CPS CEO testifies to House Education Committee on Capitol Hill — Full Testimony

[0:02] school districts seem to be losing sight of their core mission and that core mission is educating [0:11] students we can all agree to that but it seems we're not living it out when school policies [0:21] affect the safety the privacy and the well-being of children congress has a responsibility to ask [0:33] questions when parents are excluded excluded from major decisions involving their children [0:45] congress has a responsibility to ask questions and when classrooms become vehicles for political [0:55] or ideological agendas rather than places of learning what students need to learn to compete [1:05] in this world congress has a responsibility to ask questions and so this is exactly why we are here [1:14] today these witnesses were invited to explain policies in their district that sideline parents [1:24] compromise student privacy rights and fuel radical ideology many districts today teach radical [1:36] unscientific vision of gender to extremely young children by first grade chicago public schools [1:47] being a product of cook county school system myself thankfully not the chicago public school system of [1:53] today students are introduced to the concept of gender identity third grade material then asks students [2:05] to and i quote explain the difference between sex assigned at birth and gender identity end quote by [2:13] fifth grade cps introduces students to puberty blockers many districts help students socially transition [2:28] meaning changing their name their pronouns and their restrooms and locker rooms even worse schools [2:36] do this without parental consent or knowledge chicago's policy even allows biological males on a case-by-case [2:48] basis to sleep with biological females on overnight field trips so does loudon counties if i was a [2:59] parent in either of those districts with these students i consider suing for child abuse and neglect [3:10] this is serious the consequences of these policies are horrific in loudon county schools a boy entered a [3:18] woman's bathroom and sexually assaulted a 15 year old girl the boy was wearing a skirt according to the [3:25] survivor's family a claim that was not contested by the boy's family you might think that school immediately [3:32] called law enforcement and had the boy arrested common sense would dictate that that's not what happened [3:40] in fact police were called for one person and that person was scott smith the survivor's father [3:47] who confronted school staff at the main office for not involving law enforcement a parent doing what a parent ought to do [3:56] this tragic story is the natural result of policies that fail to take gender seriously that reject [4:05] biological differences between men and women and that are soft on student misconduct i want to be [4:14] clear that these policies don't make teachers the enemy in some cases teachers are also the victims [4:20] with these policies that they are forced to contend with radical gender policies can force teachers to [4:27] violate their conscience and deny their faith in order to keep their job in may 2021 tanner cross a christian [4:37] teacher at loudon's county's leesburg elementary school was placed on leave after speaking out [4:43] against radical gender ideology in his personal capacity at a school board meeting loudon county [4:51] couldn't have changed its policy immediately to protect people could have changed its policy immediately to [4:58] protect protect people of faith it didn't instead it doubled down prosecuted mr cross for his faith and [5:06] spent years of taxpayer dollars defending their illegal position that's not just unwise it's immoral and [5:15] intolerant religious liberty is one of the most fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution [5:23] that's still in place trampling on religious liberty is nothing new for many school districts [5:30] unfortunately in 2024 a world famous christian school of higher education in chicago since 1886 [5:46] founded to impact the world and its community surrounding the institution for good and for positive development [5:55] meeting the needs of the downtrodden of all races creeds and origins the chicago public schools demanded that [6:06] this institution drop its christian beliefs in order for its teaching candidates its students desiring [6:16] student teacher opportunities to gain experience in chicago schools chicago eventually dropped their [6:24] demands after being hit with a lawsuit that's no surprise chicago's position was unconstitutional you [6:34] don't have to renounce christian beliefs to teach in a public school i hope but for chicago public schools that [6:41] was a hill worth dying on for a while in fact many school districts seem to rebuke traditional values [6:50] san francisco and chicago openly advertise abortion services for minor children chicago's website even [6:58] reminds kids that quote there is no parental notice requirement for minors accessing abortion in the [7:08] state chicago also requires condoms to be available to students 12 and up american students deserve better [7:21] america's students need school leaders who have moral clarity about right and wrong and who aren't [7:26] afraid to do the right thing even when it's unpopular schools need to stop playing politics stop cutting and [7:33] out parents and and help students succeed that's what today's hearing is about with that i yield to [7:42] the ranking member for opening statement thank you mr chairman and thank you to our witnesses for joining us [7:53] today mr chairman in education today's students families and teachers are confronting challenges [7:59] challenges that go beyond prom or science fair schools across the country are grappling with gun [8:04] violence ice raids learning loss rise of artificial intelligence and the affordability crisis is [8:11] placing enormous strain on our communities these are real material concerns that demand action from [8:17] congress that's why i'm disappointed that the majority has once again decided to ignore the concerns of [8:23] parents and instead to focus on divisive culture wars with the hope of scoring cheap [8:29] political points this is part and parcel of the trump administration and congressional republicans [8:34] track record of putting political games before proper governance and using divisive hateful rhetoric to [8:41] distract from their attacks on public education the federal government's responsibility on education [8:48] is to ensure that all students have access to a quality safe and inclusive learning environment that is our [8:55] mandate not debating whether or not teachers can teach about world religions or black history [9:01] yet the trump administration is actively dismantling the department of education leaving schools without [9:07] research guidance or resources they need the office of civil rights has been decimated and gao investigation [9:16] found that the administration wasted 38 million dollars paying investigators not to work even more shocking [9:23] according according to the senate help committee and committee the senate help committee staff report [9:30] ocr reached zero resolution agreements in the calendar year 2025 involving sexual harassment sexual violence [9:39] seclusion and restraint violations on students with learning or behavioral issues racial harassment or [9:45] discriminatory school discipline the students who have experienced discrimination deserve a federal [9:51] government that can investigate a claim and uphold their rights by charging forward with this with the plan [9:57] to dismantle the department of education the trump administration is undermining our ability to protect [10:02] students and their civil rights earlier this morning the department of education released long-term trend [10:09] scores from the national assessment of educational pride of progress the data confirmed that today's students [10:16] need more support long-term mascot scores have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade [10:23] and that's just not a failure of students teachers or schools it's a failure of policy [10:28] when students are falling behind it's the federal government's responsibility to provide evidence-based research [10:34] that states and districts can use to understand the gaps challenges and efficacy of the science of learning [10:43] that includes examining and assessing how students learn and prepare for future shaped by future shaped by [10:49] artificial intelligence mr chairman this is precisely why the work done at the institute of educational [10:57] sciences is so important uh incredibly the trump administration has all but shuttered the [11:03] institute of educational sciences hamstringing the ability to understand the greatest educational needs [11:09] and tools needed to address them it is irresponsible and short-sighted to leave states and localities to fend [11:15] for themselves especially when many school jurisdictions are already strapped for resources and funding [11:21] it cannot be left unsaid that the republicans big ugly bill only exacerbated the educational challenges [11:27] facing facing this nation parents don't care about what nicknames teachers use or what rainbows may be in the [11:36] classroom recent polling from the national parents union revealed that while parents are optimistic about [11:42] things happening in their child child's classrooms they are deeply concerned about the failures [11:47] of the trump administration in fact over 50 percent of parents gave secretary mcmahon a c or lower [11:56] mr chairman i asked to enter the npu's press release entitled the new national poll parents flunked trump on [12:03] education into the record without objection and hearing none we received take away from the national parents union poll is that [12:11] politicization of education does nothing to boost student outcomes and worse cultural and decisiveness fuels bullying and [12:20] discrimination and it does nothing to provide resources and stability for schools in need while my colleagues are [12:28] focused on playing politics democrats are doing the work to advance policies that would fix crumbling schools [12:34] and fund evidence-based policies that will improve student outcomes protect every child from [12:39] discrimination and ensure that no parent has to fear for their child's safety when the school bus pulls [12:46] away i hope that my colleagues across out can realign their priorities and work with us to make these goals [12:53] happen it's time to work together with schools families and teachers to make these dreams a reality and before i yield back mr chairman [13:01] i want to read a letter from members of the loudoun county community to you and me dated may 26th [13:20] the letter says that we understand educators parents community members and organizations in loudoun county are writing [13:27] in support of the inclusive policies initiatives and community that have been created in loudoun county public schools [13:34] under the leadership of dr aaron spence dr spence has been a critical part of ensuring that loudoun county [13:41] is a desirable place to live and raise a family strong inclusive public schools and not just an essential [13:48] public good but also the foundation of a strong community dr spence is not just an administrator but the [13:54] parent of two lcps students himself is he not only understands the community but understands the education [14:02] requires collaboration between students their parents their teachers and school staff to ensure [14:08] student success as community members we take issue with the premise that the trust is broken [14:14] in america's public schools academic success the striving school system in loudoun do not happen by [14:21] accident the success is due to cultivation of trust and acceptance that teachers foster every day in [14:27] their classrooms success is due to the relationships educators build with parents with the common goal [14:34] of seeing our students succeed continuation of this success is because we as a community have not [14:40] let the bigotry and fear-mongering of a few be louder than the love and acceptance that we can show [14:46] children in our community promoting an environment of equity and decency is where everyone is expected [14:53] and treated with dignity no and harms no one we join this statement in full support of the inclusive [15:00] school environment fostered in loudoun county by dr spence every student especially our students of color [15:07] our transgender and gender expansive students our immigrant students and our students with disabilities [15:12] deserve a safe place to learn where they can grow and thrive we continue to work tirelessly to ensure [15:19] that our community reflects the best that america has to offer when every child has the chance to succeed [15:25] and again mr chairman i'm not going to comment on what you said but i'll just [15:33] in response to public comments by the house education committee and workforce chair [15:41] the county school board says the loudoun county school board is deeply concerned by [15:48] the recent um public comments made by the chairman of the house education workforce committee that call [15:54] into question the work of loudoun public schools i had a superintendent dr aaron spencer's testimony before [16:01] the committee these remarks do not reflect the reality of in our school and risk undermining the important [16:08] work taking place each day in support of students staff and families across the division the board finds the [16:16] comments regarding dr spencer's leadership to be without merit and also believe that it is important to [16:23] emphasize the broader impact of these accusations at such a critical moment as dr spence prepares to [16:29] represent our community before congress these statements distract from the substantive issues facing public [16:35] education its mission and the invested parties invested parties it serves we find the timing and nature of these [16:44] remarks particularly unfortunate and injunction when focused constructive dialogue would better serve [16:50] students and families the board has full confidence in dr spencer's leadership and stands behind him [16:56] in advance of his testimony he continues to lead with a focus on academic excellence student well-being [17:03] and ensuring that every student feels welcomed valued and supported in our schools and i'd ask that this [17:11] both of these statements to be placed in the record without objection hearing none they'll be placed [17:16] in the record and i yield back i thank the gentleman and pursuant through committee rule 8c all members [17:28] who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk [17:34] electronically in microsoft word format by 5 pm 14 days after this hearing and without objection the [17:41] hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material noted [17:48] during the hearing to be submitted for the official record i'll now turn to the introduction of our [18:00] four witnesses our first witness is dr mackwellyn king superintendent and ceo of chicago public schools [18:10] in chicago illinois our second witness is dr aaron spence superintendent of louden county public schools in ashburn [18:20] virginia our third witness is mr jonathan smith director for education and federal strategic advocacy [18:29] at the national center for youth law in chevy chase maryland our last witness is dr maria sue [18:36] superintendent of the san francisco unified school district in san francisco california we welcome [18:43] you all and we look forward to your testimonies pursuant to committee rules i would ask that you each [18:54] limit your oral presentation to a three-minute summary of your written statement the clock will count down from [19:00] three minutes as committee members have many questions to ask you however pursuant to committee [19:07] rule 8d and committee practice will not cut off your testimony until you reach the five minute mark i would [19:16] also like to remind the witnesses to be aware their responsibility provide accurate information to this [19:22] committee i will first recognize dr king for your testimony good morning chairman walberg and honorable [19:33] members of the education and workforce committee i am dr macklin king and i'm here to speak with you [19:39] today about my background the amazing strides we are making in chicago public schools and how we are [19:45] serving over 300 000 students in our district every day i did not come to this work through policy or [19:52] politics i came through the classroom i spent 12 years teaching children in chicago the classroom is where i [20:01] earned my national board certification and became a master teacher mentoring the next generation of [20:08] educators i then spent 15 years leading schools on both the north and the south sides of chicago later i [20:16] had the honor of becoming of being recognized as a con fellow for distinguished principals as a former cps [20:24] student teacher principal parent and now as superintendent ceo of chicago public schools i have seen this district [20:34] from all sides and i welcome this opportunity to share it with this committee before i do that i want to [20:42] address the fact that i am here under subpoena i respect congress's role important role in oversight i know [20:50] we had to work through some complicated scheduling issues and some underlying privacy concerns [20:55] related to the student and staff situations we may discuss today but i look forward to answering your [21:02] questions and to telling you more about the hard work we are doing at cps cps serves more than 316 [21:10] 000 students across 77 communities of chicago one of the largest and most diverse student populations in the [21:18] country their backgrounds circumstances and needs are as varied as the city itself chicago schools [21:27] reflect the very best of our nation and our city diverse dynamic and strengthened by people of [21:34] different backgrounds cultures languages and faiths our classrooms are not homogeneous they are vibrant [21:43] communities where students learn alongside peers whose lived experiences may differ from their own in cps [21:51] we say every student every school every community fulfilling that commitment requires us to recognize the diversity of experiences [22:03] needs and strengths that exist across our district the only way to truly serve a student is to understand [22:10] and embrace what makes each student and community unique by recognizing and responding to those differences [22:17] we create schools where every student feels seen valued and supported for example in 2001 our high school [22:27] graduation rate was around 42 percent today is over 82 percent and our dropout rate is under five percent [22:36] a record low more than two-thirds of our graduates enroll in college the class of 2026 will have college or [22:44] career credentials that translate into millions in tuition savings for families these include [22:51] college credits that reduce the cost of a degree industry recognized career credentials [22:56] and high demand fields and certifications for completing jrotc or our police and fire training academy [23:04] for students who want to serve our country and communities we have much to be proud of watching our high [23:10] school graduates across the stage but this journey start of success starts much earlier thanks to the [23:17] expansion of early childhood education every child in chicago has access to full free pre-k in their [23:25] neighborhood as students progress their education in their educational journey families can choose from [23:31] neighborhood and charter schools magnet schools with specialized arts programs world languages and stem [23:39] and selective enrollment schools that offer enriched learning experiences for students seeking additional [23:45] academic challenges and engagement together these options support families choosing the learning environment [23:53] that is right for their child as we do this transformational work cps strives to complete comply with [24:00] applicable federal state and local laws and adheres to the regulations and guidance from the illinois state [24:07] board of education all cps policies are strengthened by family and community voice through our public [24:15] public comment process local school councils parent advisory councils and our office of family and community [24:22] engagement exists precisely so that families of our 316 000 students have a real voice in this district [24:32] hearing from the communities we serve helps us to improve the student experience and fulfill our mission i [24:38] would ask the superintendent to wrap up your remarks you've gone past the five minutes thank you for the [24:43] opportunity to be here today and i look forward to taking your questions thank you i now recognize dr spence [24:51] for your testimony thank you chairman walberg ranking member scott and members of the committee i appreciate the [24:57] opportunity to appear before you today loudoun county public schools serves 80 000 wonderfully diverse [25:03] students across 100 schools we have a 97 graduation rate and six of our high schools are listed in the top [25:09] 20 in the commonwealth of virginia families choose loudoun county because they value the quality of our public [25:15] schools which strengthen our communities and create opportunities for students i'm especially grateful for the [25:21] chance to highlight these results because we work so hard to ensure that our students every student regardless of [25:26] background or circumstance has a supportive and high quality learning environment one that prepares [25:32] them to thrive in life and contribute meaningfully to society that promise is carried forward every [25:37] day by lcps's dedicated educators engaged families and a community that believes in the power of education [25:44] i come to this conversation both as a parent of children attending lcps and a very proud superintendent who [25:50] sees the extraordinary care and commitment that exists inside our schools every day i want to be clear and [25:58] say that lcps and i as the superintendent operate within the law as the superintendent it's my job to [26:04] ensure that we follow federal law state law and locally adopted school board policies and we work with [26:10] our students and with our families to do that i also want to state clearly that we do not discriminate [26:16] our hiring practices our instructional practices and our student support systems are grounded in equal [26:21] opportunity and compliance with civil rights law we're in education because we care about students and part of [26:28] that means ensuring an environment where all students can reach their full potential in truth much of [26:34] this work is about ensuring that students have access to rigorous coursework removing barriers to [26:38] opportunity and working with our parents to help prepare young people for their future those are the [26:44] long-standing goals of lcps that i and my team strive to meet every day despite our efforts to do that [26:50] we also know there will be challenges schools are responsible for navigating complex and often personal [26:56] situations involving individual students and families as we do it's critical that my staff and i know and [27:02] understand the governing laws and policies to ensure fairness for our students when student specific [27:08] incidents occur or disagreements arise we work with parents to address them carefully we take these [27:14] matters incredibly seriously too often the public narrative frames schools and parents as adversaries [27:21] that's not the reality i see in our community and it's not the reality i see in public education more [27:26] broadly as i mentioned earlier in this statement i'm a parent and i believe it's critical that [27:31] schools respect and listen to our parents as we work alongside them to educate our students the [27:37] overwhelming majority of parents and educators want the same things for our children for them to be [27:41] safe academically challenged emotionally supported and prepared to contribute positively to their [27:47] communities after graduation lcps thrives when we work closely with parents to educate and support [27:54] their children and i know the teachers and leaders in our schools demonstrate that commitment through [27:58] their actions every day lcps isn't perfect no institution is but the good ones will understand that [28:07] and address concerns we work hard to ensure that the education we provide meets the needs of our [28:12] students and our families the work happening in our classrooms is practical it's serious and it's [28:18] student-centered i appreciate the committee's attention to matters that impact students it's important we keep [28:25] our students at the center of these conversations so that those of us working in education and those [28:30] of us working in education policy can continue to ensure our students excel thank you i welcome your [28:36] questions i now recognize mr smith for your testimony chairman walberg ranking member scott and members of [28:48] the committee thank you for the privilege of testifying before you today public education has served as [28:54] a cornerstone of our democracy it provides the critical foundation that prepares young people to be full [29:01] participants in our multi-racial democracy and competitive in a global economy i say that not only as a [29:08] lawyer but as a parent one who sends my own children through a schoolhouse door every morning on a measure of [29:15] faith i trust that the adults on the other side will see them teach them and keep them safe keeping that trust [29:24] and keeping our public schools strong and vibrant comes down to two things first we must guarantee [29:31] that schools remain places where all students have an opportunity to learn and succeed second we must [29:38] acknowledge and respect the rights of parents and students alike recognizing that their voices and [29:43] perspectives are critical in creating and maintaining safe and supportive learning environments turning to my [29:51] first point a commitment to diversity equity and inclusion ensures that all students can learn and succeed [29:59] diversity is not a buzzword it is a fact a plain recognition that our classrooms reflect the full [30:06] demographic tapestry of our nation equity means giving each student what they need need to thrive far too many [30:15] are trying to score political points and treat it as a zero-sum game but equity doesn't redistribute [30:22] a fixed pool of academic success it expands it and inclusion simply means that every student feel safe [30:30] respected and valued including mine as a father of two black children who attend public school i understand the [30:38] need every parent feels to make sure their children are affirmed and supported throughout their education when [30:45] we fail to provide a diverse equitable and inclusive environment in our schools we harm students [30:52] exclusionary policies have driven a troubling increase in incidents of racial harassment against black [30:59] students and other students of color and to a large increase in anti-lgbtqi hate crimes and bullying in our k-12 [31:09] schools this is not new our nation often hasn't always lived up to the promise of [31:15] inclusivity in our schools but throughout this our history it's been this body congress that has acted [31:23] through intentional interventions like title 6 title 9 section 504 to respond to and to correct historical [31:32] and ongoing injustice importantly congress didn't stop at writing the laws it built the federal agencies and [31:40] infrastructure to enforce them the department of education's office for civil rights often stands [31:46] as a student's last and sometimes only option to attend school free from discrimination the department of [31:53] justice's civil rights division also plays an important role i served in that division as a deputy assistant [32:00] attorney general i have witnessed firsthand how civil rights laws have been used to open the doors of [32:06] education of opportunities for students across this country and now those doors are being slammed [32:12] shut these agencies have abandoned their roles in addressing discrimination leaving students to suffer egregious harm [32:20] turning to my second point the important roles both parents and students play [32:26] parents play a central role in shaping their children's education as parents we work to ensure that our children are in learning [32:33] environments that are safe and affirming our rights as parents have been recognized by federal courts [32:39] for over 100 years with those rights while those rights are critically important the supreme court has observed [32:46] that the rights of parenthood are not beyond limitation one parent's right does not supersede the rights of other [32:54] parents or their children nor does it allow for the erasure of history the targeted of children the banning of accurate books [33:02] or the undermining of the value of public education as a whole too often the language of parents rights [33:09] has been misconstrued misconstrued and manipulated not to advance the shared goal of serving and supporting [33:16] students but as a cudgel to divide our communities this distorted view should not overshadow that students [33:23] have rights as well they don't lose them at the schoolhouse gate they have they themselves have a right to [33:28] freedom of speech a right to express themselves a right to receive information and a right to privacy [33:35] so let me close where i begin at the schoolhouse door supporting the rights of parents and respecting the agency of young people [33:42] are not mutually exclusive they are the same work the parent who asks their child to watch their child to be seen [33:50] and the child who wants to be seen are asking for the same thing thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today i look forward to your question [33:56] thank you now i recognize dr sue for your testimony chairman walberg ranking member scott and members of the committee [34:07] thank you for the opportunity to appear here my name is dr maria sue i have had the honor [34:14] to serve as superintendent of san francisco unified school district for the last 18 months [34:20] i come to this role as a parent a long time public servant and someone who believes deeply in public [34:29] education and the potential of every child as you can hear i am suffering from laryngitis and i am having [34:37] a difficult time using my voice of course i recognize the importance of being here today i have come here [34:46] voluntarily and i will answer your question to the best of my knowledge and recollection san francisco [34:54] is proud of its history the city is known as a pioneer in lgbtq rights we have a long tradition of [35:03] embracing diversity and welcoming everyone including those who feel marginalized or overlooked as a school [35:12] district we were one of the first to recognize the importance of teaching about our diversity so that [35:19] students can learn and grow together sfusd serves more than 49 000 students from every neighborhood [35:29] background and life experience in our city we are proud to serve every child who walks through our doors [35:38] we have a simple duty helping students learn we are focused on positive student outcomes students must [35:47] learn to read clearly write effectively and graduate prepared for college career and life i understand [35:57] this hearing is focused on parental rights trust and what parents expect from their schools those issues [36:05] matter deeply to me i know that learning does not happen in isolation students need safe and welcoming schools [36:15] and teachers need support parents are a child's first teachers we want strong partnerships and effective [36:26] communication with parents and guardians so they feel informed heard and supported we also take seriously [36:36] our responsibility to ensure instruction is age appropriate aligned with state standards and academically grounded [36:46] public education is challenging work especially in a moment when schools are often asked to carry the weight [36:54] of broader political and social debates sfusd does not seek to direct students personal beliefs identities [37:04] or family values our role is educational while families may not always agree with us on every issue every parent [37:15] shares the same basic expectation that their child will be safe respected and supported i want to be clear [37:27] hate bullying and harassment have no place in our schools like many school districts across the country [37:37] as if usd has faced difficult challenges in recent years however we have also made significant [37:46] progress since i became superintendent we stabilized the district financially we focused on rigorous academics [37:56] supported our educators and strengthened trust with families stable schools are essential for students [38:06] families and communities to achieve measurable academic improvements we adopted new curricula in core subjects [38:16] we also set clear goals around literacy math and college and career readiness for the first time in a decade [38:26] we are seeing statistically significant improvements in our literacy scores we know there's more work to do [38:36] and we are committed to improving outcomes for every child every morning our students arrive at school [38:47] expecting adults to help them learn support them and prepare them for the future through a high quality education [38:58] that responsibility matters deeply to me and it matters deeply to the educators and staff across our district [39:08] district i am proud to represent sf usd and i look forward to answering your questions today thank you thank you [39:15] thank you under committee rule nine nine we will now question witnesses under the five minute rule [39:23] i'll recognize myself for five minutes of questioning dr king as i mentioned in my opening statement in 2024 chicago public [39:36] public school schools schools refused to allow students from a noted religious institution long time in chicago [39:45] impacting city and all through its its communities in positive ways refused to allow its education students to earn [39:56] necessary practice teaching experience in chicago schools due to their faith unless institution would change its doctrinal policy [40:06] policy um on sexuality and gender beliefs for chicago public schools this was um intolerable those [40:19] beliefs at least it appeared that way you demanded that the school drop its christian beliefs in order for [40:25] its teaching candidates to gain experience in chicago schools of course you reverse your position after a lawsuit [40:35] that's unsurprising your position was an unconstitutional attack on people of faith the question i have [40:44] is do you think teachers should have to renounce their christian beliefs in order to teach in a public [40:50] school thank you for the opportunity for me to address the um moody bible institute and um chicago public [41:01] schools has many universities with religious affiliations and in entering into a partnership there is a standard [41:08] vendor contract that we ask those university partners to sign on to there was uh and there was a challenge with um [41:16] moody's agreeing to sign on as the other universities and i'm happy to report that yes we were able to [41:23] reach an agreement and those university uh that those uh student teachers will be entering uh chicago public [41:30] schools as student teachers in the fall but after a lawsuit but the question it was do you in the chicago [41:36] public school system uh believe that teachers need to renounce their faith principles in order to teach in the [41:46] school i actually started my teaching career in a christian school and um although it ought to be an [41:52] easy answer then what's your answer do do christian teachers need to renounce their faith in order to [41:58] teach in chicago public schools no they do not are teachers who believe that marriage is only between a [42:06] man and woman welcome in your district could you repeat that question for me please are teachers who [42:13] believe that marriage is only between a man and woman welcome in your district when teachers arrive [42:22] um student teachers or any staff members that support work in chicago public schools in any capacity [42:28] we do we ask that they um adhere to the chicago public schools policies we do not um ask for them [42:36] to we do not ask for their beliefs but we do ask that all student all employees adhere to chicago [42:42] public schools policies which is which is justified but in this case with moody the students were not [42:50] going to be allowed because the institution believes in a marriage between male and female and that was [42:58] what the lawsuit was about and so i i challenge you to make sure it's very clear that while policy needs [43:05] to be followed yet teachers can continue to hold those beliefs that are strongly held religious beliefs [43:13] let me move on dr sue your former ethnic studies curriculum featured a video titled why is there anger at drag [43:24] school hour and ask students how does drag queen story hour disrupt the cycle of heterosexism for [43:33] young minds at what age do you think students should be exposed to drag queen story hour thank you [43:41] congress congressman for that question um i am really proud to be the superintendent of san francisco [43:48] unified school district what age are students prepared for drag queen story hour well we welcome [43:55] all 49 000 students as they are we support our students we work really hard at what age do you [44:02] think it's appropriate for drag queen story hour for your students we follow state and federal laws [44:11] where we align our curriculum with state standards parents have a religious objection to their child [44:17] participating drag queen story hour do you allow them to opt out yes we do i still didn't get the age [44:24] requirement my time is expired i now recognize the gentlelady from oregon miss bonamici for her five [44:35] minutes thank you thank you to each of the witnesses thank you for all you are doing for public education [44:41] during a time when it is under attack hearings like this ignore the fact that the majority is doing [44:46] nothing to solve the real challenges facing students in schools parents should be able to send their kids [44:52] to school knowing that the school will keep them safe and it is the legal obligation for them to do so [44:57] there are several factors that are causing real risk not just hyped up political perceived risk [45:03] where trans students go to the bathroom and books about queer people and accurate history are not on [45:08] that list in fact a multiple public health studies show zero evidence of correlation between transgender [45:14] individuals using gender appropriate restrooms and an increase in sex sexual offenses in fact [45:20] research indicates that transgender people are more likely to be victims of assault [45:25] so i i want to i want to note that a recent poll from the national parents union found that 75 percent [45:31] of parents are concerned about ice operations disrupting their children's education why aren't [45:36] we having a hearing about the effects of immigration enforcement on teaching and learning [45:40] last year a gallup survey found that 41 percent of parents fear for their child's physical safety at [45:45] school because of gun violence why aren't we having a hearing on strategies to address gun violence and end [45:50] school shootings a recent pew research center survey of parents of teenagers found that 55 percent more [45:57] than half of those parents are extremely or very concerned about teens mental health why aren't we [46:02] having a hearing on supporting students mental health and resiliency so i want to ask each of the [46:07] superintendents just in one sentence what are the top concerns you are hearing from your parents dr king [46:13] the top concern for chicago public schools at this time for chicago chicago school parents at this [46:20] time are cuts that could impact the classroom which could impact their their child's education budget cuts [46:26] dr spence thank you for the question certainly budget cuts remain a concern for our school division [46:34] as as others we hear consistent concern about academic progress we want to make sure that we're focused on [46:40] literacy and and numeracy at the early grades and how that our children progress through thank you thank you [46:46] absolutely dr sue um similar to my colleagues our parents read regularly tell us that they want [46:53] us to continue to push the needle and academic rigor and meet student outcomes while we ensure that we [47:00] have services that our students need thank you for raising real concerns of parents of public school [47:06] students and despite saying they want to give education back to the states my colleagues in the majority [47:11] have already passed numerous bills micromanaging what books students can read attacking [47:17] trans students a very small and vulnerable population dictating what bathrooms they can use in fact [47:22] they're villainizing oftentimes young children who have the courage to identify is who they are [47:27] a study from the trevor project found the anti-transgender laws cause up to 72 percent increase in suicide [47:33] attempts among transgender and non-binary youth 72 percent that's unacceptable and it's avoidable so i'm going to [47:39] ask you mr smith why is it important for schools to support and protect all students including [47:46] transgender students in schools and then i have another question so i'll go with that one first [47:50] thank you for your question representative you know it's important for schools to respect and to [47:56] affirm all students because it's their obligation it's the obligation of schools it's their responsibility [48:03] to keep our students safe but also it's their legal responsibility absolutely it is the law that students [48:09] be not be subjected to discrimination simply because of who they are absolutely and mr smith the trump [48:15] administration is threatening to block all federal funding we heard the concerns of the funding [48:21] concerns here the trump administration is threatening to block all federal funding for schools that have [48:26] inclusive policies so mr smith how would this kind of a collective punishment affect the overall [48:31] well-being of schools and students thank you for the question you know there is a ton of research that [48:38] shows that inclusive policies policies policies that make all students feel safe and seen not only are good [48:46] for those students it's good for the entire classroom it's good for the entire school that it leads to [48:53] increased academic performance it leads to lower dropout rates it leads to students being being able to fully [49:00] fully uh succeed and also fully able to function in our diverse and multicultural multiracial democracy [49:09] and and thank you i also submit that that sends a message to all of the students how we should treat each other [49:15] with respect regardless of who we are what background we came from who who someone loves or what they i how they [49:20] identify mr chairman i sincerely hope that this committee will hold hearings on how to keep children safe from the actual threats they face face every day [49:28] every day gun violence immigration enforcement student mental health [49:32] in addition to the policies that create thriving public schools including paying teachers fairly [49:38] modernizing school infrastructure creating wraparound support for students and families [49:43] students and parents across the country are planning are counting on us and as i yield back mr [49:47] chairman i'd like to enter into the record a letter from multiple parents groups advocating for safe [49:53] and inclusive schools for all students without objection hearing none they'll be entered [49:58] the general lady's time has expired and i'll recognize the gentleman from south carolina mr wilson for [50:03] his five minutes thank you chairman tim walberg and thank you for providing for this very informative [50:08] hearing the american families and parents and children need to know and educators where we should be [50:16] proceeding and dr spence i'm particularly grateful to be here with you my family heritage is virginia my [50:22] mother was born in richmond i graduated from washington university in lexington my number two son an orthopedic surgeon [50:29] received his residency in portsmouth so we cover the whole commonwealth and so this is great and then [50:35] additionally i uh i particularly cherish that my predecessor was the late congressman floyd spence [50:42] so uh it it's really good to have dr spence here with that in mind in may 2021 tanner cross a christian [50:50] teacher at loudoun county's leesburg elementary school was placed on leave after speaking out publicly against [50:57] policy 80 40 in his personal capacity he said a school board meeting quote my name is tanner cross [51:04] and i'm speaking out of love for those who are suffering from gender dysphoria it's not my intention [51:10] to hurt anyone but there are certain truths that must be facing reality i love all my students but i will [51:16] never lie to them regardless of the consequences i'm a teacher but i serve god first and will not affirm [51:23] that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my religion two days later [51:30] he received a letter noting he'd been placed on leave quote pending an investigation of allegations [51:36] that he engaged in conduct that was disruptive impact on the operations of leesburg elementary school [51:43] was that a mistake so the the incident that you're talking about actually predates my tenure in lcps [51:51] but i do think that our employees have the right to their deeply held religious beliefs and i think [51:57] they have the right to express those in public comment for certain i don't know specifically if [52:06] the investigation that was being done was related to a violation of policy if it was related to a [52:11] violation of policy within the school that wouldn't have been a mistake if it was simply for expressing [52:15] his beliefs that would have been a mistake yes well indeed do you know was there an apology provided [52:19] oh i'm sorry i don't help me understand the question an apology from the school board [52:29] an apology for the providing of him being placed on leave oh i'm not aware that there was an apology [52:37] i'm not aware uh incredibly this isn't the only case of prosecuted people of faith for holding [52:44] traditional views of gender monica gill who taught in loudon county for 25 years and in 2025 quote the [52:52] school district threatened to force me to lie to students about the fundamental truth of biological [52:57] reality which i would never do gentlemen gentlemen gentlemen for a moment mr scott what is your [53:05] question we uh take a very brief recess for just a moment we'll recess for a moment can i get another [53:24] minute now and any time taken will be restored mr mr wilson you are open to continue your questioning thank you [53:55] terrific chairman we appreciate you with this in mind again monica gill says i treat all my students [54:01] including those who identify by opposite sex with dignity and respect end of quote on behalf of lcps [54:09] would you like to apologize that miss gill that the district made compromising her faith a condition of [54:15] employment i don't i don't believe that that's what occurred and uh i know that that matter has been [54:21] settled well it certainly by uh decency and common sense uh these should be resolved immediately and then [54:31] dr king in your website uh there's a uh it tells the students of there's no lower age limit and no parental [54:40] notice requirement from uh minors accessing abortion care and with that there's also an agreement with [54:49] planned parenthood and partnership to refer to pregnancy options counseling and no surprise that [54:56] really promotes abortion with that dr king is there any form of abortion you teach that students is [55:03] immoral unwise in particularly do you support suctioning the baby out intact or should the baby be [55:10] dismembered part by part disposal of the arms legs head and body i'm sorry would you mind repeating the [55:19] the question for me the question again is your school or you're uh you're promoting uh working [55:26] with planned parenthood to promote abortion and with that there are different forms of abortion in [55:31] which do you support suctioning the baby out intact or should the baby be dismembered and part by part [55:38] removing the arms legs head and body which which form of abortion do you think would be the most [55:44] preferable i'm very disturbed by that question and i want to say that chicago public schools sexual [55:50] education curriculum is uh in compliance with illinois state law and i also would like to say that [55:58] my person i'm here to represent chicago public schools and i'm willing to refer to answer questions [56:03] on chicago public schools policies well that's the policy of promoting abortion and it's actually [56:09] shouldn't be uh people should families should have a right to uh counsel with their family i yield back [56:16] gentleman yields and i recognize the gentleman from california mr tacano thank you mr chairman um [56:24] thank you to the witnesses for being here today all of you um you know the department of education's [56:30] office of civil rights or otherwise known as ocr was created uh to protect um uh students from [56:39] discrimination harassment and abuse mr smith i'd like to begin with you i'd like to run through some of [56:45] ocr's statistics from the past year under uh the trump administration let's check the facts so last [56:53] year ocr reached zero case resolutions related to sexual harassment and violence racial harassment or [57:01] seclusion or restraint is that correct as far as you know as far as i know that is correct um and from [57:09] march to september of last year the administration dismissed 90 percent of complaints without completing [57:16] a full investigation correct that's what i understand to be correct and and when i'm when [57:22] when we say we they dismissed 90 of complaints without full completing a full investigation that's [57:27] not a good thing i don't believe so no um there is a backlog of roughly 24 000 pending cases before [57:35] the office of civil rights or ocr mr smith what other recourse do the students and families who [57:42] filed these 24 000 cases have if the federal government will not step in to enforce their [57:48] rights they oftentimes have no additional recourse and if i could just flag my organization actually [57:55] filed a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of ocr and speaking directly with our plaintiffs the one [58:02] thing they said over and over again was that they feel helpless but they feel like their students their [58:07] children are suffering because of their sex because of their race because they have disability and they [58:13] literally have no place to turn so we're talking about students often from low-income families middle [58:22] income families i mean they i mean accessing the courts is an expensive proposition that's why we have [58:30] the office of civil rights at the department of education to protect students from discrimination from [58:35] harassment uh right is that correct correct um so this backlog this backlog isn't just because ocr has [58:43] left staff throughout the trump administration's second term secretary mcmahon has redirected staff [58:50] resources and taxpayer dollars to focus on investigating schools they object to politically uh this past year [58:58] the administration launched over 100 investigations into school districts and other educational entities [59:04] with policies and curricula the president doesn't agree with over a quarter of those investigations have [59:09] been launched without a complaint present i mean they're investigating but not in response to a complaint [59:16] but just because they don't like that school district's policies and it means that no student parent or [59:22] other individual actually requested that the investigation take place and mind you we've seen ocr staff [59:30] reduced you know by by about half or more and the office of management of budget is actually saying [59:37] that there should be even more further reductions so this huge backlog of 24 000 cases has not been really [59:44] adequately dealt with but yet we're spending committee time today on investigations that nobody asked for [59:51] so how does the trump administration mr smith's ocr's focus on hunting down school districts they disagree with [59:58] politically impact students whose cases are still stuck in the backlog thank you for the question [1:00:03] you know it's not just the backlog that is troubling it's the fact that there's been an [1:00:08] exponential increase in ocr complaints over the last several years and so what that means is that [1:00:14] there are literally thousands of students across the country who each and every day are experiencing [1:00:20] discrimination and ocr is not responding excuse me so mr smith i just want to look at some of those cases [1:00:27] students contacted ocr after repeatedly being touched inappropriately and called slurs by [1:00:32] classmates that detailed in this article here a student with disabilities was isolated secluded and [1:00:38] restrained with enough force to leave bruises in this article here a female student was forced to [1:00:44] continue taking classes with another student who sexually harassed her as documented in this report here [1:00:50] uh i ask you now as consent to enter all these uh into the record mr chairman without objection at the [1:00:57] now they'll be entered at the heart of these witch hunt style investigations are transgender inclusive [1:01:03] policies and curricula in schools my republican colleagues claim that creating policies and curricula [1:01:09] that are trans inclusive violate the civil rights of other students mr smith to be clear do policies which [1:01:15] ban transgender students from using the bathroom corresponds to their gender identity make schools [1:01:20] safer they don't in fact we know that transgender students are more likely to be sexually assaulted and [1:01:26] harassed in restrooms and in other places throughout their lives i'm sorry i wish we could kind of delve [1:01:32] deeper into this question but i i my time is up i gotta yield back gentleman yields back and i recognize [1:01:38] the chairman emeritus of this committee the gentlelady from north carolina dr fox thank you mr chairman [1:01:47] never in my wildest dreams did it ever occur to me that we'd be having a hearing like this [1:01:55] at least two of your school districts allow biological males to sleep with biological females on overnight [1:02:02] field trips chicago's guidance says quote the specific accommodation should be assessed on a case-by-case [1:02:11] basis end quote loudon county regulations state quote students may be assigned to a room related to their [1:02:21] consistently asserted gender identity end quote dr king do you think it's appropriate for boys to sleep [1:02:30] in the same room as girls on field trips yes or no chicago public schools policies are in alignment with the [1:02:41] state of illinois is it appropriate for uh biological boys to sleep in the same room as [1:02:49] biological girls yes or no you're adhering to the policies do you decide that if a student is [1:03:00] transitioning and that if they have gone through the eligibility process and it has been it has been [1:03:06] approved according to illinois policy that would be considered on a case-by-case basis dr spence [1:03:16] same question same question thank you uh it's it's appropriate and lawful for transgender students [1:03:21] to be able to be treated as uh they're consistently identified gender it's also appropriate and important [1:03:27] that we acknowledge that our policy says that parents can seek alternatives to that if they have those [1:03:32] concerns and that all they need to do is approach our administration share those concerns and we'll make [1:03:36] alternatives available to them so both of you you have your doctorates and you are asserting that it is [1:03:44] possible for a person to change his or her gender to the opposite gender i find that appalling that you [1:03:55] would assert that given your education background each of your district ha districts has adopted policies [1:04:04] that allow students to request the use of different names and gender pronouns at school [1:04:09] without parental notification one chicago public schools teacher recently told fox news quote the [1:04:17] most unethical aspect of my career as a teacher in chicago is looking at a parent and using a different [1:04:23] name and gender for a student than what the student is using at school with dozens of teachers and [1:04:29] hundreds of classmates dr king have your teachers ever lied to parents about what their child is being [1:04:36] called at school yes or no i'm not aware of any parents teachers having to lie to parents dr spence do teachers [1:04:49] lie to parents about what their children are being called at school i'm not aware of any single instance [1:04:55] and i've never had a parent raise that concern with me dr sue same question same question um i'm also not [1:05:06] aware of of such incidences but i will say that in san francisco we embrace all of our students we welcome [1:05:14] them as they are in our schools because we fully believe that creating a safe respected and supported [1:05:21] environment is how our students will be able to learn dr king when is it wrong to lie to parents about [1:05:29] their child's gender identity parents are a vital member of our of our students educational journey [1:05:39] and chicago public schools would never ask a teacher to lie to a parent dr spence i hope you agree that [1:05:47] every family should be able to review curriculum being used in your schools parents should know what [1:05:53] their children are being taught unfortunately we've heard from parents in your district that it can be [1:05:58] difficult to get their hands on your curriculum can parents review all curriculum in your schools [1:06:07] thank you congresswoman the specific parent that i'm aware of that you heard from was asking to review [1:06:12] specific curriculum that we pay a site license for and that's governed the the protections for that under [1:06:18] the FOIA laws are we don't we have to have their permission to release what would be proprietary materials [1:06:25] we shared that information with with that family our curriculum materials so the standards that we [1:06:31] use in the commonwealth of virginia are available to all of our parents and then any curriculum materials [1:06:36] that aren't governed under those proprietary laws are available to our parents for review absolutely [1:06:42] thank you mr chairman i yield back gentlelady yields i know right mr walbert mr chairman for what [1:06:50] purpose does mr picano ask a question i would just like to ask you as consent to enter the record a letter [1:06:57] from advocates for trans equality at over 50 civil rights organizations without objection will be [1:07:01] entered thank you i recognize the gentlelady from north carolina miss adams for five minutes of [1:07:05] questioning thank you mr chairman and thank you to the witnesses for being here today um mr smith [1:07:12] i want to start where i think this hearing should start the students because if we're serious about [1:07:18] trust in schools then we can't ignore what breaks that trust trust is broken when students experience [1:07:25] racism in the classroom trust is broken when families are afraid to send their children to school [1:07:31] because of immigration enforcement in their communities trust is broken when the federal [1:07:36] government with withholds billions of dollars that congress already provided for students teachers and [1:07:42] schools and that's what parents are worried about they want their children safe they want their [1:07:48] children respected and they want their children learning and they want schools to have the resources to do the [1:07:54] jobs but today more than half of our public school students identify as students of color but less than a [1:08:01] quarter of teachers are people of color that means educator preparation matters cultural competency matters [1:08:09] bias training matters professional standards matter as well we've seen what happens when schools get this [1:08:16] wrong in florida a teacher was fired after a video appeared to show a black baby doll hanging from a [1:08:23] classroom television monitor in another case a teacher was recorded using a racial slur in the classroom [1:08:31] that kind of conduct has no place in any classroom in america i taught for 40 years i have children who [1:08:37] went through public schools and as a parent i never had an op and never had a situation where i could not [1:08:44] speak to the teachers about what my children were doing mr smith what do incidents like these tell us about the need [1:08:52] for educator training around cultural competency bias awareness and working with diverse communities [1:08:58] and what do you say to those who claim this kind of training is unnecessary thank you for the question [1:09:06] you know such training as you mentioned is not only necessary it's also completely lawful that our schools [1:09:14] have to be in places where every student feel safe they feel secure they feel comfortable being themselves [1:09:23] and that's not just a preference or ideal for schools that's literally the law title six of the civil [1:09:29] rights act requires that schools not create or tolerate hostile environments and as you noted for far too many [1:09:38] students of color and far too many other students school classrooms are not places places where they feel [1:09:44] comfortable far too many of them feel isolated and i think your point about having teachers who reflect [1:09:50] them you know i think about my own education my first black teacher was when i was in second grade [1:09:56] and she was the first teacher i felt as a young person who affirmed who saw me as who i really was and so [1:10:03] i think having that's i think i know having teachers of color is critical thank you let me let me move [1:10:10] i have a few more questions so let me let me turn to immigration students and families in charlotte we [1:10:16] saw thousands of students absent from school during protests connected to immigration enforcement activity [1:10:22] in the community when students are afraid when families are afraid and when children are wondering [1:10:27] whether school is still a safe place for them that affects learning a child cannot focus on reading and math and [1:10:32] science or history if they are worried that their family may not be there when they get home [1:10:38] mr smith how can schools help immigrant students feel safe attending school and fully able to learn [1:10:44] without fear or disruption and in the past were there ways that the federal government recognized that [1:10:50] schools are sensitive places and if you can be brief with this answer i appreciate it sure yes there was a policy [1:10:56] that required schools to be set to be identified as sensitive locations where ice enforcement could not [1:11:03] happen that policy was revoked and rescinded by this administration and instead of actually creating [1:11:10] safe and supportive environments this administration has targeted uh immigrants and other communities of [1:11:16] color in ways that are unconscionable okay let me move on to say something about funding my colleagues can [1:11:21] talk about parental rights all day but parents also have a right to expect the federal government [1:11:26] that won't won't play games with their children's education last year the trump administration withheld [1:11:32] seven billion dollars in congressionally appropriated education funding that money was for after school [1:11:37] programs teacher training english language acquisition adult education and student support that does not build trust [1:11:44] that breaks trust and and smith what happens to students and families and school districts when federal [1:11:51] education funding is delayed or withheld and who's hurt the most when that funding is held up you got 10 [1:11:58] seconds sir thank you who suffers are those students we see decreased academic performance we see [1:12:06] higher dropout rates but also what we see is that the performance of all students suffer with the [1:12:11] performance of some students suffer and so if we want inclusive classrooms if we want successful classrooms we [1:12:17] have to support all of our thank you sir amount of time mr chairman i do request unanimous consent to enter into [1:12:22] the record a letter from students all across this country that speak to this as well without objection [1:12:28] thank you will be entered and i recognize gentleman from georgia mr allen uh thank you chairman and uh thank you for [1:12:37] holding this important hearing it it is difficult uh to uh to understand this but uh uh uh i will bring up and i [1:12:51] i need to know if you you folks are aware of this but in january westchester county new york jury [1:12:58] awarded two million to fox variant in a landmark medical malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff who detransitioned [1:13:07] successfully sued her former psychologist and plastic surgeon for failing failing to meet professional [1:13:14] care standards when they authorized and performed a double mastectomy when she was 16 years old do you [1:13:23] understand the legal ramifications of what you're dealing with here and when these children get [1:13:29] you know we we do understand that as children get over this euphoria when they reach age 25 that many [1:13:43] regret those things that were imposed on them when they were children and are you aware of the legal [1:13:52] i mean that's two million uh i'm sure the trial attorneys are going to jump all over this [1:13:59] and you're going to be liable so miss uh dr sue your guidance on trans students lists refusing to address [1:14:12] a student by their chosen pro mount pronoun on an equal plane with egregious abuses such as physical [1:14:18] assault motivated by hostility toward the student do you think that not using a student's preferred pronoun is [1:14:25] more morally equivalent equivalent equivalent with assault thank you for the question in san francisco we [1:14:34] welcome all of our students as they are we believe firmly that when we allow students to come in and truly be [1:14:42] themselves we are able to teach our students and support our students to be thriving um adults so when [1:14:52] those students grow older and uh or uh then understand that maybe things are different then you said well [1:15:03] that's okay do you understand the legal consequences that you've uh the way you've misled that student [1:15:14] but just saying well you know that's okay and and then they learn later on this isn't the way it works [1:15:21] this is this is not this won't work in my life or because of emotional ills or whatever they get [1:15:27] maybe professional vice it's different but you're going to be uh you're going to be held responsible [1:15:33] legally uh for what you're perpetrating on young people dr king uh in fact all of your districts [1:15:43] actively help students change their names pronouns and locker rooms that they want to transition genders [1:15:48] but this isn't always the best for the child we've seen a wave of stories about students regretting [1:15:54] their gender transition detransitioning and wishing the adults in their lives gave them better advice [1:16:00] and guidance to protect these children under what circumstances will your district advise against a [1:16:06] social transition and deal with the legal implications of this lawsuit that is now precedent in law [1:16:15] which has required all of these hospitals and physicians i mean these doctors are telling these [1:16:21] parents if my child doesn't transition if your child does not transition they're going to commit suicide [1:16:31] and then performing the operation and now look what we have we have a legal precedent that it you know [1:16:39] and guess what all these hospitals and physicians are going to be sued for malpractice are you are you [1:16:46] you willing to deal with that in your school system and the multitudes of dollars that you're going to [1:16:53] be sued for for the for allowing children to believe whatever they want to believe and not raising them up [1:17:01] in the way that they should go can you answer that question dr king or how are you going to deal with [1:17:07] the legal implications of this i mean you better get back and give with your school board and y'all your [1:17:12] lawyers and better figure out how to deal with it because this is going to be rampant throughout this nation [1:17:18] and like i said the trial lawyers are going to be all over it so i have 11 seconds i cannot opine [1:17:27] on the laws i can't answer to the policies that and operations for for chicago public schools okay [1:17:35] well you probably better do that i'll yield back mr chairman gentleman yields i now recognize the [1:17:39] gentlelady from georgia ms mcmath thank you mr chair and thank you to our witnesses for each and [1:17:46] every one of you being here today we really appreciate it and dr king as i said to you earlier one of my [1:17:51] sisters is a teacher in your chicago public school system i was actually born and raised in chicago so [1:17:56] thank you i hope that we're able to get back to the essence of what why we're here today talking about [1:18:02] educating our children today which is most important and that truly is your responsibility [1:18:08] i know it can be difficult and a thankless task job for what you're doing but that isn't the reason why [1:18:15] people stay in public education you truly are dedicated to our children and our families [1:18:20] you do it for the kids our teachers they do it for the kids our superintendents they do it for the kids [1:18:26] parapros they do it for the kids for the students and the families that have nowhere else to send [1:18:32] their child their child to learn but their public school for 10 years i was a single mother working [1:18:38] as a flight attendant on the weekends while i homeschooled my son jordan during the school week [1:18:43] it was hard but it was an experience i would never have traded for anything in the world to spend more [1:18:50] time with my son jordan before he was taken from me in a racially motivated shooting time that i will [1:18:57] now forever deeply cherish i did that because the public schools where we live were so starved of their [1:19:04] resources in the state of georgia where i represent so deprived of funding and support from congress [1:19:12] that i could not simply send them there this isn't a choice that any parent should have to be forced [1:19:18] to make but that was the reality that was forced upon me and my son and the reality that is forced [1:19:24] upon tens of millions of americans every single day across our country i made a promise to myself [1:19:32] that if i ever could i would do what i can to ensure that every school has the support they need [1:19:39] to ensure that every child truly is never ever left behind there are so many parents that don't have [1:19:46] the time or the money to homeschool i was blessed to be able to do that that just isn't how life works [1:19:53] for most people their public school is their child's only option and we should not be making their [1:20:00] problems worse with voucher schemes funding cuts and hearings really only meant to drag public schools [1:20:07] through the mud whether they intend to or not my republican colleagues are creating a two-tiered education [1:20:15] system one for those that are born in certain zip codes one for the wealthy one for those who are lucky [1:20:22] enough to win a charter lottery or get a scholarship and another for the rest of us that is not what [1:20:29] public education should be about it doesn't have to be this way it should not be this way these are [1:20:36] problems in schools that we can fix so i encourage my republican colleagues to take a hard look at the [1:20:43] difficult choices that their policies are really forcing on our parents our children in our [1:20:48] communities republicans want to call it school choice and they are making a choice they are [1:20:54] choosing to abandon your child and your child's public school education they're choosing to let [1:20:59] unqualified teachers into your kids classroom and they are choosing to allow new schools to move [1:21:06] into your neighborhood take federal tax dollars meant for the public good and then possibly deny your child [1:21:12] get a good public education mr smith the bill language signed into law creating the national school [1:21:19] voucher program does not require scholarship granting organizations or the private schools and programs [1:21:26] they fund to comply with federal civil rights protections like the americans with disabilities act [1:21:31] the individuals with disabilities education act or idea and section 504 the rehabilitation act what guarantee [1:21:39] if any does the parent or a guardian of a student with a disability have that their child will receive [1:21:46] an inappropriate education if they use a voucher thank you for the question there's no guarantee and the [1:21:54] reality is that sending using vouchers to send children to private schools that don't comply with federal laws [1:22:02] will harm not just students with disabilities it will harm students of color it will harm all students who remain [1:22:09] vulnerable and not only will it harm those students it will also siphon away critical funding for public [1:22:16] schools and so the neediest children will also continue to suffer you know 90 of american school children [1:22:23] attend public schools and so to use those public dollars to subsidize private schools and religious [1:22:31] school as you said is it about school choice it's about the private schools choice thank you very much my [1:22:36] understanding is they really don't have any guarantee at all just as you said i look forward to working [1:22:41] with you to ensure that every child regardless of a disability receives the high quality education that they [1:22:47] deserve i'd also like to submit for the record or letter from faith organizations supporting every child's [1:22:53] right to be included at their public school without objection it will be entered thank you and i yield [1:23:00] gentlelady yields and i'll recognize the vice chairman of this committee the gentleman from utah mr owens [1:23:08] thank you thank you mr chair um for those who are tuning in to watch this uh this this hearing i [1:23:15] just want to say thank goodness uh for school choice federal school choice for those who are sitting [1:23:22] listening and and realize how much nonsense is going on here the focus is not even our kids obviously [1:23:28] just know that help is on its way um by the way 32 states have opted in to the school choice program [1:23:37] so we don't have to sit down and wait now for those who are waiting these long lines of lotto to get [1:23:41] into a school system uh those days are coming to an end uh dr sue your new ethics studies curriculum [1:23:48] compares parents post protesting school boards over covert policies to 1960s white parents trying to [1:23:56] avoid the segregation it says parent protest of school policies are not just a recent phenomenon however in [1:24:03] the 1960s many white parents put their children private schools in order and to in response to [1:24:08] de-segregation policies uh do you see this as a problem only with white parents um thank you for [1:24:16] that question i'm sorry do you have the example that you're reading from can i see can i see the [1:24:24] document i don't have the document do you agree with that statement though um i wouldn't need to see [1:24:28] the documents i don't have the document do you agree with the statement i just made that parents white [1:24:35] parents were leaving schools because of what they did back with the segregation days i i would need [1:24:41] to understand i'm going to for for any of us who hear that i would say absolutely not i wouldn't say [1:24:47] that if i didn't believe it so obviously you you might you probably do uh if that's the case do you [1:24:53] also think that black parents opting out of public school systems are also racist um if you're referring [1:25:02] to the fact that we spent multiple years identifying a new ethnic studies curriculum at san francisco unified [1:25:10] school district then i i will speak to that um okay all right i'll take it back um just know that uh in [1:25:19] terms of parents leaving public school systems uh it's all colors a matter of fact uh the black [1:25:26] congressional black caucus has a history as high as 52 percent of them putting their kids into private [1:25:32] private school and take them out of public but in private schools because it is the parents right [1:25:36] to make sure their kids are being uh uh treated and taught right um miss miss dr king uh your fifth [1:25:44] grade material includes an object objective for students to explain what puberty blocker medications are [1:25:52] and the role they may play for transitioning young people um fifth grade seems pretty young that's 10 years old [1:26:01] uh what is the age that is not appropriate to be learning about puberty block puberty blockers whereas [1:26:09] i'm not i'm not exactly aware of the age in the curriculum our sexual education curriculum that you're [1:26:15] referring to but i do want to state that our curriculum is in alignment with illinois okay so so is 10 [1:26:22] years old okay for you your personal opinion to be teaching these kids about puberty blockers as a parent [1:26:29] i would want to have your position you have a position you are in a leadership position that's [1:26:34] right i'm in a leadership okay it's 10 years old uh is that uh an age too young for you as a parent [1:26:42] that would be okay i would want to have that conversation okay all right i'm going to return [1:26:47] on i just want to make a point real quickly uh dr king only 23 percent of the cps fourth graders are [1:26:53] proficient in reading 24 percent proficient in math for black students only 12 percent are proficient [1:26:59] i want to ask each one of you guys is 77 percent failure rate reading okay 76 percent failure rate [1:27:07] in math and 88 percent of our black students not being able to read is that okay dr king is that [1:27:12] successful failure that is not acceptable in chicago okay how about you dr spence i would say any child [1:27:21] who is not successful in reading in other schools would be unacceptable okay i'm asking specific yes or no [1:27:27] is that acceptable is that successful failure i answered yeah no it's not acceptable that any [1:27:32] child would come to a school that's successful failure that is not acceptable okay so if if you [1:27:38] are over a school system that is getting these kind of results are you successful or failing our kids [1:27:44] dr king yeah are you success i don't want a long answer are you succeeding or are you failing when you [1:27:52] have these kind of results chicago public schools is successful in identifying targeted supports to [1:27:57] students based on the needs that they have thank you uh dr spence i'm very pleased with the results [1:28:04] that we have in line county public schools and recognize that we have more work to do yes we work [1:28:10] every single day to ensure that our students are meeting our goals this thank you this is why we [1:28:14] need choice and i'll say this uh my dad was a professor for 40 years gentleman's time my suggestion [1:28:22] is that this is not your thing you need to find something else to do because you're not helping our kids [1:28:26] you're failing your kids it's obvious anybody listening right now so thank you and this is [1:28:29] full school choice thank you all your back gentleman time has expired and i recognize the gentlelady [1:28:35] from connecticut miss hayes thank you before i start i just want to say a few things i am a member of [1:28:43] the congressional black caucus i am a public school teacher and all of my children attended public schools [1:28:50] schools as a career educator i will also say that no one here is saying that we don't support public [1:29:00] choice parents should have the right the problem is and the issue here is that that right needs to be [1:29:08] afforded to everybody that opportunity needs to be afforded to everybody so the school across the street [1:29:14] from your house should be as good as the school 30 minutes away every school should have the highest [1:29:21] educational opportunity for children i've listened to some of the comments here and and dr sue i [1:29:29] appreciate your answer you have a responsibility to all students we've heard over and over about [1:29:36] students identity and their gender preferences and somehow you should be afraid because legally you [1:29:44] will be held accountable as professional educators i would expect for you i can tell you what i did [1:29:51] i used affirming language i created environments that did not literally that were anti-bullying [1:29:58] environments and supported those environments i created collaborative spaces where students could [1:30:04] learn because that was my job to educate students so this idea that and i was a pretty good teacher [1:30:13] and i don't care how good you are you can't make nobody gay i don't know what they think they're talking [1:30:18] about but you're not that good none of you you're not going to make somebody be something but but you [1:30:24] do have a responsibility to make sure that they can learn so creating those safe environments is your job [1:30:32] creating places where students can learn is your job not engaging in these culture wars and making [1:30:38] our schools and educational institutions places battlegrounds for these culture wars [1:30:45] you're before us today for the programs that you created in your district which i'm sure had local [1:30:51] input which i'm sure the parents supported and wanted and you're being asked to defend those positions [1:31:00] which i'm sure were rooted in evidence grounded in the law and reflective of the values of your community [1:31:07] this committee talks all the time about decisions should be made at the local level but i guess that's [1:31:12] only if they like the decisions that you make at the local level because i'm sure the programs that [1:31:17] you have in san francisco were not done without the input of your local community this committee is [1:31:23] spending time hauling you before congress to answer for your diversity programs while we've had zero [1:31:28] hearings not one in this congress or the last on school shootings that are killing children in our [1:31:34] classrooms zero hearings on chronic absenteeism zero hearings on the mental health crisis that we're facing and [1:31:42] the twelve billion dollars in funding that has been cut by this administration from from proposed [1:31:47] programs that serve students no hearings on how we can infuse the teacher pipeline so that you have [1:31:54] the qualified educators in front of those students in your communities and that is a choice it is very [1:32:00] deliberate and if there is anything i can say to you before my time runs out and i ask the one question [1:32:05] that i can ask do not buy into the bull you know what you do you're good at what you do do not be [1:32:14] intimidated by this committee do not come in here and change your values or your positions because you [1:32:19] know who you work for and it is the parents and the students in your community so i appreciate you all [1:32:26] coming here and and suffering through this and for a member to tell you that you should find another job [1:32:35] there's probably a reason why he won't be here next congress can you dr king just in the few [1:32:44] minutes the few seconds that i have left describe the impact of the black student success programs that [1:32:52] were created and what do you think will happen if those are taken away how how has that helped in in [1:32:58] the school district the black student success plan is a plan that was constructed with community it was [1:33:07] hundreds of community members and it is a resource and targeted plan to support students that have [1:33:14] been historically and systematically uh void of opportunities so you didn't come up with this [1:33:20] all by yourself no no the community had input exactly the community asked for this yes the community [1:33:27] worked with you to create this it is in alignment with illinois law as well and the community is benefiting [1:33:32] from the results yes thank you and thank you for doing your job i yield back generally yields i now [1:33:39] recognize the gentleman from from missouri dr under thank you mr chairman and thank you for holding this [1:33:45] very important hearing questions for um first of all um ms king do you believe that biological men [1:33:55] should be allowed in locker rooms with biologic women so yes or no question with all due respect i'm here [1:34:04] to respond to the policies of chicago public schools and our operations and is it the is it the policy of [1:34:11] chicago public schools to forbid biological men boys to go into locker rooms with biologic girls the [1:34:22] chicago public schools policy is in alignment with illinois law yes or no do can boys and men go into [1:34:30] girls locker rooms in the chicago public schools yes or no any student uh gender identity include [1:34:37] i take that as a yes uh dr spence yes or no should biological men be allowed in locker rooms [1:34:44] with biologic women or girls transgender women should be allowed in women's spaces ah that's a yes [1:34:51] so biologic men should be able to go into locker rooms and shower rooms with biologic girls federal [1:34:56] law requires it yes no it doesn't yes it does no title nine does not in fact quite the opposite title [1:35:02] nine requires you to protect women and girls dr sue respond biologic men or women you you gave me the [1:35:11] yes you answered my question dr sue should biologic men be allowed in locker rooms and shower rooms with [1:35:18] biologic girls and women it is to the best of my knowledge we follow state and federal law so you allow [1:35:26] i mean i do you have the same interpretation of federal law as dr spence that men should be allowed in [1:35:35] shower rooms and locker rooms with biologic girls and women in san francisco we follow state and [1:35:41] federal law i take that as a yes as well um dr spence uh do you believe that we should quote weed out [1:35:48] texts whose language is not gender neutral and free of stereotypes i i get very concerned when we talk [1:35:57] about weeding out any text i think a variety of perspectives are important okay because back in 2014 [1:36:04] that sounds like censorship right weeding out texts but back in 2014 when you were superintendent of [1:36:10] virginia beach city public schools you tweeted out a picture of the abcs of diversity poster the w [1:36:17] encouraged teachers to weed out texts whose language is not gender neutral and free of stereotypes do you [1:36:22] still believe that i think i responded i think that we should have a variety of texts and a variety of [1:36:28] perspectives available to our students to read do you still believe in weeding out let's say [1:36:34] i don't know to kill a mockingbird heart of darkness the odyssey the iliad of course not [1:36:40] cicero okay good um do uh miss sue the non-profit teachers for social justice recently rented out a [1:36:51] space in san francisco's uh mcconnell high school to hold ethnic study and ethics ethnic studies actually [1:36:59] i take that back uh miss sue i have a different question for you in mirabella b taylor the u.s supreme [1:37:05] court block california policy uh prohibiting schools from notifying parents about students gender [1:37:11] change gender uh change without the child's consent what policy changes has the san francisco united [1:37:19] school district made to respect parents rights as enunciated in mirabella v taylor v bonta mirabella v bonta [1:37:29] yes uh first of all i'm not a lawyer but uh what we are doing um to the best of my knowledge at san [1:37:36] francisco unified school district is adjust our practices and uh ensure that our teachers and [1:37:44] educators understand the change in the law and to make sure that we adjust our practices to be in [1:37:51] compliance so it is your policy now that parents should be notified parent we believe that parents [1:37:57] are our students first teachers we strive to create really strong lines of communication with families [1:38:05] thank you likewise ms king in cps's gender support plan uh it's very clear that gender transition will [1:38:16] be hidden from parents what changes is chicago public schools making to align with parents rights as [1:38:25] enunciated by the supreme court and mirabella v bonta we value parents as a vital part of our educational [1:38:33] community and we do not hide information from parents and it is i it is our hope that when a [1:38:40] student is transitioning that the parent the families the student the families and the school [1:38:46] would all be in communication do you notify the parents we communicate with parents in compliance with [1:38:53] the illinois state law what about with the u.s supreme court and the constitution of the united states [1:38:59] mr mr chairman i have a unanimous consent request what's the request uh the request is to submit a [1:39:06] document chicago public school's gender support plan for transgender and gender non-conforming [1:39:13] students which um at least at the time it was promulgated uh would hide the gender status of [1:39:19] children from without objection it will be received gentleman's time has expired i now rep uh recognize [1:39:26] representative lee uh from pennsylvania for her five minutes of questioning thank you mr chairman since [1:39:33] other members of congress aren't allowed to wave onto this hearing even when their superintendent is [1:39:39] being subpoenaed i would start by asking unanimous consent to enter a letter into the record from the [1:39:44] chicago delegation expressing their concern about weaponizing oversight and federal education funding [1:39:51] to target diverse student bodies and attack the school districts and educators seeking to effectively [1:39:56] meet their needs without objection it will be submitted and it's received i often wonder if you all will ever get [1:40:01] tired of just bad faith divisive hearings the answer is no because it butters your bread and as long as [1:40:10] your donors continue to contribute you will continue to tear families and children apart targeting children [1:40:15] is uh particularly ridiculous but as we know this hearing is trying to legitimize a dangerous idea of [1:40:20] what equitable and inclusive education looks like conservatives want us to see the definition of equity so [1:40:26] they can weaponize it against policies that simply give kids a fair shot our country established equity [1:40:33] policies like idea to give children with disabilities an equal education and policies like title nine to [1:40:39] end unequal treatment based on sex and force court rulings on desegregation so that black kids could [1:40:45] attend the same schools and have the same quality of education as white kids i feel like i have to say this a lot in this [1:40:52] committee but equity policies are necessary to reverse harm caused by systemic discrimination discrimination [1:41:00] discrimination that was enacted by policies passed in this room so-called parents rights groups want you [1:41:07] to believe so badly that expanding access for marginalized children comes at the expense of children who [1:41:14] already have all of their needs met equity policies are only a threat if your ideals are grounded in white [1:41:19] supremacy if your ideals come from the executive orders of an inspiring authoritarian who posts ai pictures [1:41:26] of himself as jesus or threatens to kill entire civilizations on social media and wants to give billions [1:41:32] of our tax dollars to insurrectionists let's be clear this administration's department of education [1:41:37] already tried to ban diversity equity inclusion and accessibility it didn't work they lost the case [1:41:43] so now republicans are forcing school superintendents uh before this committee to scare them [1:41:49] into compliance compliance with discriminatory policies in a chilled educational environment that [1:41:54] caters to the demands of a vocal minority hearings like this are trying to make an example of districts [1:41:59] that want all kids irrespective not because of their race gender socioeconomic status disability status [1:42:08] language immigration status and they're counting on the fact that other superintendents and teachers [1:42:14] across the country will be intimidated and comply in advance but when you legislate from [1:42:19] a place of actually wanting children to have a quality education where kids are safe and seen [1:42:23] you don't have to rely on fair tactics mr smith your testimony points out that students of color make [1:42:28] up more than half of students enrolled in public schools one in four high school students identify as [1:42:33] lgbtqi plus one in ten students are english learners 15 percent of students receive special education [1:42:38] services diversity is just a factual description of students our schools serve you said are conservative [1:42:45] parents rights movements a reaction to the simple facts of the increasing diversity in public schools [1:42:49] thank you for the question you know i can't obviously speak for the motivations of any other person [1:42:56] but what i can say is that we have made tremendous progress as a country to make sure that the doors [1:43:03] of opportunity are open to every person regardless of their race regardless of their sex regardless of their [1:43:09] gender identity and the reality is that that's something that we should embrace that's something that we should [1:43:14] celebrate it's something that makes our democracy stronger and anyone who doesn't see that i think [1:43:21] undermines public education and undermines our democracy your testimony also states that our public [1:43:27] education system provides young people the critical foundation needed to be full participants in our [1:43:31] multi-racial democracy and competitive in the global economy what happens when that critical [1:43:36] foundation is undermined by discriminatory policies and other politicized attacks that drain school budgets [1:43:41] thank you for the question you know there is ample research that shows that there are real and [1:43:47] substantial consequences where students are exposed to exclusionary policies that academic performance [1:43:54] goes down that dropout rates go up that engagement goes down and i will note that the research shows that [1:44:01] that doesn't just apply to students of color or lgbtq students it applies to all students all students [1:44:08] benefit when each student is included at a firm thank you i i agree with the research equity and inclusion [1:44:14] policies are fundamental to protecting students right to a quality education an administration that [1:44:20] relies on fair mongering and that dismantles the very federal agency responsible for educational equity [1:44:26] threatens protections for those least able to defend themselves and let's be clear reserving a quality [1:44:32] education for those who all only to those who already have every advantage isn't just a byproduct of [1:44:37] authoritarianism it's a prerequisite for it but we will fight back because our kids deserve better [1:44:43] than this and we can and we will give them better than this i believe that some among us are here [1:44:49] for all children because we recognize how important it is for our democracy for our government and for [1:44:53] our future i thank you all so much for your time and i yield back the gentility yields and i recognize a [1:44:58] gentleman from north carolina mr harris thank you mr chairman and i thank all of you who are serving on the [1:45:04] panel today dr spence as i'm sure you know in may of 2021 a boy entered a women's bathroom at stonebridge [1:45:13] high school and sexually assaulted a 15 year old girl the chairman in his opening statement alluded to [1:45:19] this the boy was wearing a skirt according to the survivor's family a claim that was never contested by [1:45:24] the boy's family and you might think that the school immediately would have called law enforcement and [1:45:29] had the boy arrested but again that's not what happened police were called for one person and [1:45:35] that was scott smith the survivor's father who went to the school's main office and was irate that the [1:45:40] district wasn't initially involving law enforcement over his daughter's assault so i would first ask you [1:45:48] mr spence on behalf of the loudon county public school would you like to apologize to mr smith this [1:45:54] morning any time a child is assaulted it's a horrific thing and that was predating my tenure but what i [1:46:02] would say is of course we would involve law enforcement of course we would enforce our policies our policies [1:46:08] and law do not contemplate that something like this should or could happen to our students and if it does [1:46:15] we have to react immediately and appropriately and we would i recognize you weren't superintendent in 2021 [1:46:22] but can you maybe tell us what policy changes have you or the loudon county public schools put in place [1:46:28] to prevent tragedies like this from happening again i think it is a matter in loudon county [1:46:35] public schools of ensuring that the policies that we have are followed that the law is followed i know [1:46:40] that we have restructured our title nine office since that time other than that it is a matter of ensuring that [1:46:47] we enforce our policies and we follow the law and that we engage directly with our parents and our law [1:46:53] enforcement partners when incidents like these come up and we provide support to our families and to [1:46:57] our students that need it well as appalling as the incident was at stonebridge high school i think [1:47:02] all of america is recognizing that incidents like this are happening across the country and it's personal [1:47:08] to me because we're seeing the same concerns in my own congressional district parents in cabarrus county [1:47:14] raised serious concerns about biological males entering girls bathrooms and locker rooms in two [1:47:19] local high schools and the reports that my office received were deeply disturbing and i didn't know [1:47:25] anything else to do but to take them directly to the department of education and i will say i'm grateful [1:47:30] to secretary mcmahon and the department of education taking quick action and they have opened a title nine [1:47:36] investigation into cabarrus county schools so we can prevent sexual assault situations from happening [1:47:43] and address the concerns of parents and students while we're on the same avenue dr spence back in 2024 [1:47:53] it was found through public records request that you missed a month of that school year for several [1:47:58] taxpayer-funded trips i think it reported you were in miami puerto rico san diego and richmond you went on [1:48:04] four trips in three months during your trip to richmond although it caught my attention it was reported [1:48:10] that loudon county public schools did not immediately tell parents about a string of student overdoses [1:48:17] some including fentanyl and according to the sheriff's office 11 parkview high school students [1:48:22] overdose became loudon county public schools biggest school safety crisis since the two sexual assaults [1:48:30] back in 2021 as a result of your failure to notify parents of these overdoses i understand governor [1:48:36] glenn youngkin signed an executive order to immediately notify parents of overdoses governor [1:48:42] youngkin also had an amendment that would require schools to notify parents within 24 hours of student [1:48:48] overdoses and although the amendment passed unanimously in the state senate house democrats in virginia [1:48:54] blocked the amendment it seems like it would be common sense to notify families about student overdoses [1:49:01] at schools so parents can discuss the incidents with their children so i want to ask you in the [1:49:07] last minute how soon after the student overdoses were you made aware of the situation when you say [1:49:15] the student the the incident that you referred to back in 2024 so as soon as i became made aware of [1:49:20] that i put it i put a team together in the school and we communicated to parents within that same uh three [1:49:25] days after i understood exactly what had occurred one of the one of the challenges um at that time and [1:49:31] thankfully because of some of the work that's been done in the legislature we now have better [1:49:34] clarification on what needs to be reported is it's unclear to us when we have an overdose happening [1:49:41] so i'll give you an example of what i mean if a student is transported medically out of our building [1:49:46] let's say that they have passed out and they're transported medically out of our building when they get [1:49:50] to the hospital we no longer have access to their medical records they don't tell us what happened to [1:49:55] the child we just know that they passed out in our building and then we were being told by law enforcement [1:50:01] after the fact that they suspected overdoses and as soon as the sheriff called me and communicated [1:50:05] about that i began working with our school and with our communication team to make sure that [1:50:09] we were notifying our parents so much of what was reported was either distorted or factually [1:50:15] inaccurate including the number of overdoses that were happening in our schools versus those [1:50:19] happening in our communities i agreed with the legislation that went through the general assembly [1:50:24] the only thing that i asked for and that i think some democrats maybe were asking for during that time [1:50:29] is expired uh if i could just finish this one thought i should quickly thank you was that [1:50:34] this is a community issue and i felt if we were going to be notifying parents of overdoses in our [1:50:38] schools that those who are responsible for tracking overdoses in our community should also be notifying [1:50:44] our communities that that was happening gentlemen's time has expired and i recognize the gentlelady from [1:50:49] arizona miss grijalva for her five minutes thank you mr chairman um i want to thank all of the [1:50:56] witnesses for being here i served on a school board for 20 years and i know how difficult it is to be [1:51:01] a superintendent and so i know that you in your own communities have a school board that helps you [1:51:08] informing what the policies are going to be you have state laws that govern that as well and in the [1:51:13] time that i have been here and i've been watching online i've seen um your jobs are so difficult and [1:51:19] challenging and rewarding all at the same time the harassment that you have all experienced here is [1:51:24] completely unacceptable so i would like to apologize to you for how you have been treated by some of [1:51:30] these members you represent an incredibly diverse student body 90 of the students in my district in [1:51:36] arizona attend public schools and i'm sure that those numbers are similar in your communities so thank [1:51:42] you for all you continue to do to support the children um of our our nation so in arizona's seventh [1:51:49] congressional district families care deeply about children's success when i speak to parents in [1:51:54] tucson yuma douglas nogales and rural communities they're not asking for book bans for our classrooms [1:52:02] or to become ideological battlegrounds they want safe schools fully funded classrooms and resources [1:52:09] teachers need to help every student succeed unfortunately this congress has seen efforts to [1:52:15] manufacture political controversy around our schools and undermine programs that protect students civil [1:52:20] rights too often the language of parents rights is used to divide communities and advance policies [1:52:26] that would limit what students can learn read or discuss these debates have real consequences [1:52:33] last year tucson unified school district faced the prospect of losing six million dollars in federal [1:52:38] funding mr chairman mr chairman i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record [1:52:43] in article titled tucson unified school district facing six million dollars in federal fund losses excuse me [1:52:53] run that by me again it's to put okay i'm gonna watch the time i'll do it at the end so when schools are [1:53:00] pulled into these culture wars the costs are real diverting billions nationally from classrooms and [1:53:05] making it harder to recruit and retain educators in arizona our diversity is our strength we should be [1:53:12] focused on academic recovery chronic absenteeism and student mental health not attacking school leaders [1:53:18] working to ensure every student feels safe supported and included before i turn to questions i want to [1:53:24] share an experience of a young arizonan a non-binary student from arizona just described spending high [1:53:30] school trying to avoid attention while using the locker room arriving early leaving late and trying not to be [1:53:36] noticed after a parent publicly criticized the school's effort to accommodate transgender students the [1:53:41] student felt humiliated and ultimately stopped participating in school sports whenever one's views on [1:53:47] these po whatever one's views on these policies no student should feel so unwelcome that they give up [1:53:52] opportunities to learn compete and belong that brings me to my first question mr smith the committee [1:53:58] majority has spent most of this congress promoting culture war bills such as hr 2616 stop indoctrination [1:54:05] and protect kids act hr 7661 stop sexualization of kids act and hr 8705 the charlie act these bills are the [1:54:14] majority's way of forcing conservative ideology into our public schools the republican don't list [1:54:20] includes don't say trans don't read diverse books and don't acknowledge racism and the list goes on [1:54:26] if these bills were to become law what are some of the legal consequences you foresee for schools and [1:54:31] districts thank you for the question um before i answer the question i just wanted to flag that there's [1:54:39] a recent study that shows that 3.2 billion dollars have gone into defending exclusion responding to [1:54:46] exclusionary policies that's 3.2 billion dollars that haven't gone to our students and to our schools [1:54:52] to support them but to answer your question the reality is that policies that divide our students that [1:55:00] don't affirm them that don't recognize them lead to hostile learning environments and those violate [1:55:07] both title 6 of the civil rights act and title 9 of the education amendment so having inclusive [1:55:13] policies are not just good policy they're required by law thank you much of our public conversation [1:55:20] about diversity initiatives and education assumes that rural communities are largely homogeneous yet [1:55:25] the data tells a very different story people of color now make up 24 percent of rural america and [1:55:30] rural communities have seen growth in black hispanic immigrant lgbtq plus and disability populations at the [1:55:37] same time research research shows that teacher diversity has a profound impact on student [1:55:43] outcomes for example disadvantaged black male students who had a black teacher in elementary school [1:55:48] were significantly less likely to drop out or more likely and more likely to aspire to college [1:55:53] as some diversity focused programs face legal and political challenges like the ones you mentioned [1:55:58] how can we ensure that increasingly diverse rural student populations have access to inclusive learning [1:56:03] environments equal educational opportunity and educators who can effectively serve and represent their [1:56:08] communities anyone can answer i would just flag that our civil rights laws don't depend on your [1:56:17] geography that no matter where you live no matter the makeup of your community everyone is entitled and [1:56:23] the law requires a safe and secure learning environment thank you the gentleman lady want to submit yes thank you mr [1:56:32] chairman i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article titled tucson unified school [1:56:36] district facing a six million dollar dollar in federal fund losses without objection and hearing [1:56:41] none it will be submitted thank you and i yield back gentlelady yields i now recognize the gentleman from [1:56:47] indiana mr messmer thank you mr chairman uh dr king in may you have proven an agreement for teachers and [1:56:54] students to attend a so-called day of civic action the chicago teachers union said the day was uh off as [1:57:00] necessary because as was stated in their mayday resolution public education is facing unprecedented [1:57:07] national assault driven by maga republicans your district even promised to provide buses and sack [1:57:13] lunches to up to 100 schools dr king are you committed to making the decisions like this fairly without [1:57:19] political bias and regardless of which party or politician that is being protested thank you for the [1:57:27] opportunity to clarify the may 1st um that was a full day of instructional activity and our students [1:57:34] students did engage in civic activities whether in the school in the school or across the district [1:57:40] and it that is part of cps's goals to in to engage students civically we do have a department of civic [1:57:48] engagement okay well would you approve a similar request for teachers and students to attend march for [1:57:54] life and protest the evils of abortion this was not a um this was not a politically uh slanted uh event [1:58:03] that the day the day the day of instruction so curriculum was it was expansive and there were [1:58:08] options they the curriculum was still decided at the school level and so were the the um field trips as [1:58:15] well okay uh the academic results produced by chicago public schools are among the lowest in urban areas [1:58:21] across the country in 2024 31 percent of fourth graders nationwide were at or above naep proficiency [1:58:29] in math while chicago scored a measly 24 giving academic results produced by cps schools increasing [1:58:45] education options for families in chicago is obviously urgent would you approve a request for [1:58:50] students to support school choice and and want to voice their desire via what you would call a protest [1:58:56] in favor of more school options and greater educational freedom cps values school choice and [1:59:03] parents ability to choose they're at the type of schools they would like for their child to attend [1:59:08] we have options uh public schools we have uh district-led schools charter schools we have magnet [1:59:15] schools for our parents to choose from as well as selective enrollment schools so we do support school [1:59:20] choice very good dr king after the 2025 supreme court case of mahmoud versus taylor has cps changed its [1:59:28] policy to allow parents to opt out of lgbtq plus curriculum for religious reasons cps um is in [1:59:38] this in compliance with the illinois state law as far as the opt-out of sexual education curriculum but [1:59:44] are you following the supreme court decision we follow all local state and binding federal policy laws okay [1:59:50] well i'll take that as a non-answer uh dr spence have you have do you allow parents to opt out for [1:59:55] religious reasons for lgbtq policy within uh your school district yes we do thank you uh dr sue um to [2:00:05] the best of my knowledge we do okay i don't think the websites for dr king or dr sue reflect that any [2:00:11] to this point so you might want to update your uh school's websites um parents have every right to [2:00:18] make decisions or at least express their views on what type of education the children are receiving in [2:00:24] school however schools in in your district dr spencer teachers are receiving school board terrorist [2:00:31] training on how to handle parents expressing their views and even go so far as to call parents [2:00:36] agitators and disruptors dr spence do you believe the parents have the right to express their views [2:00:42] and have a seat at the table when deciding what their children are learning in in your classrooms [2:00:47] of course i do and if i could clarify their teachers never received any such training and i think [2:00:52] what you're referring to is some reporting that our school board may have engaged in some training [2:00:56] which was also inaccurate there was no training on parents as terrorists just to quickly clarify [2:01:02] under virginia code when a school board goes into closed session part of the language of going [2:01:07] into closed session is about terrorist activity they read the language of going into closed session [2:01:12] for the purpose of a safety and security training and that reporter interpreted that as talking about [2:01:17] parents as terrorists absolutely untrue and false our parents are not terrorists we work alongside our [2:01:22] parents every day and of course i support the right for our parents to talk with us about their [2:01:26] concerns thank you what steps are you taking to ensure that parents are allowed to speak on their [2:01:31] beliefs without being labeled agitators i mean frankly we don't have to take steps our current [2:01:37] policies and practices make sure that that's that that happens we welcome public comment our school [2:01:42] board receives more public comment frankly than any school board i've ever participated in in my 15 years [2:01:48] as a superintendent and they welcome it and they and they value it and they and they take that into account in their [2:01:52] decision making thank you i yield back gentleman yields i now recognize the gentleman from connect [2:01:59] connecticut mr courtney great thank you uh mr chairman thank you to all the witnesses uh for being [2:02:04] here today i'd actually like to actually discuss for a moment a real education issue which is that uh this [2:02:09] morning the national assessment for educational progress which is housed at the department of education [2:02:15] released the long-term trend report data that the department points to when pushing uh for an agenda for [2:02:22] congress and for the executive branch this is the first nape long-term trend report released since the [2:02:27] trump administration began making cuts to the department of education in 2025 those included laying [2:02:33] off more than half the workers at the institute of education sciences and also canceled about a dozen [2:02:38] national and state assessments of student progress through 2032 and i think again the irony uh we just saw a [2:02:46] moment ago where again one of the my colleagues from the republican side cited the nape report in terms of one you [2:02:52] know laying the the basis uh for uh a question but we are now living in a moment where the administration is [2:02:59] dismantling the infrastructure uh of the department of education and the nape program is included um in [2:03:08] that demolition that's that um that's happening uh right now so again i just sort of ask quick yes or no [2:03:14] i mean do you think that the nape scores which are sort of like headlights for our country in terms of just sort of [2:03:19] seeing how student proficiency is progressing is um a valuable tool uh in terms of your your job and [2:03:27] your mission and i'll start with you uh superintendent sue yes yes superintendent smith i mean i i think the [2:03:37] the the nape scores um as a bellwether for the nation um certainly are helpful in terms of understanding [2:03:42] our trends and and uh again is it mr spence or oh i think i asked sorry i i apologize i thought you said dr [2:03:52] spence i i answered out of turn i apologize i'm not a superintendent but okay with your question [2:03:57] yes thank you yes and dr king yes yes so um again the test results showed that younger kids uh this [2:04:06] morning's test results showed that younger kids actually did show some signs of improvement middle [2:04:10] school uh math scores kind of had plateaued and still below pre-pandemic um again part of the [2:04:20] you know agenda that we're seeing from the administration is to collapse a lot of the [2:04:24] grant programs that have been around for quite a while including magnet schools which was mentioned [2:04:30] earlier um and putting it into a mega grant program which would be sort of a you know um battle or [2:04:39] thunderdome where competition in in terms of scarce dollars would be happening again if we're going to [2:04:45] really as a nation get serious about giving kids proficiency in math i mean is that the right policy [2:04:53] is just to again sort of create uh this hunger games in terms of federal assistance that i assume a [2:04:59] lot of your um school districts really rely on so again i'll start with you uh dr king no the best way [2:05:08] to provide the supports that our students need especially like in chicago a district is diverse [2:05:13] is is to provide resources and support targeted resources and supports to students based on their [2:05:18] needs great dr spence i think the federal government's role in education has always been [2:05:26] to to level the playing field for students to provide school districts with resources to meet [2:05:30] students who are traditionally struggling in our schools looking at for example our english learners our [2:05:35] special needs students um funding through title one i think that's an invaluable role and i think um [2:05:42] critical that not only the funding but the expertise that comes with that funding remain in place [2:05:47] great and now mr sneth again i'm not a superintendent right i understand we'll say is that federal law [2:05:54] requires that school districts take steps to make sure that all students can succeed and i would i would [2:06:02] concur with that um i would also strongly recommend that the federal government continue to support school [2:06:08] districts to serve our our children with special needs thank thank you i mean again when we're talking [2:06:13] about math scores we're really talking about the 21st century right now in terms of the skills that [2:06:18] young people are going to need to succeed in life and to again watch an administration with no authority [2:06:27] that's ever been granted by congress to dissolve the department of education that was created by an act [2:06:31] of congress in 1979 and we're here today we're again just by um you know this random uh decision making [2:06:40] that's happening in the in the secretary's office um we're seeing programs just created with if [2:06:46] anything at the least uncertainty and in some instances elimination um that uh really as a country [2:06:53] it we're is really going to haunt us in the future in terms of where our workforce is going to be so [2:06:58] thank you all for the great work that you do and for your testimony this morning i yield back the [2:07:04] gentleman yields i now recognize the gentleman from florida mr fine thank you mr chairman i want to start [2:07:09] with chicago you spend 55 percent more per student than the national average and since 2019 you've [2:07:15] increased your bureaucrats by 15 while your student enrollment has dropped by nine percent so massive [2:07:22] increase in employment despite that whether it's fourth graders or juniors only one in four of your [2:07:27] students is proficient so my question for you is this you said that may 1st event was not a [2:07:34] politically slated event that's the quote that you said but i have right here the permission slip that [2:07:40] folks were expected to sign and the permission slip says students will protect will engage in political [2:07:46] advocacy so do you want to do you want to change your testimony to this committee about it not being [2:07:51] a politically slated event no i do not i'm not familiar with the field trip that you're holding up [2:07:57] and will you will you commit to investigate this permission slip where the parents had to sign something [2:08:03] saying you're going to a doing a will engage in political advocacy will you commit to [2:08:07] investigate this and hold them responsible since you represented to us it was not a politically slated [2:08:12] event i will great next thing i want to do since again you don't seem to know what happened on that day [2:08:18] here here is one of the non-politically slated events this is a student one of your students [2:08:25] transported on a taxpayer-funded bus equating the president of the united states with hitler the sign [2:08:31] literally says the trump fascist regime must go now would that qualify as not a politically slated [2:08:38] event that this student went to during class time when he should have been learning this is not a [2:08:42] politically slated event i'm not aware of that student and that poster being connected to the [2:08:49] okay then let me ask you this if it were if you grant that what i'm saying is true i understand [2:08:53] you're going to plead ignorant but if what i'm stating is true would this be a politically slated event [2:09:00] we do not support or condone that's not my question would this be a politically slated [2:09:05] event would the information you gave to the committee be incorrect maybe you didn't know i'll [2:09:09] grant that but would you agree if what i'm saying is true that the information that you gave to this [2:09:14] committee was false if what you're saying is true and was reported chicago public schools would [2:09:19] investigate great and will you commit to investigate this as well i'm not familiar with that will you [2:09:24] and will you commit to look into it if you could give me more detail you will all right great i'm [2:09:29] going to take that as a yes i want to move on to louden county public schools um do you use dr [2:09:34] spence do you use the women's restroom of course not why not because i would never use a woman's [2:09:43] restroom i'm a i'm a male because you're a man wow that's a great thing so why do you think men [2:09:48] should be able to use the restroom in louden county public schools i don't okay but they do they do and [2:09:53] we've got incident over and over look i could say i'm an nba athlete that doesn't make it true you [2:09:59] allow men to use the women's restroom over and over and over again and you can argue insanely [2:10:05] whether that's okay or not but i have a question in 2025 you had an issue where a man went into a [2:10:11] woman went into the restroom and three boys that were there were unhappy about it because they were [2:10:17] being recorded the initially the boys got in trouble the girl who was pretending to be a boy did not [2:10:25] why did the girl pretending to be a boy who filmed boys in their restroom why was there no discipline [2:10:32] for that student why did the people complaining about the girl coming into the boys restroom get [2:10:36] in trouble but not the girl who was filming not even saying whether they should go in the bathroom [2:10:41] or not but they were filming it's on film why did that student not get in trouble sure so um challenging [2:10:48] for me to discuss the specifics of it but if you'll allow challenging for me to discuss the specifics of [2:10:53] individual student discipline as as you would understand but i'm going to say broadly two [2:10:57] things one um what you've stated is factually inaccurate did that did the girl not film the [2:11:03] students that's wrong there was no filming that's that's not what i'm saying i'm asking was what was [2:11:07] was a student filming other students is that allowed in your school district let me say this broadly [2:11:12] in general our policies do not prevent uh do not permit filming okay so when a student did it why did [2:11:19] that student not suffer any disciplinary conduct for doing that again factually inaccurate what i [2:11:24] would say so you're saying that student was disciplined for filming those other i'm not going [2:11:28] to talk about specific understood i wouldn't talk about it either if i was you here's my other question [2:11:33] the three boys got in trouble initially two of the boys were christian one of the boys was muslim [2:11:40] magically the third boy the muslim boy charges dropped the two christian boys were persecuted how did you [2:11:46] justify that decision so i'd like to ask if i'm going to be no you don't get to ask i have 16 seconds [2:11:54] left i think the testimony that we've heard here from all of you is a disgrace and what i take away [2:11:59] from this hearing is thank god i live in florida where thanks to me and the florida legislature our [2:12:04] parents and our students don't have to put up with the garbage that they do in your school districts [2:12:08] thank you mr chairman and i yield back gentlemen yields i now recognize the gentleman from california [2:12:14] mr dissonnier i'd like to start with mr spence do you want to respond take a little of my time to [2:12:20] respond to any of the previous comments i appreciate that and and i'll try to be brief i i i just want [2:12:26] to communicate clearly we have very clear policies that would prevent filming students in our bathrooms [2:12:33] we have very clear policies that prevent things like bullying students very clear policies that prevent [2:12:39] assaults very clear policies around discipline what i would say is that when students violate [2:12:44] those policies discipline is applied appropriately what i would also say is the opposite we would [2:12:50] not discipline students absent a violation of those policies thank you mr chair i ask unanimous consent to [2:12:56] enter into the record a letter from the san francisco parents coalition in support of superintendent sue [2:13:03] without objection and hearing none it'll be submitted thank you mr chair and i want to read a quote from [2:13:08] that letter dr sue has earned the trust of san francisco schools families through her steady leadership [2:13:15] transparency and unwavering focus on children she has shown up for our community through difficult [2:13:22] circumstances made hard decisions with integrity and built genuine partnerships with parents across the [2:13:29] city we are proud to stand behind her dr sue i know you're having trouble and having just cut [2:13:37] over laryngitis but i want to just give you a moment um family engagement centers are something that [2:13:43] i've been very active in along with my colleague on the other side representative thompson i think it's [2:13:49] about 150 million dollars a year we know students do better when their parents are engaged i have an [2:13:55] older brother who's a retired teacher from san francisco but for the archdiocese who is in a proud same-sex [2:14:02] marriage for many years family engagement in san francisco you do well but you do it as representative from [2:14:09] a very diverse city could you respond to that and how positive it is for academic outcomes thank you [2:14:16] for the opportunity to share the really wonderful work and partnership that we have with our families [2:14:22] at sfusd we firmly believe that parents are our students first teacher and because of that we try to [2:14:30] build a very strong line of communication with our families we partner very closely with families from the [2:14:37] start of the school year in which we share with families all the different programs and services [2:14:43] that we have and in the school district as well as all the partner programs that we have that students [2:14:49] and families have access to we actually have something very similar in san francisco called the family [2:14:55] resource center in which families can come as early as birth to learn about just different ways that they [2:15:05] can support their children um and so we firmly believe that families and partnership with families is very [2:15:12] important for students long-term academic success i appreciate that um dr mr smith uh 20 cdc 2024 report [2:15:24] said that 20 of american students are um prone to suicidal ideation it's higher for african americans hispanics and [2:15:34] lgbtq but we're not providing enough support for those communities could you respond to that we know [2:15:40] that if we gave the counseling we could improve these outcomes so people young people could develop [2:15:45] fully but also address a real serious issue as opposed to what we're doing today thank you for the question [2:15:52] you i had previously mentioned that 3.2 billion dollars have gone into having to deal with exclusionary [2:15:59] policy so that means that 3.2 billion dollars has it gone into providing mental health support has it [2:16:05] gone into making sure that students have what they need to succeed has it gone into making sure that [2:16:09] our classrooms are safe and supporting environments for all students so let me let me ask the superintendents [2:16:17] just briefly if we had the money we promised when gerald ford signed idaa and this is one of the protected [2:16:25] classes of the department of education supposed to protect what could you do with that as opposed [2:16:30] to spending money on silly things like this maybe dr sue you could start we would be able to fully fund [2:16:37] and support all of our obligations for special ed services as well as wrap around mental health and [2:16:43] well-being supports for all of our students and now right now our our percentage is about 10 we're [2:16:49] supposed to pay 40 is that correct that's correct dr king i would agree we would be able to support [2:16:58] all of our students especially our students with uh receive special education services our students [2:17:03] that are in need of second language services as well and for any other group of students that we [2:17:08] identify based on nape data as well to provide support support targeted support thank you mr [2:17:16] chair i would suggest if we both if we all spent more time on those issues rather than this silliness [2:17:21] would do a lot of good work for american students i yield back i thank the gentleman i recognize [2:17:27] the gentleman from wisconsin mr growthman thank you uh first of all i think i got to correct some [2:17:33] things just people are listening to this hearing at least in wisconsin uh the city which has the highest [2:17:42] number of students of color whatever is the city of milwaukee and in milwaukee they are one of the highest [2:17:50] spending districts in the state um my guess would be you can correct me if i'm wrong [2:17:57] that on a per pupil basis i bet chicago is significantly higher spending than the average [2:18:06] school district in illinois is that true i talked to other congressmen about this and it's not unusual [2:18:13] that some of the biggest spending districts are the big urban districts i'm not one i can't say with [2:18:19] certainty that that's true but it sounds accurate right i think like mr fein said and we have that [2:18:25] information here they're spending more than 10 000 i guess the reason i bring it up is some of the [2:18:31] congressmen in the past imply that somehow um maybe test scores are not being that good it's because [2:18:40] society isn't putting enough resources into these districts i'd like to point out we put a lot of [2:18:47] resources in the big districts now one can argue what they're doing with their money i have my own [2:18:52] personal opinions how the milwaukee public school board uh manages to get no value out of what they [2:18:59] do but i do want to point out that uh i think milwaukee and chicago it's been significantly more than [2:19:07] average and society cannot be blamed for the problems that are out there um the next thing i want to [2:19:15] touch upon and i guess this is i guess for you dr king again um the uh chicago public schools [2:19:23] sexual health policy um requires schools serving fifth grade and that must make condoms available [2:19:31] to 12 year olds uh i also know of other public school districts in which they talk about [2:19:38] putting or having women take contraceptives as being a good responsible thing to do i would assume [2:19:48] there are people in the chicago public school system who would be a little bit appalled if they [2:19:53] found out that their fifth grade girl was taking contraceptives or that their fifth grader was using a condom [2:20:01] i think they would probably be opposed by almost anybody with a religious bent uh do you think it's [2:20:08] appropriate to send a message to young people in the chicago schools that sexual activity among 12 year [2:20:19] olds or 13 year olds appropriate or do you think it would be opposed by my guess is a clear majority [2:20:25] of the parents of the children in chicago public schools i stated early as a parent i would definitely [2:20:32] want to have that conversation with my with my child and i know that the sexual education curriculum [2:20:38] is available for or the resources you're referring to uh grades five through 12 and those resources are [2:20:45] very much like any other targeted resource they're there for those students that may need them [2:20:49] and that is in compliance with the illinois state law i'm sure it's in compliance with the illinois [2:20:54] state law the question though is do you believe a significant number of parents would object to that [2:21:02] um that value system that's being imparted in chicago public schools i can't speak specifically for [2:21:09] parents but i can say that i have not heard from any parents um and that are in opposition to the [2:21:15] curriculum and the resources being made available okay uh thank you uh next question we have is for [2:21:22] dr sue um in june of 2024 to public because of a public records request from defending from defending [2:21:32] education it uncovered professional development documents from sf usd defining and criticizing [2:21:40] characteristics of white supremacy culture i have never heard of white supremacy culture i don't know [2:21:46] anybody who believes that but the fact that you have it out there in the san francisco schools [2:21:53] implies you think there's a such a thing as white supremacy culture can you give us a little 30 seconds [2:21:59] on what white what you believe white supremacy culture is or do you believe it is it a problem in san [2:22:06] francisco um the the incident that you're referring to happened before my time as a superintendent [2:22:13] i've joined the school district um 18 months ago as superintendent of san francisco and i've spent my [2:22:20] time focused on serving the 49 000 students thank you uh just one final comment uh in my district i think [2:22:28] i have a significant number of people of among background who are succeeding wildly well uh some people [2:22:35] from india i got a little mosque of people from from pakistan one thing i notice is that it seems the [2:22:42] immigrants particularly the immigrants of color do far more than the native born and it bothers me [2:22:48] given the gentleman's time is we have school districts uh imparting to the kids some idea that we [2:22:55] have that it's difficult or we are mistreating uh people from areas other than europe in this country [2:23:01] thank you gentlemen time has expired and i recognize the gentlelady from minnesota miss omar [2:23:11] thank you chairman um i want to talk about the republicans long-standing battle [2:23:16] against policies of equity equality and their absolute refusal to acknowledge the events of [2:23:22] history that are impacting us today conservatives would have us believe that tragic policy disasters [2:23:30] like school segregation are a relic of the past but here are the facts republicans have found that [2:23:37] researchers have found that in hundred largest school districts segregation of white and black students [2:23:45] has increased by 64 percent since 1988 i know this well because of my home state of minnesota has developed [2:23:55] some of the largest racial gaps in the country the twin cities has 182 deeply segregated schools where [2:24:04] more than 90 percent of the students are non-white as a result it has the third largest black achievement gap [2:24:12] and fourth largest latino gap compared to their white peers and these gaps have a ripple effect that [2:24:20] echo through the lives of our nation's students students in segregated schools are more likely to drop out [2:24:27] not to go to college and earning less often in their lifetimes they also have higher rates of [2:24:36] incarceration and poor health it doesn't have to be this way this is why it is so insidious that republicans [2:24:45] want to ignore how we got here because i know my history i know that after brown versus board but before [2:24:54] title six states continued segregating schools by denying funding re-routing public dollars to create private schools [2:25:02] schools for white children i know it was only with the dedicated enforcement of civil rights laws that we [2:25:09] began to see the promise of equal opportunities and i know that over the past decades we began to move away [2:25:16] from prioritizing school desegregation and towards privatization and now we have the republican party [2:25:23] that is eager to repeat that history we are again seeing the rerouting of public dollars to private [2:25:29] schools we are again seeing the department of education that refuses to address civil rights of [2:25:34] black students and we are now dealing with an administration that has turned title six into a [2:25:39] weapon against the very civil rights programs it was created to enforce mr smith i have a hypothetical [2:25:47] question for you the school district has the data showing that black students are disciplined more than [2:25:53] white students for the same behavior or that black students are systematically tracked away from [2:25:59] advanced courses and the district does nothing in response is that district in compliance with [2:26:06] title six definitely not when i was at the justice department we actually released guidance to make [2:26:11] it clear that such policies would violate federal law thank you does ignoring a documented racial disparity [2:26:19] make a school district legally safe or legally exposed school districts are legally required to make sure that all [2:26:27] students including students of color have an opportunity to learn and succeed if the federal government then [2:26:33] turns around and attacks that school district's policy to correct this disparity what does that tell you [2:26:40] about the administration's civil rights priorities it tells me that they have weapon as you just said that [2:26:45] they have weaponized our civil rights laws against the very communities that they were designed to serve [2:26:51] thank you so much uh since republicans are so focused on parental rights and i will say we as parents who have [2:27:00] school children always have the right we always have the right to decide what information our kids are receiving [2:27:09] if you do not want your children in sex ed you are the parent who signs that off miss dr king am i right or wrong do parents have [2:27:20] the permission slip where they sign if their kids can attend those classes you are absolutely right parents [2:27:26] have access to the curriculum in advance they're notified and they have the right to opt out yes because [2:27:30] i have opted my kids out because i am the kind of parent that wants to have the responsibility of educating [2:27:37] my kids about the kind of information they should receive and so this idea that we continuously argue about the [2:27:45] fact that parents are losing their rights in these school districts is ridiculous and it is wrong it's [2:27:53] falsehood it's creating panic and it's giving people the information that is wrong from the leaders of this [2:28:02] country and this republican party needs to stop with the misinformation that they are constantly providing [2:28:09] because it is not making us better it is not making us more educated and it is not making our kids more safe [2:28:16] thank you and i yield back generally yields and i recognize the gentleman from california mr kiley [2:28:22] thank you mr chair uh superintendent sue thank you for being with us today uh i've been uh pretty critical [2:28:27] of san francisco unified uh in the past but i actually think there's been some encouraging changes uh [2:28:33] lately and you're relatively new to to your role so i thought maybe you could shine uh some light on that [2:28:38] but just for the for context back in 2022 there was a pretty remarkable uh event where uh the majority of [2:28:46] the board of san francisco unified was was recalled from office or at least three members were recalled [2:28:52] from office with over 70 percent of the vote uh in san francisco and so there were a lot of issues this [2:28:59] was during the school shutdowns when san francisco unified was shut down as long as basically any [2:29:04] district in the country while they were refusing to operate in open schools when schools across america were [2:29:09] open the board was focused on things like renaming schools such as taking abraham lincoln and diane [2:29:15] feinstein's name off of school sites you also had a budget situation that was deteriorating to the point [2:29:23] where the state actually had to take over spending decisions for the district there was a decision made [2:29:30] uh to ban algebra from middle schools under a deeply misguided uh notion of equity uh there were persistent [2:29:39] achievement gaps uh within the district um literacy uh had been taught in a discredited uh you know uh [2:29:47] scientific uh basis um for for years uh and then there was a homegrown uh so-called ethnic studies [2:29:54] curriculum that was widely condemned uh for anti-semitism and for glorifying violence but there [2:30:00] have been some very good changes on all of those uh items in recent years so maybe we can start with [2:30:06] uh with algebra are we teaching algebra again in san francisco unified yes we are so yes we brought back [2:30:13] algebra for our eighth grade students who meet the qualifications for it and why was it brought back [2:30:18] after being banned well i spent um so i just became superintendent for the last 18 months and i've [2:30:25] spent a lot of time talking to our educators to our young people and to families and parents overwhelmingly [2:30:31] wanted to have algebra come back wanted to make sure that our school district was delivering [2:30:37] academically rigorous classes and programs for our students to set them up for success and that is [2:30:43] what we did so last year we went through a multi-year evaluation process to identify the best way for [2:30:50] us to bring algebra back and this is what we did with our board and you listen to the parents listen to [2:30:57] the parents that's great and this uh ethnic studies program that many objected to it's not being taught [2:31:01] anymore that's also correct again when i came on uh when i came in as superintendent 18 months ago i also [2:31:10] listened to families listen to parents and our educators and we moved quickly i moved quickly to [2:31:17] remove the previous ethnic studies curriculum and again went through a rigorous evaluation process [2:31:23] and identified a new curriculum and that is the curriculum that we are currently using thank you for [2:31:28] doing that and uh in literacy we're teaching phonics again yes we also have modernized and brought in [2:31:35] uh state standard state aligned curriculum for language arts and math and history and social science as i [2:31:44] shared earlier we are seeing for the first time in a decade statistically significant improvements in [2:31:51] our students reading scores that's great to hear and the budget's in better shape too that's also correct [2:31:58] um we are now we have now moved from a negative certification from the state of california to now [2:32:05] into a self-certified positive state meaning that we actually have the resources to pay for our [2:32:12] funds uh for this year and two additional years we have a balanced budget for three years that means [2:32:19] that there's more stability for our families more stability for our students and definitely more [2:32:25] stability for our educators well it sounds like things are on the right track and and how about [2:32:30] abraham lincoln does he still get to have a school named after him are we we have a fantastic high [2:32:34] school called abraham lincoln high school in which i actually had the pleasure of graduating uh several [2:32:41] hundred students from that school this past week well congratulations to all the graduates uh i um you [2:32:48] know i love san francisco i think the city's had a lot of problems the district had a lot of problems but [2:32:52] i think on both counts we've seen big improvements uh in recent years and so i think that's something to [2:32:57] celebrate there's still probably plenty that i disagree with but i think these are are really good uh [2:33:02] important steps so uh thank you for your leadership and i hope that it can set an example for perhaps [2:33:07] some other districts across california in the country i yield back i thank the gentleman i recognize [2:33:14] the gentlelady from illinois miss miller for her five minutes of questioning thank you mr chairman as the [2:33:21] only representative from illinois on this committee i have watched chicago public schools failed generations [2:33:27] of children while district administrators collect some of the highest salaries in public education [2:33:35] last year dr king told cbs she was entering her position as superintendent with quote a sense of [2:33:44] transparency and accountability yet this committee was forced to subpoena her testimony after repeated [2:33:52] requests were met with vague and evasive excuses dr king transparency and accountability shouldn't require [2:34:01] a subpoena cps has shown it is far more interested in sidelining parents and advancing radical gender [2:34:09] ideology than ensuring students can read write and perform math at grade level beginning as early as first [2:34:17] grade chicago students are required to take lessons on gender identity by fifth grade students are being instructed [2:34:25] on puberty blockers cps's own quote supporting gender diversity tool kit encourages teachers to socially [2:34:37] transition children at school while keeping parents in the dark one cps teacher lamented that it was the most [2:34:45] unethical aspect of her career mr chairman i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article dated [2:34:54] august 23rd 2021 from defendinged.org entitled chicago public schools require teachers to deceive parents [2:35:03] about their children's newly declared gender identities without objection hearing none it will be submitted thank you [2:35:11] it is clear that teachers and parents who hold traditional views on marriage family and sexuality are expected [2:35:19] to fall in line with the district's preferred ideology so dr king i'd like to ask you about parental rights [2:35:25] and inappropriate content in your schools in fact america first legal filed complaints with the department [2:35:31] of justice and education alleging ferpa violations why is cps violating ferpa by socially transitioning [2:35:39] children without parental knowledge or consent i want to say first that we chicago public schools [2:35:49] values parents input and they are critical in the success of their children okay but hiding things [2:35:56] from parents is not valuing the parents we do not please answer the question we do not hide information [2:36:02] from parents and i do want to say that it's in your own materials ma'am we we follow i understand that [2:36:09] parent i do agree that parents should have access to their they always have access to their students [2:36:15] records and they also have the option to they they are available they are able to talk to their teachers [2:36:21] administrators we do not hide information i think what you're referring to is the balance that cps has to [2:36:28] strike between student privacy and then a lot and complying with the illinois state law [2:36:34] and it is it is our goal to always work with our students families and schools we hope that those [2:36:40] conversations are happening okay um i this is why you're being investigated uh for violating ferpa [2:36:49] why is cps violating title nine by issuing guidance that allows boys in female only spaces i am not aware [2:36:58] of cps um not this is a huge national issue this is a bipartisan issue americans do not want [2:37:08] males boys or men in the girls private spaces or their athletics president trump issued an executive [2:37:15] order on it chicago public school is violating title nine by issuing guidance that allows boys and female [2:37:23] only spaces i'm sure you're familiar with the supreme court's mahmoud decision that allows parents to opt [2:37:29] their children out of reading lgbtq and then you guys all say ia2s plus themed storybooks in elementary [2:37:38] classrooms your district's quote supporting gender diversity toolkit makes no mention of mahmoud or its [2:37:47] protections protections for parents why is cps omitting mahmoud in its public facing materials cps is [2:37:54] in compliance with all local state yes but you are for the parents you are not in your public facing [2:38:01] materials you are not informing parents that they can opt out of these programs and um i do believe [2:38:08] parents are unfortunately the last to know when there's creepy things done like this in the schools [2:38:15] these curriculums are clearly in violation of president trump's executive order to end radical [2:38:20] indoctrination in public schools when will cps come into compliance with president trump's order [2:38:26] and stop teaching hyper sexualized curriculum cps is in compliance with all local state and binding [2:38:34] federal law and i do want to say that our parents uh our schools are led by parents we're the only [2:38:41] the only parent governing board local school councils and it is at the local it is a fact that you are [2:38:48] hiding materials from the parents and uh you're going to have to um answer for your for violations [2:38:56] thank you and i yield back gentlelady yields i now recognize the gentlelady from michigan ms mclean [2:39:03] thank you mr chairman and thank you all for being here today i really appreciate your time [2:39:07] um i think we all want our our the next generation to grow up in a good safe environment correct anyone [2:39:15] disagree okay mr spencer dr spence excuse me i'd like to start with you can you share with me what [2:39:22] your school's policy is on videotaping in private spaces yes that's that's not allowed it's not allowed [2:39:32] what would be the punishment for such behavior i mean there's a range of punishments up to including [2:39:39] long-term suspension give me some ranges sure as i said in school suspension long-term suspension [2:39:47] up to only uh explosion just depends on case-by-case basis what's occurred what's the criteria that you [2:39:53] would use to determine the punishment so um we would we would look at um sort of from a progressive [2:40:02] discipline standpoint um what for example what was videotaped um whether or not it would be [2:40:08] acceptable again it's with it nothing's acceptable in terms of videotaping okay so it's not supposed [2:40:15] to have access you have a policy no videotaping allowed whatsoever right of other students correct [2:40:20] okay could you ever see a realm where people that got videotaped would be the actual like perpetrator [2:40:28] that the people that actually were videotaped were the problem could you ever see that being a problem [2:40:36] so i i um no well good thank you let me ask you a couple questions then she said no i appreciate that [2:40:42] let's go on to a specific instance that happened in may 2025 three boys at stone bridge high school [2:40:50] complained to the administrators that after they were filmed by a biological female [2:40:56] in the boys locker room which you clearly stated is unacceptable and you can't see a scenario that [2:41:05] that would be a problem could you tell me what your school's response was to that so um and i know this [2:41:13] is going to be frustrating to you but i'm not going to be frustrating to me it's going to be frustrating [2:41:16] to you i'm not going to speak on the specifics of okay you want to speak some hypotheticals if you don't [2:41:20] want to speak in general that's cool no no i'll give you i'm willing to speak i'll give you you [2:41:25] you don't want to speak specifics i'm willing to speak in general and say great let's speak in specific [2:41:29] let's be in general that based on our policies we would never discipline students absent a violation [2:41:36] let's speak in hypotheticals disciplinary policy i'm gonna give you your world right since you're afraid [2:41:40] to speak in specifics even though your guidelines are not going to speak about a specific student incident [2:41:46] okay just out of curiosity why not because i'm not at i'm not at liberty sure you're choosing not to [2:41:53] this isn't a student this isn't a can't sir you're a highly educated individual you know you can speak [2:42:01] on specifics this is a won't but i'll give you your world let's speak in hypothetically so hypothetically [2:42:08] speaking there are three boys in a locker room hypothetically speaking what usually happens in a locker [2:42:16] room people change in a locker room they undress it should be a private space hypothetically speaking [2:42:23] right sir mr spence you're paying attention i am okay great so hypothetically speaking is that correct [2:42:33] i'm just to clarify hypothetically speaking students change in locker rooms should be able to [2:42:37] change it's kind of a private space right yeah good i'm glad we agree so let me get this in what [2:42:44] universe hypothetically speaking would it make sense to you for a biological female or anyone for that [2:42:53] matter to come in and begin videotaping me and then the three the three boys that hypothetically in your [2:43:03] world got videotaped got a 10-day suspension and the perpetrator you know the biological female in the [2:43:14] boys bathroom that's supposed to be a safe space which you say is completely unacceptable to film in safe [2:43:21] places could you explain in what realm what universe hypothetically speaking that that biological female [2:43:31] would redo would receive a lesser sentence the person that does the filming gets say hypothetically a one [2:43:38] day in school suspension hypothetically but the victims that got filmed got a 10-day suspension hypothetically [2:43:47] what's your response to that hypothetical question our school division would not discipline students [2:43:52] absent a violation of our disciplinary policies excuse me what the heck does that mean our school in [2:43:59] what realm does that make sense to you a violation of our discipline what realm does that make sense to [2:44:05] you sir our school division that's a great answer to a question i didn't ask students absent a violation [2:44:11] of our discipline the victims got a 10-day suspension hypothetically the person the biological female [2:44:18] that did the filming got a one-day suspension hypothetically you're telling me that's okay that's [2:44:24] tolerable that's cool that's acceptable as i said before our school district would not discipline [2:44:30] students you are extremely weak pathetic and thank god my children didn't go to your school i disagree [2:44:35] with your characterization you can disagree hi gentle ladies time has expired i now recognize the [2:44:45] gentleman from virginia the ranking member mr scott thank you mr speaker dr spence you've been asked [2:44:53] a lot of questions about the legal liability of schools recognizing trans students based on how they [2:44:59] identified and you were cut off when you were suggesting that that was the law in virginia were [2:45:07] you referring to a fourth circuit court of appeals case coming out of gloucester virginia yes sir i was [2:45:16] and um what did that case require you to do so the case that we're talking about is in the fourth [2:45:24] circuit of court of appeals grim versus gloucester um with with no ambiguity grim versus gloucester requires [2:45:30] us to allow transgender students to use the private spaces bathrooms and locker rooms of their [2:45:36] consistently identified gender thank you and um mr smith you're a lawyer can a presidential executive [2:45:45] order invalidate a circuit court of appeals precedent definitely not thank you let me check is any [2:45:57] question in your mind that's whether or not an executive order can overturn the circuit court opinion [2:46:02] any question there's no question about that executive orders no question in my mind either let me change [2:46:08] square change subjects and dr smith you indicated that six of your schools were in the top 20 [2:46:14] in the commonwealth and the others have indicated that their schools were improving what matrix [2:46:21] were measured for that for that status and just generally what are you doing to improve education [2:46:30] and eliminate achievement gaps and how can the federal government be helpful thank you i'm afraid [2:46:39] i would take all of your time if i respond to this in detail i would say in general the metrics are are [2:46:45] based on aggregate student achievement across the four categories that are measured on our standardized [2:46:49] testing program in virginia what we're doing is paying attention to every single child trying to [2:46:54] understand their strengths their needs and put supports and resources in place to ensure that where they have [2:47:00] needs we're we're meeting those needs talking with our families talking with our teachers about what [2:47:05] resources our kids needs and making sure we put those in place um so that we can continue to move the [2:47:10] needle forward for our kids our goal is that our kids thrive and how can the federal government be helpful [2:47:17] as we've talked about before i i i truly believe the funding mechanisms that the federal government has behind [2:47:24] education in the country special education english learners some of our most marginalized populations [2:47:30] socio-economically who are funded our schools are funded to support them through title one [2:47:35] all of that matters the expertise uh specifically for example around special education compliance that [2:47:42] used to be in the department of education but unfortunately seems to have been gutted [2:47:48] we need that sort of support in our schools and i think the federal government engaging in these kinds of [2:47:54] dialogues about what happens in our schools matters and i think that we should be focused as has been said a [2:47:59] number of times and here on the things that are really important and critical to us the looming [2:48:03] teacher shortage in this country um what's happening with literacy what's happening with numeracy [2:48:09] and how we are attacking those and you know the federal government bringing together the collective [2:48:15] expertise of researchers and educators across the country and saying what are the best practices in [2:48:21] in pedagogy that are going to really improve outcomes for our kids and identifying that we have a what [2:48:25] what works database that was developed by the federal government that says here's the very best practices [2:48:30] in education and if you do these things in your schools you're likely to impact kids in a positive way [2:48:36] that's the sort of leadership we look to from the federal government thank you and we're disbanding ies [2:48:42] dr king can you say what we could do to be helpful to help you improve education and reduce achievement gaps [2:48:49] i would say fully fund our schools that is what is most needed in this time and instead of and to work [2:48:59] with our state and the federal government work with state with our state legislatures to ensure that there's [2:49:07] clarity around the laws that are in question today and i would also say to make our students the center of [2:49:14] the decision and the focus as opposed to some of the other uh top focuses that would and what would [2:49:21] the money be used for our money would be used to target those students needs that we have if there's [2:49:27] students that are receiving special education services allow us to target that the cost of educating [2:49:32] children today has increased substantially whereas the funding sources have not so there is an increase in [2:49:38] in cost but it is also there's a correlation between the the cost of the the resources that are needed to support [2:49:46] children and dr sue very briefly i would echo my colleagues um i would just continue to emphasize that [2:49:55] funding special education at the 40 commitment rate when idea was first initiated would be extremely crucial [2:50:03] and helpful and beneficial to local school districts particularly at sf usd [2:50:08] we would be able to then provide the much needed wraparound supports that our students would need [2:50:14] we would also love for us to continue to prioritize our low-income students and our english language [2:50:21] english language learners um at the school district thank you mr chairman the gentleman's time has expired and [2:50:30] now it's time for closing comments uh i recognize the ranking member mr scott thank you mr chairman and once again [2:50:39] thank you for the witnesses for joining us today the federal government has responsibility to ensure [2:50:45] that all children regardless of race gender sexuality income or zip code receive a quality education in a safe [2:50:53] school environment but instead of fulfilling this mandate we've focused on spending time injecting culture [2:51:00] war debates in the classrooms all the while the trump administration is dismantling the department of [2:51:06] education starting with the office of civil rights while hearings like this held today [2:51:12] may make for good sound bites they don't make for good policy they don't help improve [2:51:17] education it's time for congress to give up the political theater and stop the politicization of [2:51:23] education and focus on what really matters and that is improving education in our public schools [2:51:29] schools and combating gun violence uh in in our public schools these ideas should not be controversial but by [2:51:38] perpetuating ideological debates republicans are only deepening the partisan divides that do nothing [2:51:47] to improve student outcomes or safety democrats are committed to delivering for our students teachers and [2:51:54] families and fighting back against the trump administration's attacks on america's education system we are [2:52:00] focused on improving schools ensuring students have a bright future ahead of them not part not uh playing [2:52:09] political games and i welcome you to join in that fight i would um like to make sure that the letters that i [2:52:19] reference at the beginning of my testimony are entered into the record by united and and there's another [2:52:26] letter that um i'd like entered by united without objection they will all be entered from the um legal defense [2:52:33] fund i thank the gentlemen and i think that i thank the panel for being here in disagreement or in [2:52:44] agreement and i'm glad we had some good positive shows of some things that are taking place in the [2:52:50] uh san francisco unified school district we want that to take place i think we've been characterized today [2:52:57] in in two spectrums democrats want to see improvement in education republicans don't republicans want racism [2:53:07] to continue democrats don't both of those are false statements this hearing today is for the reason of [2:53:16] getting back to solid education and getting away from these cultural wars that was term that was used [2:53:23] consistently today but those cultural wars have been produced in such a way that it's impacting [2:53:32] education i put out a press statement today relative to the nape scores where i said the latest [2:53:40] nape results make clear that we must renew our focus on the fundamentals reading and math are the [2:53:46] foundation of every student's success and i think we agree on that and too many children are still [2:53:53] struggling to master these essential skills while it's encouraging to see some improvement among [2:54:00] nine-year-olds and reading and math we still have a long way to go 13-year-olds showed essentially no [2:54:06] improvement underscoring the lasting academic damage caused by school closures of course referring back [2:54:13] to covet every child should have the skills they need to succeed long after they leave the classroom we [2:54:19] cannot afford to let another generation fall behind i think we can all agree on that trouble is we're seeing [2:54:28] a lot of energy and effort put into things that don't matter the fact of the matter is almost 80 percent [2:54:38] of our citizens polled clearly stated they don't want males and female sports or restrooms and yet your [2:54:48] schools and the state of illinois rules that you follow that you dr king referred to so often encourage [2:54:57] that those are the things that we are concerned that are taking away from the science of reading etc that will [2:55:10] change our school systems covet had one silver lining it allowed parents to see what was going [2:55:17] on in the classrooms that their kids were in and we saw a significant exodus of parents and children [2:55:28] moving to other settings of education including home education one of our one of our members here [2:55:35] in fact talked of her home educational experience not during covid but she saw that as necessary and [2:55:40] outcome producer of quality for her son but i think other parents are seeing the same thing and when they [2:55:48] are wrestling with the fact that their kids are encouraged to go against even their home family [2:55:56] ideals and involve themselves in political statements that they are being taught things that aren't [2:56:04] scientifically true i remember dr fauci for three years telling us to follow the science about covid [2:56:11] well i think you all ought to follow the science about gender male and female and if you love your kids [2:56:19] as i hope you do love comes with truth telling them the truth ida funding and funding for special needs [2:56:28] and mental health is certainly necessary and i'm glad even as i spoke with the secretary of education today [2:56:35] who reminded me that the increased funding that they have put in this administration has put in rivals [2:56:44] anything in the last several decades and exactly in fact expands upon it now it's up to congress to approve [2:56:51] that increase in ida funding that will be helpful but will that funding be also used to teach our young [2:57:01] people the truth as opposed to going along with the cultural settings out there trying to change reality [2:57:08] about gender gender those are our concerns and that was the reason for this hearing today yes it was tough [2:57:19] and dr king thank you for letting me know that we had to subpoena you to come [2:57:25] after trying all sorts of mechanisms and timelines and dates that for some reason or another never [2:57:31] worked out we had to subpoena you so i'm glad you're here with the others who weren't subpoenaed [2:57:36] but we needed to have this discussion because if we don't have this discussion then it's the same [2:57:43] old same wall and the same old same wall isn't producing the quality we need in education to stay [2:57:49] ahead of the world and to be that beacon in the world that we need to be whereas are frustrated that [2:58:00] segregation is most rampant in democrat-governed cities and yet they try to place it on us as [2:58:08] being the sponsors of segregation not true we're leading the universal choice opportunity to give [2:58:20] choice in even those cities including chicago the opportunity for kids to have a choice so they aren't [2:58:28] in segregated situations if that be what my democrat colleagues say is true we don't want that we want [2:58:37] people with diverse opportunities as well as diversity in the classrooms this misinformation [2:58:44] campaign that comes from my democrat colleagues too often has to stop as well so bottom line this [2:58:52] was an important hearing an emotional hearing of course but this is part of education and parents [2:59:01] should not be as entities to be managed if indeed what you said today is true that parents are integral [2:59:10] to the success of your educational experience we'd like to see that in school board meetings in the [2:59:17] media reports of what is going on in the lives of parents and their their children who they've asked [2:59:25] you to supplement education that they can't provide that's what we want to see so again thank you for [2:59:33] being here and i trust that all those who watched today all those will hear reports if reported fairly and [2:59:44] accurately we'll see for the first time an opportunity that this isn't hidden anymore and education is going [2:59:51] to be promoted with that no other questions or or issues to be dealt with this committee is adjourned