes in the name of equity. That strikes me as absurd. If anything, lowered expectations is the worst thing we could do for marginalized students. Do you think giving students credit for work they never did is the best way to fight racism, Mr. Buck? No, I do not. In fact, it seems a particularly perverse way to try and fight racism.
▶ 1:14:18That is to not expect minority students to meet basically any So, I the the again, policy fall like result from that is obviously just to raise standards back up to hold everyone to high expectations. Thank you, sir. And thank you to the witnesses, and Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Representative Grijalva of Arizona is Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here.
▶ 1:14:47Today, we're here to discuss academic excellence, but we cannot have a serious conversation about excellence while ignoring the systemic funding disparities that force students in my district and all across the country to make do with less.
▶ 1:15:02The narrative that equity levels down standards is not only unsupported by research, but it actively harms millions of students, particularly those in brown, black, rural, and indigenous communities who rely on federal civil rights protections to ensure that their zip code does not determine their If we continue to gut the Department of and roll back the lifelines designed to protect students, we aren't cutting
▶ 1:15:32red tape. We are cutting the potential of our next generation. Ms. Chu Young, I'd like to start with you on this point. Proposals to dismantle or significantly scale back the Department of Education raise serious concerns about how states and districts, especially those already under-resourced, would maintain civil rights protections, stable funding, and academic standards. We are already seeing early disruption when federal education functions are shifted.
▶ 1:16:00For example, in oversight of adult education under WIOA Title II begins to move from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor. States are forced are facing confusing if confusing and gaps in coordination. More than 60 adults nationwide lack basic literally literacy skills from populations often left behind by traditional systems.
▶ 1:16:23What harm do you see for students and adult learners for long-term educational quality, equity, and economic mobility if the Department continues to be If we're offloading functions that are the responsibility of the US Department of Education onto other federal agencies that don't have the staffing, the resources, the expertise, and institutional memory to really excel in that task, uh our citizens are going to be harmed.
▶ 1:16:51Our, you know, our learners are going to be harmed, and that's not something that we should be doing. Right. Staffing reductions and delays at the Department's Office of Federal Student Aid are already slowing program approvals and leaving institutions without clear guidance. Colleges are being asked to implement major policy changes while taking on greater compliance risk.
▶ 1:17:12They also face new accountability measures tied to outcomes that may not reflect transfer and access-focused programs, potentially limiting access for underrepresented students. Ms. Chu Young, how do you see these changes affecting student access and ability of community colleges or universities to serve them effectively? Thank you for that question. Unfortunately, many of our colleges and universities don't have the luxury of having outside counsel or even sometimes inside counsel.
▶ 1:17:41And so, when you do have the federal government advancing certain directives that might not be altogether clear, what we're experiencing is a real chilling effect. Educators not really knowing which way can I go that's not going to subject my educational institution to liability that could shut us down. And so, instead of having programs that benefit our students, sometimes those programs are getting canceled because it's just unclear whether those programs would open the schools up to liability. Mhm.
▶ 1:18:10And some of the things that I've heard some rhetoric today, culturally responsive pedagogy is critical, I think, in ensuring that teachers and students are able to access curriculum that is relevant. Universal screenings, when I was on a school board for 20 years, we started instituting those, and your data totally checks out on the local level. We saw tremendous increase in students from underrepresented groups that were accessing these kinds of classes.
▶ 1:18:41And magnet schools are also critical in my district. So, when we talk about some of the things that I've heard on the other side, and some of your your colleagues there on the witness, you know, panel, saying that, you know, this is victimization, this sort of policy, and that it's not victimization. These programs are advocacy and access to fight for educational outcomes.
▶ 1:19:05That's What's baffling to me is some of the statements that I hear um where, you know, this insinuates that project-based learning is not effective. It is, and it makes a difference for every student. All three of my children are in public schools and all have had the the to access these programs because of these types of screenings. Um and finally, Ms. Turner Young, staffing reductions affect key offices within the the Department of Education and there are growing concerns about federal government's ability to consistently enforce civil rights protections.
▶ 1:19:35What happens when that enforcement capacity is weakened? Our families cannot look to the federal government for assistance with civil rights violations and sometimes there is nowhere to go. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time. I yield back. Representative Messmer of Indiana is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for our witnesses for being here today. Uh Ms. Chen, in your written testimony, you mentioned the increased demand for the developed uh STEM workforce and the importance of a STEM K-12 pipeline for the for American innovation.
▶ 1:20:06As an engineer my As an engineer myself, I understand how important it is to start developing these building blocks early in the child's education through rigorous math and science curricula. Can you explain how the underdeveloped STEM workforce will directly impact America as a global leader in If we don't have the kinds of students learning the skills that need years to build, we will not have the workforce that can be in any of the technological fields that keep us at the leading
▶ 1:20:36edge of innovation. And if we don't have that, there's not much that we can do. We can become a grain producer, we can become a resource provider, but that is not what keeps countries and civilizations growing and strong. Thank you. Uh how do you expect the US national security to be affected if we can't keep up with our adversaries overseas?
▶ 1:20:59That will be an ex- great danger very early because if you have to if you don't have the people here to be able to do it, you have to have either outsourced Are we going to outsource all of our tech to India? Are we going to rely on China to give us the kind of technology that we need? Those are mistakes for this country. We have to develop them internally. Thank you. Mr.
▶ 1:21:25Buck, you mentioned in your testimony how competition from charter schools actually challenges local public schools to improve their Indiana is no stranger to school choice and a strong and strong charter In fact, according to the US News, in my district is home to the number two ranked public high school in the nation, Signature School, which is a charter Uh Mr. Buck, can you explain on how having competitive schools such as charters improves the public the entire public education system?
▶ 1:21:54Yes, so I mentioned a large and ever-growing body of research literature that's called competitive effects, which is essentially that the presence of a charter school makes all of the other surrounding traditional public schools, the students there perform better as well. Why is that? Two reasons. One, the charter school stands out as kind of an exemplar. They can try new practices and then traditional public schools can follow along, see what succeeds and what fails and replicate what works. The other thing is simply competition.
▶ 1:22:23Um they suddenly they they don't have a guarantee of that bottom line, so they have to up their game to do better and the students in the traditional public schools benefit from that competition. Thank you. since I joined this committee last year, we have focused on the importance of developing a workforce that meets the needs of our economy. A large part of developing a strong workforce is challenging students academically and socially to prepare them for life outside of the classroom. Mr.
▶ 1:22:49Runco, how does an ac- how does accurate grading improve students socially and academically? Yeah, so accurate grading it So the grading is a measurement for the question of is my child learning? And so it's important that we answer that question truthfully.
▶ 1:23:05Uh with some equity they're trying to address the uncomfortable situation of telling a a parent, "No, your child is not learning." But the only way we can get honest assessment if this child is learning and is ready to enter the next phase of life after K-12 education, um is if we answer that question honestly and put them on a plan uh to address any gaps if needed. Thank you.
▶ 1:23:28If these students aren't learning these lessons in their K-12 classroom, how does this impact their college and career There was a really shocking article that came out last year from the New York Post um and it said the title was the shocking rise of Gen Z college freshmen who can't even do basic math.
▶ 1:23:46Um so I imagine the challenges, particularly for parents, you know, if you're paying thousands or tens of thousands dollars to pay for a math class that your child should have taken in K-12, um that just reduces the return on investment for families. Thank you. And how does blocking student access to algebra in eighth grade inhibit their ability to to complete their their college cur- level math before they're out of high school? Right.
▶ 1:24:14So we're seeing college and colleges and universities increasingly offering remedial math, um which is alarming in and of itself, but just the reversal of that policy by San Francisco Unified shows what a bad decision it was in the first place. Thank you. I yield back my time. Representative Mannion of New York is Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses for participating today.
▶ 1:24:37I think it's important to clarify that when we're talking about equity in education, we're talking about raising the bar when it comes to education, never lowering the bar, contrary to what we're hearing uh at times today.
▶ 1:24:56What some of my colleagues on our side of the dais have mentioned is that as we're trying to make sure that there's opportunity for everyone, we must acknowledge what has happened in the past, the impact of slavery, of Jim Crow, of segregation, of education segregation, of redlining.
▶ 1:25:19And all of those things have led to impoverished communities, disproportionately black and brown impoverished communities. And as a result, what we see, the one direct correlation that can almost always be drawn is that when we see lower reading levels or lower graduation rates, what is directly proportional to that are high rates of poverty. And that exists whether it is an urban setting or a rural setting.
▶ 1:25:49So um I'm going to tell you a quick story before I get back to some of my remarks here, which is what we've already heard uh related to cuts in funding. So in the last Congress with a Republican majority, appropriated dollars went to a public university to expand their uh number of students and eventually practitioners as school counselors, social workers, school
▶ 1:26:21to help with mental health issues in our That funding was approved and appropriated. Uh power of the purse falls within Congress. But this administration came in and cut that funding to the tune of 3.8 million dollars when that program was designed to expand so that children dealing with trauma can learn as we've discussed already in this hearing.
▶ 1:26:48The word black or Latino or brown or indigenous was not in that grant request. One word was that caused it to be cut. Poverty. The one indicator that's directly proportional to lower earning outcomes, learning outcomes. And I want to level set on the competition that exists with charter It is not a fair competition.
▶ 1:27:14Charter schools, corporate charter schools, have lower rates of students enrolled with disabilities, 504 plans, and IEPs, lower rates of English language learners. If there are students that are subjected to disciplinary actions, they can leave the charter system and go back to the traditional public system. They also can hold reserve funds unlike public schools to make sure that they have graduated programs and gifted in learning programs.
▶ 1:27:44So it is not a fair fight, including the co-location of charter schools within traditional public schools. All of those things skew the numbers dramatically, as do standardized tests that have been found to be biased against certain communities.
▶ 1:28:02So we can talk about excellence and we can talk about raising the bar, but if we throw the letters D E I at things and think that that is going uh raise the bar for everyone, it's lowering the bar when we attack those systems that are specifically designed And again, dollars that were appropriated by a previous Congress, a Republican Congress, that acknowledged that poverty uh and the trauma that's caused by poverty is impactful
▶ 1:28:32on our educational institutions. And because of the uh dynamic that has existed in this country for a very long time, harmful towards African Americans and Latinos. So I thank you for listening to my comments here, but sometimes we get away from the reality of what has existed in this country. My quick question to Ms.
▶ 1:28:58Turner Young is that based on your work at LDF and your perspective as a civil rights litigator, how do you see the shifts in federal attention towards culture war debates? How does that affect our ability to confront the real structural barriers that exist in educational opportunities? To the extent that we're talking about imagined problems, we are being distracted from the actual problems and challenges that we should be working together to overcome.
▶ 1:29:30I I will note, for example, um I I'm I'm happy to see um so much so much, you know, attention being paid to hey, we should have equal opportunity in our schools. I think I've heard all of the witnesses talk about equal opportunity. That's fantastic. Um but there are actual problems we should be talking about. For example, only 50% of our schools in this country offer calculus. Only 38% of schools that have a majority black or Latinx population offer calculus.
▶ 1:30:01It might be no surprise that many, given that uneven access, many of our students are not able to take calculus by the time they graduate from high school. What can we do? Representative Miller of Illinois is Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our schools should be places where our children can reach their full, God-given potential.
▶ 1:30:26Far too many schools now have equity policies that rob students of these Democrat-led cities and states have launched a direct attack on accelerated late learning, labeling them as racist and exclusive.
▶ 1:30:43Despite their widespread success, cities like New York, Seattle, and San Francisco have dis- discontinued accelerated learning programs in their Additionally, New York City Mayor Zoran Momdani, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, have actively gone after high-performing charter schools, accusing them of siphoning resources away from public Furthermore, cities like Portland and San Diego have encouraged students
▶ 1:31:14have encouraged teachers to ignore unsubmitted assignments and offer unlimited re- retakes. I don't know how that is keeping the standard high or promoting academic Parents want more gifted learning choices for their children, but DEI policies are harming the very kids they were intended to help.
▶ 1:31:41Families that it can afford to will send their children to private schools, including Democrat representatives, and there is a significant number of them today and in the past that have um advocated against school choice, but yet they send their own children to private Disadvantaged children are stuck in a failing system, and I will say that the most racist thing going on in our country is forcing inner-city
▶ 1:32:11disadvantaged black and brown children to have to stay in failing schools, schools that have been failing for Academics should be based solely on merit, and we must return to those And I do want to make another comment about something Ms. Young said.
▶ 1:32:29She said, "Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not." And I would like to say it is because Democrats and teachers' unions advocate not for the student, but for the system, the failing system. And eliminating accelerated learning programs will make the system more of a failure. So, my question for Mr. Runco, education is a state and local issue, but Congress has control of federal funding.
▶ 1:33:00What are some ways that Congress can address equity policies and stop Democrat mayors from discriminating against charter Thank you for the question. Um I think a couple ways come to mind. One, when an equity policy uh goes into the realm of being uh discriminatory, uh the Department of Education can investigate and uh withhold funds if needed.
▶ 1:33:23Uh for example, uh my organization uh recently uh filed a complaint against Los Angeles Unified, which the Department of Education is investigating over their uh black student achievement plan, uh which is excluding students based on race. Another way is uh to prioritize uh charter school program funds for uh cities that are actually prioritizing charter schools.
▶ 1:33:45I'd say if a a mayor of a city is anti-charter school, um it would it would make sense uh maybe not to prioritize them for hamstringing charter schools and then funding them for the hamstringing. Thank you. My next question is to Ms. Chen. In your written testimony, you mentioned how many other countries are outperforming the United States academically. What policies foster this, and how can the US emulate them? How they achieve it is by focus on academics first of all.
▶ 1:34:15You don't have equity policies, you don't have equity grading. You have assessments, you have high standards. You have that kind of necessity not to have low expectations. This bigotry of low expectations is extremely extremely racist. When we just assume that certain people cannot perform, no, that's not what we're trying to do.
▶ 1:34:37We're trying to say that to be competitive, we have to have these qualities, to be very, very careful about the academics first. What are schools about? And then later you do have, in all of these countries that focus on the students by their abilities and their levels, because you cannot teach properly. This is a burden on all teachers to teach properly for each cohort for the peers to excel.
▶ 1:35:07And I would like to add that we should not be wasting time, precious classroom time, hypersexualizing our children. And with that, I will yield back. Representative Hayes of Connecticut is Thank you. Since the start of this administration, we've seen efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
▶ 1:35:34Just last March, President Trump signed an executive order directing the secretary to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. I can tell you that most classroom teachers don't think about the day-to-day operations of the Department of Education.
▶ 1:35:49They shouldn't have to, because things like civil rights protections, things like making sure schools are well resourced, things like making sure that we are infusing the teacher pipeline with highly qualified educators are things that should happen outside of the classroom so that a teacher can just close their door and teach.
▶ 1:36:10I know this because I am a I also know that much of what we're hearing and talking about here today is not how it works in the classroom. You talk about, Ms. Chen, um countries around the world that are outperforming our US education system. Those countries are also prioritizing high-quality teacher training, prioritizing the holistic child.
▶ 1:36:36Many of those countries have um universal health care systems so that families are not worrying about those things. They have high-quality child care programs so that uh parents are home with their children at the beginning of their life uh to begin to foster some of those things. So, we're not comparing apples to apples here. Um there are lots of things that um we're talking about here that just really isn't how it works. Mr.
▶ 1:37:05Runco, you talked about being honest about assessments. I can tell you that a standardized test is not the only way to assess a child. There were many students in my classroom where where it appeared that they didn't get it based on what was on the paper, but then when you had a conversation and pulled it out of them, you understood, no, they understand the concept. It's this whole testing strategy that does not work for them.
▶ 1:37:27I come from the state of Connecticut, where we have some of the largest equity gaps in education, some of the highest-performing boarding schools in the world, and some of the lowest-performing community schools in the country. And many of those places are 5 mi apart. And they're resourced differently. The people who are standing in front of those kids are different. The the environments they come from is different. And that's not victimization, that's just a snapshot of what we're dealing with and what it looks like.
▶ 1:37:55One of the first things you learn in teacher preparation is when you're writing an IEP, when you're writing a a lesson plan, it is an individualized assessment. You can't deal with students individually without considering their race, their demographics, their community, their all of those things. All of those things are part of the way we instruct the whole child.
▶ 1:38:18So, it is I I mean, this this hearing and many hearings like it are just remarkable I I refuse to be lectured by people who are draining the resources to keep our kids competitive. Um Ms. Turner Young, my question is for you.
▶ 1:38:36What do you see as potential harms to students and broader threats to educational quality and equity if the Department is dismantled, the Department of Education, and what safeguards can Congress begin to put in place for those So, from my years of work as an attorney, I've encountered many school districts where we have a recurring problem. Um the school district is not placing black and Latinx students who score highly in math, for example, in advanced math courses.
▶ 1:39:06Or, you know, as in the case of Philadelphia, um a fourth of the black and Latinx students who obtained the minimum score required to qualify for the selective admission schools there were not admitted. They were admitting students of other races who did not get the required score, and it was based on principal discretion. Um that's the sort of thing we see again and again and again.
▶ 1:39:31Um we support all students having an equal opportunity to access advanced academic programs, and that's something that the US Department of Education can help with um because of course it is there to uphold our civil rights laws. Well, that's what I was going to say. Uh the the department can address things like educator shortage or outdated facilities or inconsistent access to advanced coursework. Those are the things that we can address to deal with this this uh issue.
▶ 1:40:00A lot of times for many of the courses, finding an educator that is qualified to teach it, you know, having someone who is prepared for to meet those needs of students with disabilities or facilities challenges or all of those things. Those are the things that the department can be working on to level this playing field of access. So these attacks on DEI really does not understand what education is supposed to do.
▶ 1:40:27It is supposed to educate the individual, and you can't do that without first acknowledging who our students are. With that, I yield back. Representative Owens of Utah is Uh thank you. Uh Mr. Chair, this uh for convenience a very, very important hearing on education malpractice. Uh equitably equitable grading policies will not teach our children how to succeed or how to push through adversity. Instead, they're teaching them it's okay to miss deadlines or to turn assignments in late.
▶ 1:40:57Some of these grading policies will give students credit when they fail to submit their work. As a common sense adult, we all know this is wrong and not based on reality. These students will grow up without discipline to pay their bills on time. They will think work deadlines are They will set themselves up to failure believing that in the real world they will be rewarded by laziness, the lack commitment and discipline.
▶ 1:41:20Success Success will come only to our children when we teach them to dream big, to meet high expectations, but this only comes when those that are teaching them have high expectations for them. When we instead judge their potential based on the background of color, this is nothing more than age-old racism. It's actually the most devious type of racism because it's not the obvious, in your face hate. It's instead soft bigotry of low expectations with a big smile and a big hug.
▶ 1:41:47I grew up in the '60s seeing both hard and soft bigotry of low expectations at the time from white Americans. A generation later later I saw this full circle as my oldest daughter went through a phase of being called names because she exceeded the low expectations of her black
▶ 1:42:04Because she worked hard, got good grades, respected herself and others, was articulate, she was accused of trying to be white. The real success of hateful racism is when the targeted minority communities finally accept failure as truth. When it accepts that merit is not only not believable, but is indeed an insult. The soft bigotry of low expectations runs rampant in the Democrat-run cities and states as they proactively get rid of accelerated and gifted programs for high-achieving minority students. They simultaneously lower the standards for other hardworking students.
▶ 1:42:35This is a standard that most Americans would never believe is a goal of an institution of education. To accept equity of ignorance. It is to accept the bar of equity that's so low that anyone who exhibits any potential of intellectual intelligence that they're an embarrassment to their No young black child desiring to be accepted once their friends thinking is willing to insult his race by trying to act white.
▶ 1:43:00This effort by Democrats to lower intellectual expectations for minorities is working throughout this country as In Baltimore, 13 high schools have zero proficiency in math from their students. Democratic politician and public school leaders think this is normal. In California in 2017, 75% of black boys could not read and write a grade level.
▶ 1:43:24But black and white bigots feel this is I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about this why merit and education matters. I think at the end of the day if we treat our kids uh the way we'd like us be treated with high expectations, uh dreaming big, and I tell them that we can, I think uh we'll get a lot further with with how we're succeeding uh with our education system. Ms.
▶ 1:43:48Chan, your testimony stated that lowering standards to uh equalize outcomes hurts all students, but struggling and uh outcomes hurt all students, both struggling and advanced students. I completely agree. I think it's obvious how lowered standards harm advanced students, but why uh but can't we talk about why the lowering standards are so harmful for struggling students? If you lower the standards, the kids will work even at a lower pace. We know that.
▶ 1:44:16We know that if you have high standards, they have to try to meet them. If they fail, that's one thing. If you lower, they will try even less. And we've heard that several times. This is rational. This is human behavior. If you say that you could get away with doing less, most kids will do less. That is rational unless we believe our kids are not rational. We're not trying for that, right?
▶ 1:44:39So, we have to stay the course, have high expectations of our kids, have academic studies so that they don't divert themselves into equity studies that other countries are not doing. I should also mention that for all the other it is not true that they have all of those other aspects of total health care, etc., etc., so that they could achieve. It was usually the reverse in fact. Okay. Thank you.
▶ 1:45:10Uh Ms. Runge, I'm troubled that so many schools have embraced equity policies. The immediate impact is is obvious. Students are going to be held less accountable, learn less, and struggle to succeed academically academically. Uh what do you think is the long-term effects of this might be? Yeah, I think a workforce readiness comes to mind. If we're not preparing our students to enter the workforce, um then employers can't find uh workers for the jobs, and um not having a great workforce is bad for America. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
▶ 1:45:39I yield The ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Scott, is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um Ms. Young, you mentioned the um results um where fewer African Americans proportionally were in a advanced course um because they were screened out by teachers and principals.
▶ 1:46:01Is it unusual for blacks to represent a smaller of gifted and talented courses than their than those who would actually Unfortunately, black students are often under-identified for advanced academic programs and for gifted and talented programs for known correctable reasons. I would implore this committee to try to work to address that issue. It's a long-standing one.
▶ 1:46:31Thank you. And what happened at Thomas Jefferson High School? Um so, if you're referring to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, that's a selective admission school that serves uh several different counties in Northern Virginia. Um they changed their admissions policy to get rid of the $100 application fee. They also um nixed the admissions test.
▶ 1:47:01They decreed that 1.5% of the eighth grade class at each eligible middle school would have a spot at the school. And they put in place, you know, some other assessments. Um after the application fee was removed, and of course the research tells us that application fees can discourage applications because some students just can't afford them. Um I think something like 1,000 additional applicants applied.
▶ 1:47:28Um you ended up having an admitted class that had a much higher average GPA than previous classes. There were more girls that were admitted. Um previously, only one low-income Asian American student had been admitted. Um that next year, 51 low-income Asian American students were admitted. Um more black students were admitted. More Latinx students were admitted.
▶ 1:47:51Um and so, what you saw is by allowing every a more equal chance to compete for admission, more students felt welcome to apply, and more students were identified as being able to thrive in this program. Thank you. We've heard a lot about merit. Can you tell us a little bit about the merit of the standardized tests like SAT and other screening standardized tests? Yes, to be clear, um LDF certainly supports high standards.
▶ 1:48:21We certainly, you know, we don't oppose tests per se. What we oppose is tests being misused. Often, tests are being used in ways that the test developers themselves don't advise. Um tests are not supposed to be used as like the one criterion that people are looking at. And certainly, we want to make sure that tests have both content validity and predictive validity, meaning that we want to make sure those tests are measuring what they claim to measure and that they are actually predicting success in the setting that they're being used to assess.
▶ 1:48:52And too often, our tests are not doing that. Um right? So, there is a growing body of research that shows that tests are often under-predicting the potential of black students, Latinx students, students whose um colloquialisms that are being used in the home are different from that of the test makers and what's happening is that the language that's being used in the test makers homes is actually getting into the test and so differences in semantics are actually making it so that those scores
▶ 1:49:23for black examinees, Latinx examinees are being artificially depressed so that those tests are not actually a good indicia of whether those students can succeed. Thank you. In your testimony you mentioned federal courts have ruled that the the 2025 Department of Education on equity policies was unlawful. What was wrong with those policies? There are a number of legal infirmities in those policies.
▶ 1:49:51We had three different federal courts across the country that all found legal infirmities in those policies and enjoined them. Ultimately, those policies were vacated and we were able to negotiate a favorable settlement. Um those policies were pronounced to be unconstitutionally vague. Those policies were pronounced to be a violation of our administrative procedures act.
▶ 1:50:12Um the real issue with the policies is that they were attacking lawful efforts to advance equal opportunity that are known to support learning in many of our And so unfortunately, we had a situation where the federal government was telling educators, "Hey, we're going to cut your federal funding and perhaps charge you with false claims act liability if you don't stop doing these things." And these things was vague.
▶ 1:50:39So you did have educators who were you know stopping tutoring programs, stopping mentoring programs, stopping outreach programs, stopping services for students with disabilities, cutting off talks by professionals, cutting all black history month celebrations and so on and so forth. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Repre- Representative Moylan of Guam is Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:51:05thank you also for your testimony today on looking at measures we can improve and reform our gifted education Many of my constituents on Guam, it's quite a ways way out there in the Pacific and in fact I just came back last night. It's 15 time zones away and and we crossed the date line as well. We're really out there. Our education system is I think really good.
▶ 1:51:31Many of our families uh kids go to public schools and also private schools. We work really hard to put their kids to private schools and now we're even expanding our charter schools, too. Um because where where do we go from there for our kids? We don't have doctorate degrees for medical doctors or dentist or lawyer degrees and to get that talent to come back home we had to go off island.
▶ 1:51:58Thousands of out-of-state tuition and just being away from home. So I think it's important that we really our gifted and talented in promoting that education there. So what can you say for us that how can Congress support in the states but most importantly for our territories like like Guam and our other territories?
▶ 1:52:24I understand the difficulty in kind of having some difficulty in a homegrown perhaps education workforce but it might encourage you to know that there's no correlation between traditional teacher prep and student outcomes.
▶ 1:52:38So I think grow your own pro- programs focusing on advanced learning, expanding choice to elite private schools, charter schools with which allow access to all that can function incredibly well that's going to be the pathway to creating the workforce that you need to staff the schools that can can train students for whatever career that it is that they want for their future. Thank you for that.
▶ 1:53:07So Guam is also part of the second island chain and the defense of the nation is is relying on the second island chain. We're the hub most western soil of the United States in our Indo-Pacom area. Runco and Ms. Chen, you both discussed in your testimonies the importance of merit base and value culture of academic excellence.
▶ 1:53:34Explain to me or expand upon how the federal government can help support our states and especially our territories to work for our educators, for our students and for our parents to give that culture of academic excellence. I think that the first thing that we have to do is reinforce this notion of as you say excellence.
▶ 1:54:01When we have people who are ready to erode at every point and say that our students from any corner of our territories or on the mainland USA that they can not live up to the highest potential, that is a mistake. We should also insist that we focus on STEM because STEM is highly measurable and it is highly needed for our future.
▶ 1:54:31The only thing I'd add is I think it's really interesting what the Department of Education is doing with funding waivers. So if a state perhaps or wants to put more money into its gifted and talented programs, potentially advanced coursework, I think the state could work with the Department of Education on a funding waiver to use their funds more flexibly. Thank you, panel.
▶ 1:54:52And I just wanted to share as a member of Congress, one of the great jobs I get to do is do some app- app- well, challenges for the students to put their artwork in the halls of Congress, right? And that's something I I enjoy seeing these kids were so talented in displaying their art and having them achieve that to have their art displayed in Congress.
▶ 1:55:16Another one is our application challenge where they make these wonderful computer programs using AI now. It's just amazing how talented these folks are. And the most honorable I got to say I have the job of doing is recommending folks for the military academies.
▶ 1:55:35These folks are tremendous in their great their civic and their physical fitness that they had to work really hard to be officers in for our service. And I really applaud the hard work that they do and to be having that opportunity to recommend them and see them move forward. I'm very happy that our education system is promoting this excellence. So I thank you very much for your statements and Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
▶ 1:56:06Thanks very much. I will now recognize ranking member Bonamici for a closing
▶ 1:56:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you to the witnesses for this interesting conversation. I want to emphasize that no one is suggesting that we should not have great schools or that we should lower expectations or standards. But we should ask, what can we do to expand opportunity to help all students do well and thrive. And the majority may suggest that it's getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Obviously, we have pointed out many reasons why we disagree.
▶ 1:56:38Also, so many issues discussed today including grading policies, those are decisions and policies made by school boards, not by Congress. It's a bit confusing to hear the majority continuously say give education back to the states but then complain when the school boards of the states do something that they don't like.
▶ 1:56:57And with regard to the comment about high school students not doing well in math or needing remedial writing instruction, that's not because of DEI, maybe AI but not DEI. Those are not the reasons why. And following up on Representative Hayes who is a national teacher of the year, her comment on assessments and Ms.
▶ 1:57:20Turnage Young's comments about the assessment quality or lack thereof, I just want to quote or not quote but refer to education scholar Dr. Yong Zhao who grew up in rural China in a went to school in a system that focused on getting good test scores.
▶ 1:57:37He's a critic of education focused on just getting good test scores and he he says that high stakes standardized test scores do not measure and in fact often stifle creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. And we need to keep that in mind when we're talking about assessments that should be used to inform instruction. Mr. Chairman, the term equity is not a partisan invention. It's grounded in a straightforward principle.
▶ 1:58:04The dictionary definition is about fairness and justice and how people are treated and freedom from disparities that are based on race, gender or background. This should not be controversial. Yet we've seen colleagues attempt to recast this basic idea of human decency into something that's suspect or even harmful. When did fairness become a problem?
▶ 1:58:24When did having a public school system in which every student has an opportunity to learn and thrive no matter who they are or where they come from, when did that become a point of The federal government should promote educational equity so all students can succeed, not just the privileged. We should be able to agree on that but too often access to gifted and talented programs or other advanced coursework is limited by a lack of resources, by a failure to provide accommodations and honestly by bias.
▶ 1:58:54These hurdles prevent many students from access to rigorous classes in which they very well may uh thrive and do well and excel. And again, all students, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, or zip code, they all deserve the opportunity to pursue advanced coursework that's commensurate with their abilities. I remain concerned that my colleague's rhetoric represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what equity in education means.
▶ 1:59:23Black and brown children and children with disabilities deserve access to advanced coursework and gifted and talented programs, period. But again, every student deserves access to a challenging education that makes them thrive. And as I noted, contrary to the title of this hearing, excellence and equity are not mutually exclusive. I'm disappointed that today represents yet another missed opportunity to address the real problems facing students and teachers, the Trump administration's relentless attacks on public education.
▶ 1:59:53By dismantling the Department of Education, the Trump administration has undermined our ability to study academic trends and provide guidance and oversight. Congress should not be standing idly by while our public education system and the Department of Education itself is on the chopping block. It's time to stand up for students' needs and uplift public education instead of sabotaging sabotaging it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Chairman. I yield back. Uh thank you very much to all of our witnesses.
▶ 2:00:22Um you know, equity uh properly understood is a laudable and and necessary goal of education. I'd argue it's a cornerstone uh of our social contract. But what today's hearing has shown is that the term has been co-opted in service of an agenda that produces manifest uh inequities uh that harm the very harms the very students that it purports to help uh and that makes everyone worse off. Uh we see this in uh attacks on charter schools.
▶ 2:00:50Uh support for charters should be overwhelming and bipartisan. And yet, we heard just total falsehoods uh uttered during this hearing in an attempt uh to discredit them. To be clear, charters are public schools that are tuition-free, that are open to all, uh where seats have to be lotteryed if they're oversubscribed, that usually are underfunded compared uh to district schools.
▶ 2:01:14For example, Success Academy has become the top-performing uh network of schools in New York despite getting something like 30% less uh per pupil funding. Uh and all of the factors that were raised to discredit them, uh the studies that show that charters get substantially uh more learning overall uh account for all of these. The Stanford CREDO study is the gold standard.
▶ 2:01:37Often the methodology involves uh looking at an oversubscribed charter uh and then looking at the students who won the lottery versus those who didn't and couldn't go there and seeing their learning outcomes uh over time. So you have like a natural controlled experiment. So our goal should be to make it so you don't have to do a lottery, that there are enough seats available uh at high-performing schools. That's actually what uh a bill that Representative Blumenauer and I are sponsoring, the High-Quality Charter School Act, would do.
▶ 2:02:04Uh we also see this in the effort to remove advanced learning opportunities from the public school system. And what the evidence and common sense overwhelmingly show is that when you do that, those opportunities are monopolized by those who have the means to pursue them outside of the public education system, thereby exacerbating uh inequities.
▶ 2:02:26Whereas when you have an objective system for identifying the students who are well-suited to those opportunities within the public education system, it produces much more equitable results in terms of who gets We see this overall trend perhaps most clearly uh in my own state of California, where for many years there have been efforts to deny advanced learning opportunities, to not teach algebra, teaching reading the wrong way, attacking charter schools and other options
▶ 2:02:56for families, lowering expectations, and eliminating accountability. And what do we see as a result? We see at UC San Diego, one out of every eight students needs remedial math. We see that students from low-income families in California fare almost the worst of any in the country on an apples-to-apples uh comparison. Uh we see uh the highest illiteracy rate of any state in the country. And yes, absolutely, uh there are clear links between not getting uh a high-quality education and life outcomes like poverty.
▶ 2:03:26California also has the highest poverty rate of any state in the country. But it does not have to be this way. There are great examples across the United States, whether it's charters like Success or KIPP, whether it's the amazing success story in New Orleans after Katrina, whether it's the many outstanding school districts and district schools that exist across this country that follow the principles of high expectations, that embrace a paradigm of excellence, that cultivate the talents of all students, that give and empower families with choices,
▶ 2:03:56that support teachers. These are principles that all schools and all districts across this country can adopt and uh that we'll continue to advocate for on this committee, because the stakes could not be higher for millions of kids of this country as well as our country's future. There being no further business, without objection, the subcommittee stands adjourned.