Ranking Member Ruiz’s Opening Statement at Second Select Subcommittee Hearing on School Closures
Washington, D.C. (April 26, 2023)—Below is Ranking Member Raul Ruiz's, M.D. opening statement, as prepared for delivery, at today's second Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on America's students.
Click here to watch the video.
Opening Statement
Ranking Member Raul Ruiz, M.D.
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
Hearing on "The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2: The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Ms. Randi Weingarten"
April 26, 2023
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on our nation's students both inside and outside the classroom.
Nearly 230,000 children nationwide lost a parent or primary caregiver to the pandemic.
Adding to this, job loss, economic hardship, and food insecurity weighed heavily on families across the country.
These stressors – in combination with the prolonged suspension of in-person learning – have had a profound impact on our nation's youth, their mental health, and their academic performance.
According to a 2021 CDC study: nearly 45 percent of high school students suffered so severely from feelings of sadness and hopelessness that they were unable to engage in regular activities, nearly 1 in 5 students seriously considered suicide, and nine percent of surveyed teenagers tried to take their lives during the previous 12 months.
These are alarming statistics, and as a physician and a father, I am deeply concerned about this growing mental health crisis among our youth.
It is crucial that we address this as well as the startling declines in learning caused by the prolonged suspension of in-person learning.
According to a January 2023 McKinsey report, we've been set back two decades of progress in learning because of this pandemic and it may take until 2050 for some students to recover.
So now is the time to get students the resources they need to live and learn healthily and safely so that they can succeed now and into the future.
The mental health crisis our students face and the acute learning loss they suffered demand a response that is driven by data-informed solutions that put people above politics—not extreme budget cuts that threaten our children's health, safety, and wellbeing.
You see, when we invest in education and prioritize our children's health, we see the results.
Under the American Rescue Plan and the Biden Administration's leadership, we doubled the number of schools open for full-time in person-learning thanks to bold investments in education and school infrastructure.
In fact, just one day after he was sworn into office, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order directing a whole-of-government approach to get schools safely and responsibly reopened.
This leadership, the American Rescue Plan's bold investments, and strong guidance created with input from more than 50 organizations, including parents, teachers, and superintendents – helped get students back in the classroom sooner and protected our communities from a deadly, novel virus.
It is because of these investments and this leadership that we were able to overcome the previous Administration's COVID-19 response failures that left our nation and our classrooms unprepared to combat a global public health threat.
Failures such as downplaying the pandemic, calling it a hoax and a political ploy; not urgently acting to reduce transmission; not honestly communicating with the American public; and not effectively equipping our schools with the necessary resources to stay open.
These actions put high-risk communities in harm's way, led to an estimated 130,000 preventable American deaths, and resulted in the prolonged suspension of in-person learning.
These failures should have taught us all a lesson about what happens when we leave our schools and our communities under-resourced, under-equipped, and vulnerable.
And yet here we are holding this hearing today along the backdrop of my Republican colleagues' extreme budget plan that makes reckless 22 percent cuts on critical education and health care programs that serve America's children and families.
Their budget would have disastrous consequences for our communities—such as removing 60,000 teachers from schools serving low-income students, eliminating more than 101,000 childcare slots, excluding nearly 1.2 million children and mothers from essential nutrition programs, and decimating lifesaving mental health programs.
Right now, America's children need our support.
They need resources to make up for lost classroom time, overcome struggles with mental health, and live, learn, and grow in healthy, safe environments.
Ripping away critical funding and making partisan allegations that seek to vilify our nation's dedicated teachers will get us nowhere in addressing the challenges our nation's children face.
Instead, let's cut the partisan allegations, let's get down to business, and let's prioritize our children's health and well-being both inside and outside the classroom.
###