Congress Presses Becerra, Cardona on Keeping Schools Open and Recovering

For the first time since America's public school system returned to full time, in-person learning more than 50 million children – many of whom stepped into classrooms this summer and fall for the first time since the onset of the pandemic – members of Congress came face to face with the two Cabinet secretaries charged with making that happen.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, fresh off of a week-long back-to-school bus tour that took him through the Midwest to showcase how the country's public school system is really, truly, finally up and running, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, himself fresh off of much-welcome news that 5- to 11-year-olds may be cleared for the coronavirus vaccine by Halloween, sat before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday to relay the good news.

"While we must stay vigilant, I'm proud to say that, despite an increase in a variant of COVID-19 about a month before school started, America is back to school," Cardona said. "Despite the adversity we faced, I am more optimistic about the future of education than ever before."

Taken together, the two departments have been overseeing the distribution of hundreds of billions in federal coronavirus aid to K-12 schools – for everything from testing and tracing to purchasing personal protective equipment to hosting vaccination clinics to improving ventilation to establishing summer school and tutoring programs and hiring additional educators, nurses, counselors and bus drivers.

But the message of success was undercut by ongoing – and in some cases mounting – concerns shared by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about lack of available COVID-19 tests, students' mental health and the months of learning loss that accumulated during remote instruction, teacher and staff shortages, ensuring students with disabilities are getting access to the type of education they're owed under federal law, and of course, the ongoing politicization of mask and vaccine mandates.

"As the delta variant has shown us, this pandemic is far from over," said Chairwoman Patty Murray, Washington state Democrat. "We saw nearly 1 million new COVID cases among kids over the past four weeks, pediatric hospitals across the country are running out of beds, and according to the CDC we've seen over 1,800 school closures this year related to COVID outbreaks, meaning children had their learning once again interrupted and parents had their work plans upended as they needed to take care of their kids. Families are exhausted."

Availability of testing was the top concern for both Democrats and Republicans.

In March, HHS announced it was making $10 billion available for K-12 schools for testing. But the supply diminished following increased demand over the summer months as the delta variant took hold. As it stands, just 10% of the country's 100 largest school districts have established any type of program to test for the virus.

"I am troubled by the continuing challenge that schools don't have testing," Murray said.

Demand for the tests is expected to continue increasing in the near future as school districts increasingly adopt test-to-stay policies that allow students who have been exposed to COVID-19 to remain in classrooms if they test negative, and as more private employers require testing or vaccination as a condition for returning to the workplace.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the committee, lashed out at both secretaries for, in his view, failing to adequately answer a host of questions related to testing availability and how school districts should tap into the available federal funds, which were outlined in a letter his aides sent to their respective departments in late August.

"It seems you have failed to communicate to them about how to access these dollars," he said. "People still cannot access rapid tests when stores are out of stock and people go back to waiting days for test results. You've squandered the gains we made in scaling up capacity last year."

Last month, President Joe Biden announced his administration would allocate $2 billion toward the production of 280 million rapid and at-home coronavirus tests using the Defense Production Act.

Becerra said that demand for testing has increased in some places 300% to 650%, leading to short periods of time in which it's difficult for people to find tests. But the country itself, he said, has sufficient supply.

"There is a supply of test kits available," the HHS secretary said. "It's that the demand has grown dramatically – and demand for certain types of tests – so that the distribution has been difficult to get to certain places. But generally speaking, nationwide, there is sufficient total testing capacity across the nation to meet our needs."

Burr asked the secretaries to outline a strategy for how they plan to ensure schools have sufficient numbers of tests for students and staff.

"As we transition into fall and winter, students and teachers will be spending more time indoors," Burr said. "We will likely see more cases of COVID, flu and other respiratory illnesses, and we'll need to determine how to manage the potential surge in the demand for testing and treatments that will come with the holiday season. We will need a clear and straightforward strategy of what must happen in the next 60 and 90 days and beyond."

A shortage in teaching positions was another top concern, as some districts began the school year with hundreds of openings. But the shortage isn't only among educators. There are also critical shortages in bus driver positions due to a backlash within the profession to mask and vaccine mandates, which caused delays to the school year in some districts and left students waiting for hours to be picked up in a handful of districts.

"Schools in New Hampshire and across the country are struggling to fill [positions]," said Sen. Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire Democrat. "Openings, ranging from paraprofessionals and social workers to bus drivers and custodians – roles that are essential to keeping our schools open for in-person learning."

Some districts are so desperate for bus drivers that they're offering $4,000 bonuses or offering to pay parents $300 a month – up to $3,000 for the school year in Philadelphia – to find a way to get kids to school on their own.

With the Biden administration recently announcing a slate of vaccine mandates for private-sector workers, and with the Food and Drug Administration set to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds in the coming weeks, Republicans were eager for the opportunity to ask the secretaries about their support of vaccine mandates – an issue that's uniting their base in opposition to the requirements.

Both secretaries said they are supportive of vaccine requirements for children but acknowledged the federal government has no authority to implement one.

"I am very supportive, both personally and as secretary of health and human services of a school district, of a local jurisdiction, of a governor, that says, 'It is time to keep kids in school safe, and we will, therefore, move to requiring masks and vaccination,'" Becerra said. "The federal government doesn't have jurisdiction to tell schools what to do."

Cardona echoed the sentiment: "I believe the decision about mandating should be at the state and local level, and I support the efforts being made to promote vaccines and require them in places where spread is high."

By: Lauren Camera