Westbank Louisiana News

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s hearing on K-12 education.

Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:

"Thank you, Chair Sanders.

If we are speaking about K-12 education, it is imperative we talk about the troubling reality.

Two-thirds of US public school students are unable to read proficiently in fourth grade, and 40 percent are essentially nonreaders. Almost two-thirds of fourth graders and three-quarters of eighth graders are below proficient in math. Less than half of public school parents say their child is definitely prepared academically for the next school year.

Performance is not the only issue. There has been a concerning rise in absenteeism, with 28 percent of students missing nearly 4 weeks of the school year. Evidence shows students who miss more than 4 weeks have difficulty learning to read by third grade, which has severe implications later in school.

How did we get here? In many places, primary and secondary education is broken. Many schools have lost sight of their core mission of educating our children. Education leaders are prioritizing social agendas and progressive ideology over academic progress. This negatively impacts children’s success and leaves them ill-prepared as they enter a competitive workforce.

Parents – the most important educators in their child’s lives – have been marginalized. Many are forced to be bystanders or feel silenced over fear of retaliation from school leaders. In 2023, 72 percent of parents considered moving their children to a new school. That's a 35 percent increase from 2022.

More than a year and a half into this Congress, we are just now having a hearing on K-12 education. As the Committee with jurisdiction over federal K-12 funding, we have a responsibility to examine this broken system. Our kids will spend roughly 15,000 hours in school between kindergarten and 12th grade. If they aren’t learning, what are they doing there? Throwing more money at the problem is not a solution.

This Committee needs to determine the root causes of the concerning state of public education and how to fix it.

One fact that cannot be ignored - We are spending more money per student on education than ever before in our nation's history. So why are students’ academic outcomes getting worse?

In 2021, Democrats flooded schools with over $121 billion in one-time COVID funding with no accountability or requirements for how this money would be used.

Where did all this money go? School districts added new faculty positions like assistant principals that have had limited impact on classroom learning. There are now more staff collecting paychecks at schools than ever before but we aren’t seeing better grades as a result.

Let’s be clear: teachers are important. For a child to learn, they must have a teacher focused on teaching. Teachers are overwhelmed by policies that prevent them from truly managing their classroom and ensuring student safety in some instances. We will hear more about this from one of our witnesses today.

Democrats’ solution to these challenges is to create a federal minimum salary for teachers. Improving teacher pay is laudable; out of the eleven states that passed laws this year increasing take-home pay for teachers, ten have Republican-led legislatures including Louisiana. But federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address root causes behind why teachers struggle in classrooms.

More mandates and funding cannot be our only answer; examining broken policies leading us here while finding solutions remains crucial so kids can read properly without falling behind academically."

Cassidy further emphasized several areas needing attention such as addressing learning loss due to COVID closures along with mental health issues among adolescents implementing better strategies like Science Of Reading addressing falling literacy rates discussing negative impacts caused by TikTok/social media presence within classrooms costs incurred making schooling optional during pandemic times among others additionally mentioning need tackling higher educational concerns ranging botched FAFSA rollout rising college costs forcing increased loan burdens holding universities accountable amidst rising antisemitism violence chaos witnessed campuses nationwide urging chair prioritize helping students avoid lagging academically securing country future stake.

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