[Senate Hearing 117-177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                                                        S. Hrg. 117-177
 
                      NOMINATION OF CYNTHIA MARTEN
                      TO SERVE AS DEPUTY SECRETARY
                              OF EDUCATION

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

 EXAMINING THE NOMINATION OF CYNTHIA MINETTE MARTEN, OF CALIFORNIA, TO 
                    BE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF EDUCATION

                               __________

                             MARCH 24, 2021

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
                                
                                
                                
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                          ______                       


             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
46-757PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022         
        
        
        
          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                    PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
                  
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                       WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of North Carolina, Opening statement...........................     3

                               Witnesses

Marten, Cynthia, San Diego, CA...................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Murray, Hon. Patty:
    Letters of support for Cynthia Marten, of California, to be 
      Deputy Secretary of Education..............................40-101
Scott, Hon. Tim:
    Statement....................................................   102
    Letters of opposition to the nomination of Cynthia Marten, of 
      California, to be Deputy Secretary of Education...........103-115


                      NOMINATION OF CYNTHIA MARTEN

                      TO SERVE AS DEPUTY SECRETARY

                              OF EDUCATION

                              ----------                              


                       Wednesday, March 24, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m., in 
room 430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, 
Chair of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Murphy, Kaine, 
Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Hickenlooper, Burr, Collins, Cassidy, 
Murkowski, Braun, Marshall, Romney, Tuberville and 
Representative Davis.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. Good morning. The Senate Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee will please come to order. Today 
we are holding a hearing on the nomination of Cindy Marten to 
serve as Deputy Secretary of Education. Senator Burr and I will 
each have an opening statement, and I will then recognize 
Representative Susan Davis to introduce Superintendent Marten. 
After Superintendent Marten gives her testimony, Senators will 
have five minutes each for a round of questions.
    I am happy to stay for a second round if Senators have any 
remaining questions. Before we begin, I want to walk through 
the COVID-19 safety protocols in place. We will follow the 
advice of the Attending Physician and the Sergeant-at-Arms in 
conducting this hearing. We are all very grateful to everyone, 
including our Clerks, who have worked very hard to get this set 
up and help everyone stay safe and healthy. Committee Members 
are seated at least six feet apart. Some Senators are 
participating by video conference. And while we are unable to 
have the hearing fully open to the public or media for in-
person attendance, live video is available on our Committee 
website at help.senate.gov.
    If you are in need of accommodations, including closed 
captioning, you can reach out to the Committee or the Office of 
Congressional Accessibility Services. We received Cindy 
Marten's formal nomination on February 22nd, her Government 
ethics paperwork, including our public financial disclosures 
and ethics agreement, on February 26th, and her Committee 
paperwork on March 12th. Superintendent Marten, thank you for 
joining us today. It is nice to be able to meet you in person. 
I am also pleased to welcome your son who is with you today. 
Andrew, welcome. And your mother, Fern, who is behind you 
there, who are with you today. I look forward to hearing from 
you about the challenges that our Nation is facing.
    The passage of the American Rescue Plan and recent 
announcements from the Biden administration have given hope and 
help to students, families, and schools across the country. 
However, while we have good reason for optimism, we have no 
room for complacency. We still have a lot of work ahead to end 
this pandemic, support our students in recovering from the 
academic, social, and emotional impacts of it, and help our 
Nation rebuild stronger and fairer. It is going to take all 
hands on deck, which is why it is so important we confirm Cindy 
Marten, who has a lifetime of experience that makes her well 
qualified to serve as Deputy Secretary of Education. She knows 
how important it is for every student to be able to get a high 
quality public education, and she has worked throughout her 
career to try to make this vision a reality in her community.
    Marten has been an educator for over 32 years, serving as a 
Literacy Specialist, teacher, Vice Principal, Principal and now 
as Superintendent of San Diego Unified School District, the 
second largest public school district in California, a position 
she has held since 2013. As an educator and principal at 
Central Elementary in a mostly immigrant and working class 
neighborhood in San Diego, she worked to support students by 
establishing a successful bi-literacy program, a hands-on 
garden program, integrated arts education, quality afterschool 
and preschool programs, and a community health and wellness 
center for students and their families. She also worked to 
support her staff, educators, and their families by 
establishing a daycare center for employees' children.
    As Superintendent, she has prioritized a qualified and 
experienced teaching, student literacy, health and wellness, 
and racial equity. And under her tenure, the district achieved 
the fastest reading growth in large urban districts nationwide 
and had the highest graduation rate of all big city districts 
in California last year. And, of course, like most school 
districts across the country, it has faced challenges in 
navigating this pandemic. Superintendent Marten knows firsthand 
the issues communities are struggling with when it comes to 
serving all students equitably and safely reopening schools for 
in-person learning. Between her decades of experience as an 
educator and administrator, and her record fighting for 
students, it is clear Superintendent Marten is an excellent 
choice to help Secretary Cardona, and that as the Deputy 
Secretary of Education, she would be a champion for students, 
especially those who have so sorely needed a champion at the 
Department these last four years, including students of color, 
students from families with low incomes, students with 
disabilities, women, LGBTQ students, English learners, and many 
others. I also believe she will be a valuable partner as we 
tackle the many challenges that lie ahead.
    While those challenges may start with making good on the 
promise of the American Rescue Plan and helping schools safely 
reopen for in-person learning, our work will not end there. We 
have to ensure schools have access to comparable data on how 
students are doing and provide funding and support for schools 
as they work to address the ways COVID has set back students 
from a typical year. We have to address the damage this 
pandemic has done and how it has impacted students, especially 
how it has exacerbated the long standing inequities rooted in 
systemic racism that many students face. We have to address the 
digital divide that left so many students, particularly 
students of color and those from families with low income, 
cutoff from their classmates during this crisis.
    We have to address the fact that too many students are 
struggling to receive access to a high quality curriculum, 
counseling services such as mental health care, nutritious 
meals, or other resources they need. Too many families can't 
get quality, affordable pre-K and early education, and all of 
this has been made worse by COVID-19. We also have to address 
the student debt crisis, which is now on a collision course 
with the economic crisis this pandemic has caused. We have to 
make sure higher education is affordable, accessible, 
accountable and safe for every student. And we need to address 
the deep, systemic inequities rooted in racism, sexism, ableism 
and bigotry that permeate our education system and this crisis 
has put on painful display. We have a big task ahead, and it is 
going to take a full team of people like Cindy Marten who are 
highly qualified and deeply committed to get it done. So I hope 
after today's hearing, all my colleagues will join me in 
supporting her nomination.
    Finally, I seek unanimous consent to put in the record 26 
letters in support of Cindy Marten's nomination from state and 
Federal legislators, civil rights organization, educators, and 
educational institutions. I would also like to note the more 
than 100 emails we received from your former students, 
families, and colleagues sharing stories about how 
Superintendent Marten touched their lives. So ordered.
    [The following information can be found on pages 40-101]

    The Chair. With that, I will recognize Ranking Member Burr 
for his opening remarks.

                   OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR

    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for 
scheduling this nomination for Cindy Marten for Deputy 
Secretary of Education. Ms. Marten, welcome and thank you for 
the time we spent together this morning and for the rare 
opportunity to have your mother and your son there. That was a 
real treat for me. Earlier this month, I supported Dr. 
Cardona's nomination to be Secretary of Education because I 
felt he had the background, qualifications, and temperament to 
serve in that position. Most importantly, he testified that we 
need to get kids back into the classroom and demonstrated an 
understanding that one size fits all mandates from Washington 
won't work. He also committed to be transparent and responsive 
to Congress when exercising our oversight responsibilities.
    I am pleased to be able to support his nomination and 
provide my consent. And I am glad to see that the CDC has 
finally caught up with the science on school reopening. I can't 
help but wonder if we all had Susan Collins to thank for that 
with her very effective line of questioning last week at the 
COVID hearing. Ms. Marten, you have been nominated to serve as 
Deputy Secretary of Education. Under the Government Performance 
and Results Modernization Act of 2010, the Deputy Secretary 
serves as Chief Operating Officer for the Department. As such, 
the Deputy Secretary acts on behalf of the Secretary with 
Senior Department leaders in developing and executing executive 
management and in identifying key organizational 
vulnerabilities and executing effective approaches to manage 
risk across the Department's programs, grants, loans, 
contracts, and related services. If confirmed as CEO--COO of 
the Department, you would be responsible for the operation and 
management of approximately 4,000 employees, a $73.5 billion 
annual budget, and a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio.
    Your experience as a teacher and a principal, and since 
2013, as Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School 
District, which annually receives millions of dollars from 
various Federal K through 12 programs, certainly gives you 
experience implementing a number of programs that ultimately 
report into the Deputy Secretary's office. You might be 
possibly--the best possible Assistant Secretary of elementary 
and secondary education in the history of the agency. However, 
your record as Superintendent highlights the challenges I think 
you will have, should you be the Deputy. In particular, you 
appear to have little or no experience working in higher 
education systems or institutions, working on higher education 
policy, or managing large student loan portfolios.
    I recall several questions to officials in the last 
administration about their experience managing a $1 trillion 
student loan program, so I assume those questions will be asked 
of you today. Your immediate predecessor had experience not 
only as a State Superintendent of Education, but as a College 
President, and had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. 
Army as a Brigadier General and Chief of Staff of the Army 
Reserve Command. President Obama's first nominee confirmed in 
this position, came to it with significant experience managing 
multi-billion dollar grant portfolios and investment funds. And 
George W. Bush first nominee confirmed to this position, had 
been a CEO and served in the H.W. Bush administration as Chief 
Financial Officer for the Department. All of these former 
Deputy Secretaries brought significant experience and expertise 
in areas such as management, finance, and higher education that 
complemented the largely K through 12 backgrounds of the 
Secretaries they served.
    Despite any reservations, I believe your passion for 
education and for kids to learn in the classroom will enable 
you to succeed in the position of Deputy Secretary of 
Education. I very much want you to succeed. I am inclined to 
support your nomination. I want to extend to you and offer to 
provide whatever assistance I and my staff can to help you 
succeed. Having said that, as the Ranking Member, it is 
important for me to point out some things. I would like to 
point out to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, 
because I firmly believe that if Ms. Marten were a Republican 
or was being nominated by a Republican President, they would 
line up in opposition against you. First, I don't believe my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle would support a 
Republican nominee who was Superintendent of a school district 
with large disparities on how minority and white students were 
disciplined. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, 
in 2018-19 school year, Black students in San Diego Unified 
were suspended more than three times as often as white 
students, and they accounted for 18 percent of the students 
suspended, despite making up only 8 percent of the student 
body.
    Second, I don't believe my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle would support a Republican nominee, who disability 
advocates claimed has been, and I quote, ``difficult to deal 
with in terms of transparency and sharing information with 
families of students with special needs,'' as Disability Rights 
California claimed about you. In fact, your district has been 
sued for denying students with accommodations reimbursements 
they are entitled to receive under their individual education 
plans or IEPs. And your district's been investigated by the 
Federal Department of Education for civil rights violations 
against students with disabilities. Third, I think my 
colleagues would vigorously question a Republican nominee who 
oversaw a school district where top level administrators were 
trained on how to delete emails from the public record in 
violation of state public records laws, as local news reports 
have claimed occurred in your school district.
    Furthermore, they would be skeptical of a nominee who San 
Diego Society of Professional Journalists gave the San Diego 
Unified its Wall Award given to public officials or agencies 
that most ignored media requests or otherwise compromised 
public's right to know. The Journal has noted that San Diego 
Unified withheld documents about student safety and missing 
inventory items that other school districts delivered in weeks 
and ignored repeated requests to meet in person.
    Fourth, I am sure that you would express concerns about a 
nominee heading a school district that was currently defending 
itself against a lawsuit filed by former students alleging that 
the district was negligent for failing to take appropriate 
action upon receiving sexual harassment complaints against its 
employees, or a nominee facing a lawsuit seeking the nominee's 
termination as Superintendent due to their alleged neglect of 
bullying of previous victims of sexual abuse.
    Finally, I can picture the letter demanding testimony from 
the local NAACP that not only publicly opposed such a 
nomination, but stated that the nominee has, ``been an 
ineffective leader of California's second largest school 
district and is ill equipped for this tremendous responsibility 
of serving the needs of your entire Nation's young learners.'' 
NAACP, San Diego branch President Francine Maxwell, has gone so 
far as to express she is greatly disturbed by the prospect of 
Superintendent Marten being elevated to a position of National 
significance and import while leaving some of the country's 
most vulnerable children in increasingly difficult situations.
    I am glad to see that my Democratic friends have abandoned 
their guilt, guilty upon nomination stance, that they have 
taken for the last four years. And I hope they will reflect on 
the damage they did to the Senate by opposing any and all 
nominees basically just because they accepted a nomination from 
the last President. Now, I have had an opportunity to sit down 
with you and understand a lot of what is behind some of the 
things that as Ranking Member I have to point out because they 
are in the news.
    I hope you take this opportunity to help the Committee 
understand your background, your experience, your record of 
work, and the fact that it does merit a promotion. And I hope 
you are able to convince my Democratic friends that they should 
support you as well. We need you at the Department of 
Education, we need you as a Chief Operating Officer, and I am 
convinced from your background and your passion, those places 
that you identify you have deficiencies, you will reach out and 
find a way to overcome those gaps. Madam Chair, I look forward 
to this hearing and I thank the Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you, Ranking Member Burr. I will now turn 
it over to Representative Davis to introduce Superintendent 
Marten.
    Representative Davis. Madam Chair and Ranking Member Burr, 
Senators, colleagues and friends, thank you so much for the 
opportunity to speak to you about why I believe Superintendent 
Cindy Marten is the education leader our Nation needs to meet 
this moment. I appreciate that you were taking this thoughtful 
time to consider the unparalleled challenges that we face in 
education. And I know we share a commitment to help our 
Nation's young people through the trauma of the past year, 
which is possibly the greatest disruptive time any group of 
students in our history have faced.
    We have to ask ourselves today, who has what it takes to 
accelerate opportunity for all young people, hasten our 
recovery, and find the resilience for growth and success? 
Superintendent Cindy Marten is someone I have watched as a 
principal and now as the leader of an entire system, the second 
largest K-12 education system in California. She will be ready 
on her first day to help reopen and reenergize our Nation's 
schools with a new sense of purpose. Superintendent Cindy 
Marten is someone, as I mentioned, I had watched as a principal 
and I know that she is going to make an outstanding Deputy 
Secretary. Some refer to the Secretary as the Chief Operating 
Officer of the Education Department.
    She has taught in public schools, in private schools, 
religious schools, she attended public and private schools and 
educated her son in both public and public charter schools. She 
has had the opportunity to look at original ideas and best 
practices throughout the country to see what works and discard 
what does not. Superintendent Marten has already demonstrated 
her ability to lead large systems at this difficult hour, 
distributing 80,000 Chromebook computers and more than 20 
million meals to help children keep learning even as the world 
around them began to close. During my last year in Congress, 
during COVID, we worked together to get the USDA to expand its 
after school meal program, and I know many of you supported 
that effort also because this pandemic has given us both 
challenges and opportunities.
    In this case, we created an opportunity to feed 30 percent 
more children. Superintendent Marten understands how to work 
with Congress to expand the horizons of every child. Even as 
Congress was voting for more relief to schools, Superintendent 
Marten was announcing a $21 million summer program to help 
students recover from learning loss and bring joy back to the 
school experience. In short, Cindy Marten is a leader who works 
with people to meet every challenge and exceed every 
expectation. Having witnessed her leadership grow, I have seen 
her set expectations raise the bar and bring people together to 
meet collective goals. At the time Sidney Marten became 
Superintendent, the top student priority was in peril. Seven 
Superintendents in ten years created a crisis in confidence.
    No one believes a district would meet its goal of raising 
graduation standards and improving college readiness as part of 
vision 2020. Cindy Marten met this challenge, delivered on the 
commitment a year early, producing the highest graduation rates 
for a big city district in the state, even with the higher 
standards and increasing college readiness among all students. 
College readiness among Black students, for example, increased 
by 50 percent. This is the kind of mission-centered leadership 
that has made Cindy Marten successful throughout her eight 
years in the post, and as mentioned, her lifetime as an 
educator.
    Today, as students face massive educational loss and our 
Nation risks losing a generation of young potential, it is no 
exaggeration to call the task in front of us an existential 
one. Equity and access, issues before the crisis, can no longer 
be avoided. Cindy Marten takes problems head on and brings 
people together to solve them. Her enthusiasm to raise the 
potential of every student is well known. I have had the 
opportunity to watch her work and see how she transforms 
relationships for the betterment of our children.
    She will be a strong asset to lead and collaborate with all 
involved, and I am confident that she is the kind of leader who 
will bring experience, dedication, and a strong work ethic to 
the Department, and working alongside our President and, of 
course, the new Secretary of Education. She will expand that 
role as Deputy. San Diego's loss here is our Nation's gain, and 
I am proud to be here to represent my community and to let you 
all know that America's finest city is sending you America's 
finest Superintendent. Thank you so much.
    The Chair. Thank you, Representative Davis. Superintendent 
Marten, you may now begin your testimony. Again, welcome.


     STATEMENT OF CYNTHIA MARTEN TO BE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF 
               EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

    Ms. Marten. Thank you very much. Chair Murray, Ranking 
Member Burr, distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you 
for the opportunity to appear before you today as the 
President's nominee as Deputy Secretary of Education. My name 
is Cindy Marten, and I am the Superintendent of the second 
largest school district in the State of California, San Diego 
Unified. The district is home to more than 100,000 exceptional 
students, where I have been honored to serve in this capacity 
in the past eight years. While I have worked in many roles in 
education, the most important job I have held in my 32 year 
career is that of classroom teacher.
    My 17 years as a teacher provided me with the foundation 
and the stance for every decision I make as a leader. I am 
joined here this morning by my son Andrew, a proud recent 
college graduate, and my mother, Fern Siegel. My passion for 
public service comes from my mother who has dedicated her life 
to serving others. She instilled in me the values of 
selflessness and service as I watched her care for my siblings, 
her two children with special needs, my brother Charley, who 
was born with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and 
my late sister Laura, who in her early 20's was diagnosed with 
paranoid schizophrenia.
    I also want to mention my late father, Donald Cohen, who 
taught me the value of honesty, integrity, and accountability, 
and my beloved husband of 33 years, Sergio, who was the love of 
my life, who I recently lost. Sergio taught me the power of 
unconditional love. He always believed in my dream to become a 
teacher. I would not be here today without them. My commitment 
to education comes from my brother Charley, who I am proud to 
say is living independently and thriving with a team who 
supports him. Charley, I know you are watching right now from 
San Diego, and I want everyone to know that you are the best 
brother in the whole wide world. Charley's success was based on 
my family's core belief in focusing on what Charley can do 
instead of on what he can't do.
    In 1975, when the typical course of action may have been to 
put him in an institution or a separate setting, Congress 
passed the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act, which 
eventually became Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 
It was this law that changed Charley's educational journey 
forever. I can say from firsthand experience that my brother's 
success in life was based on our commitment to see his 
strengths and the law that guaranteed him a free and 
appropriate education and the protection of his and my parents' 
rights. I understand that this is a critical time in our Nation 
for public education. As our country continues to struggle with 
the effects of the pandemic, we face the challenges that come 
with getting our students back in school. President Biden has 
set a goal of reopening schools in the first 100 days of his 
administration.
    I am proud to report that San Diego Unified will meet this 
goal as we are on track to reopen on April 12th. Our path to 
reopening our schools in San Diego Unified was paved by 
consulting scientific and medical experts. Following the best 
recommendations, and thanks to funding provided by Congress, we 
installed the latest air filtration equipment, implemented a 
COVID-19 testing program, and created smaller class sizes. If I 
am honored enough to be confirmed, I will work to use my 
experiences in San Diego to help support efforts across the 
country to reopen schools safely and bring children back to the 
classrooms. This pandemic did not create the inequities in our 
education system, but it has highlighted just how much work 
remains to be done. I have dedicated my life as an educator to 
improving educational opportunities and outcomes for all 
students.
    In the past decade, San Diego Unified has pushed to 
accelerate growth in reading and has seen results. This success 
is because of hard work, hardworking students, and relentlessly 
dedicated teachers, support staff, and administrators who have 
worked tirelessly and are beating the odds. If confirmed, I 
would work to deliver on the hope and promise of public 
education in America. I would work to create the conditions in 
every single classroom where all children grow and learn to 
become actively literate, contributing, participating members 
of society. And I would work to create--improve outcomes for 
all students. I have learned firsthand that equity means each 
and every student receives what they need, when they need it, 
in the way that they need it. We have experienced tremendous 
heartbreak and loss as a result of our collective and 
individual experiences over the past year, and our losses are 
deep, personal and difficult to quantify.
    We must do what every good teacher knows how to do. Gather 
ourselves, assess the strengths and needs of our students, 
families, staff members and community, and develop a plan to 
implement it. If confirmed, I would work with Dr. Cardona and 
all Members of this Committee. I will take lessons from this 
year and apply them to the mission before us as we build back 
better.
    Our future depends on how we pull together as a Nation. As 
President Biden said at his inauguration, my whole soul is in 
this. Thank you and I look forward to answering your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Marten follows:]
                  prepared statement of cynthia marten
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, distinguished Members of the 
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today as 
the President's nominee to serve as Deputy Secretary of Education.

    My name is Cindy Marten, and I am the Superintendent of the second 
largest school district in the State of California, San Diego Unified. 
The District is home to more than 100,000 exceptional students, where I 
have been honored to serve in this capacity for the past eight years. 
While I have worked in many roles in education, the most important job 
I've held in my 32-year career is that of classroom teacher. My 17 
years as a teacher provided me with the foundation and stance for all 
my decisions as a leader.

    I am joined here this morning by my son, Andrew, a proud recent 
college graduate, and my mother Fern Siegel. My passion for public 
service comes from my mother who has dedicated her life to serving 
others. She instilled in me the values of selflessness and service as I 
watched her care for my siblings, her two children with special needs: 
my brother Charley who was born with Intellectual and Developmental 
Disabilities, and my late sister, Laura who in her early twenties was 
diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia.

    I also want to mention my late father, Donald Cohen who taught me 
the value of honesty, integrity and accountability and my beloved 
husband of 33 years, Sergio, the love of my life, whom I recently lost. 
Sergio taught me the power of unconditional love. He always believed in 
me and my dream to become a teacher. I would not be here today without 
them.

    My commitment to education comes from my brother, Charley, who I am 
proud to say is living independently and thriving with a team who 
supports him. Charley, I know you're watching today, and I want 
everyone to know that you are the best brother in the whole wide world.

    Charley's success was based on my family's core belief in focusing 
on what Charley can do, instead of what he can't do. In 1975, when the 
typical course of action may have been to put him in an institution or 
separate setting, Congress passed the Education for all Handicapped 
Children's Act which eventually became Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act. It was this law that changed Charley's educational 
journey forever. I can say from first-hand experience that my brother's 
success in life was based on our commitment to see his strengths and 
the law that guaranteed him a free and appropriate education and the 
protection of his and my parent's rights.

    I understand this is a critical time in our Nation for public 
education. As our country continues to struggle with the effects of 
this pandemic, we face the challenges that come with getting our 
students back in school. President Biden has set a goal of reopening 
schools in the first 100 days of his administration.

    I am proud to report San Diego Unified will meet this goal, and we 
are on track to reopen on April 12. Our path to reopening our schools 
in San Diego Unified was paved by consulting with scientific and 
medical experts. Following the best recommendations and thanks to 
funding provided by Congress, we installed the latest air filtration 
equipment, implemented a COVID19 testing program, and created smaller 
class sizes. If I am honored enough to be confirmed, I will work to use 
my experiences in San Diego to help support efforts across the country 
to reopen schools safely and bring children back to classrooms.

    The pandemic did not create the inequities in our education system, 
but it has highlighted just how much work remains to be done. I have 
dedicated my life as an educator to improving educational opportunities 
and outcomes for all students. In the past decade, San Diego Unified 
has pushed to accelerate growth in reading and has seen results. This 
success is because of hard working students and relentlessly dedicated 
teachers, support staff and administrators who have worked tirelessly 
and are beating the odds.

    If confirmed, I would work to deliver on the hope and promise of 
public education in America. I would work to create the conditions in 
every single classroom where all children grow and learn to become 
actively literate, contributing, participating members of society. And 
I would work to create improved outcomes for all students. I have 
learned first-hand that equity means each and every student receives 
what they need, when they need it, and in the way they need it.

    We have experienced tremendous heartbreak and loss as a result of 
our collective and individual experiences over the past year. Our 
losses are deep, personal and difficult to quantify so we must do what 
every good teacher knows how to do: gather ourselves, assess the 
strengths and needs of our students, families, staff members and 
communities, and then develop a plan and implement it.

    If confirmed, I would work with Dr. Cardona and all Members of this 
Committee to find solutions and work in a bipartisan manner so we can 
learn and grow from one another. I will take lessons from this year and 
apply them to the mission before us as we build back better. Our future 
depends on how we pull together as a Nation, and--as President Biden 
said at his inauguration--``My Whole Soul is in This.''

    Thank you, and I look forward to answering your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much. We will now begin a round 
of five minute questions, and I ask my colleagues to keep track 
of your clock and stay within those five minutes. I am happy to 
stay if anyone has any additional questions for a second round. 
Ms. Marten, our Nation's students are facing an unprecedented 
crisis through no fault of their own. Some students have been 
out of their classrooms for over a year, navigating all the 
challenges that come with remote learning or hybrid learning 
models. Some students are back in the classroom, but far from 
experiencing a typical school year.
    All students are facing challenges. And for students of 
color, students from families with low incomes, students with 
disabilities, or English learners, or experiencing 
homelessness, the challenges and inequities they faced prior to 
the pandemic have only gotten worse. The good news is there are 
strategies that can help support students, schools, and 
educators as they recover from this crisis as we address these 
inequities.
    The American Rescue Plan includes $125 billion for public 
education, including funds specifically to address learning 
loss and use evidence-based interventions to meet the 
challenges our students are facing. Can you tell us what steps 
the Department will take to ensure students and districts have 
the support they need to accurately identify and address 
learning loss among their students?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for that question, Senator Murray, 
and for identifying what we are facing. This is so important, 
that as we reengage our Nation's schools and our children, to 
understand what has been lost, what has been gained, and what 
steps we need to take, and the identification of student needs 
is critical in us being able to move forward. The investment 
that has been made is going to allow us to address the learning 
losses, and I can speak specifically to San Diego Unified in 
our ability to put programs in place.
    Currently, as we reengage our students, a robust summer 
program to begin to address that learning loss, and then going 
forward on the fall, plans are in place. And I look forward to 
working with Members here and the Department to lift up the 
best practices, to have a very powerful, strong recovery for 
our students across the Nation.
    The Chair. We have a long road ahead to support students in 
recovering from the educational, health, and economic 
consequences of this pandemic. But we have also got to be 
clear, our goal can't be simply to get schools back to normal 
in situations where normal wasn't working very well in the 
first place. This pandemic has exacerbated the inequities and 
systemic racism students across this country have been dealing 
with every day for far too long.
    We need to commit to confronting systemic racism and long 
standing inequities by addressing inequitable school funding, 
racial and socio economic school integration, access to high 
quality and rigorous curriculum, school discipline, campus 
sexual assault, the use of seclusion and restraint, bullying, 
harassment and more. Ms. Marten, how has your experience shaped 
your perspective on what needs to be done to address long 
standing inequities in our education system?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator Murray, for an opportunity 
to talk about the longstanding inequities that you have just 
presented. And as a leader of San Diego Unified School 
District, I have great experience with what we have needed to 
do to interrupt the implicit things that have longstanding--
long stood in the way of our students being able to achieve, 
and the ability for us to put systemic approaches across a 
large urban system gives me a great background to be able to 
look at best practices and lift them up across our Nation.
    What is necessary for that to happen nationwide is looking 
at the points of light, looking at places where it is going 
well, and where we need to improve, and taking best practices 
from there and evidence based practices as well.
    The Chair. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness 
was at an all-time high with 1.5 million children and youth 
experiencing homelessness. These students are 
disproportionately students of color, English learners, and 
students with disabilities. This pandemic has really created 
additional instability and economic stress for our youth who 
are experiencing homelessness and isolated them really from 
critical support systems they rely on. There is an estimated 
one in four homeless children that have gone unidentified and 
possibly enrolled in public schools due to COVID.
    Congress did provide $800 million and dedicated resources 
for students experiencing homelessness. Can you tell us how we 
can better support the educational stability and success of 
students who are experiencing homelessness in our country?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator, for highlighting that 
important need. And in San Diego Unified, as we address the 
pandemic and move to virtual learning, addressing the needs of 
our homeless youth, 8 percent of our population needing to get 
access and support with the computer and access to Internet so 
that they can participate in their learning. Each local 
decision, each local area has to decide, but I can speak to 
what we did in San Diego in terms of distributing 80,000 
tablets for our students, but specifically focusing on the 
students that were experiencing homelessness and working with 
all of the community partners, making sure that we got them 
what they needed, when they needed it, in the way that they 
needed it.
    One of the things we talk about is we no longer ask if the 
glass is half empty or half full, we say, who needs water and 
how do we get it to them? And when we think about our students 
experiencing homelessness, we have to understand what is 
happening and how do we access them so they can access their 
learning. There are great models of that work and we need to 
identify what those are so that we can replicate them and take 
them to scale across the Nation. Our children are counting on 
us, especially those of our students who are experiencing 
homelessness.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Burr.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, Ms. Marten, 
welcome. Given what we all know, by the end of May, every 
American above the age of 16 will have had an to opportunity to 
be vaccinated. Do you see any reason why we can't say to 
America's parents, next fall schools are going to be in class, 
students are going to be there, teachers are going to be there, 
and make this predictable for American's parents?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for that question, Senator Burr. 
Again, I do appreciate meeting with you before we started this 
hearing today and the way that we spoke about this is, where is 
there hope? Is there ability for our Nation to have some hope? 
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? And does the 
vaccination give us a path toward that? I understand the 
importance of this and the criticality of the cascading effect, 
as we spoke about, of our schools being closed. And the part of 
this that I can't predict is what happens to the virus. What I 
can say is that we pay close attention to the science, as I 
mentioned in my opening comments.
    Locally in San Diego, we relied on a team of experts from 
the University of California at San Diego to give us our path 
forward. And that was a clear, safe, science-based path 
forward. And I believe, with what you have just mentioned, that 
there is great hope. What we have seen in San Diego is every 
educator that wanted to have a vaccine, we were fortunate 
enough to have them readily available, easily accessible, and 
our target date of opening now is firmly April 12th.
    I think that you have forecasted what is possible for our 
Nation. Can't speak to all of the local conditions of every 
single city in the country. They have to make their decisions 
based on what the condition of the virus is. And I sure do hope 
that with what we know of this vaccine being available, the 
mitigations, the investments that we have made in safety 
mitigations, including COVID-19 testing and the filtration 
system, all of the things that we know works gives us great 
hope so that we can see the future of the fall of all of our 
schools reopening, as you just described, Senator.
    Senator Burr. Do you think that private schools have 
lessons that public schools might learn from?
    Ms. Marten. I think that all educators have lessons to 
learn from each other across multiple learning settings. So 
whether it is private schools, public charter schools, public 
schools, we have to learn from each other. We always learn from 
each other. And I believe that there is always opportunities to 
learn.
    Senator Burr. State tests cost a lot to administer. They 
take a lot of time away from classroom instruction. And they 
are stressful for children and, quite frankly, for teachers. On 
top of that, the Federal accountability requirements have been 
waived. So why can't we also waive the Federal testing 
requirement just for this year, and let local school districts 
and classroom teachers use their normal classroom tests to 
measure students learning?
    Ms. Marten. Senator, thank you for the question about the 
importance of assessment. As a lifelong educator and teachers 
across the country know, we use assessments to drive and guide 
our discussions and our decisions about students.
    Assessments closest to the student plus large scale 
reportable assessments all being critically important and 
understanding that there are conditions right now which makes 
it very difficult to do the types of assessment we have been 
doing, but it is still important for us to know how our 
Nation's children are doing. We need to find the right timing 
to do it, but we do need to know how students are doing so that 
we can make the best decisions about how to serve them and how 
to make the investments. Assessments matter.
    Senator Burr. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Thank you, Chair Murray, and I want to thank 
Superintendent Marten for her appearance today and her 
willingness to continue public service. I wanted to start with 
maybe two questions that relate to students with disabilities, 
but I wanted to outline some of the factual basis for my 
question. We know that the No Child Left Behind, the 
legislation signed back in 2001, had lots of problems, but 
there were some achievements in that legislation as well.
    One of them was to make sure that students with 
disabilities were taught the general curriculum and that 
schools were accountable for the achievements of those 
students. Partly because of the focus on achievement, we saw 
our graduation rates for students with disabilities rise, rise 
over 20 percent during a 15 year period.
    We know, though, that the graduation rate for students with 
disabilities today still lags the graduation rate for students 
without disabilities by about 18 percentage points, 85 percent 
for students without disabilities, about 67 percent for those 
with. Graduation rates for students with disabilities in some 
states are woefully low, some as low as 33 percent versus the 
67 percent Nationally. We know that a November General 
Accountability Office report found that some districts were 
challenged by providing special ed services remotely. We still 
need to measure the impact of the pandemic on students with 
disabilities in particular. We also saw that students, 
teachers, and families worked together during the pandemic to 
continue learning. So they should be commended for that.
    Finally, we know that the American Rescue Plan provided 
$2.5 billion for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 
IDEA programs, $200 million for pre-K special education, and 
$250 million for Part C, early intervention services. So that 
is a good start, but only a start to address some of the needs 
of children with disabilities in our school. The pandemic 
certainly created great challenges, but as noted by the 
National Center on Learning Disabilities, it has also presented 
an opportunity to reevaluate how we bridge the achievement gap.
    Here are the two questions. What do you think state and 
local Government--I am sorry, state and local education 
agencies need to do to better prepare and support students with 
disabilities and improve their outcomes? And then the second 
question relates to the Department of Education. How can the 
Department support these efforts and make sure students with 
disabilities are included in the broader conversation and focus 
on instructional learning loss?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. As you heard in my opening 
testimony, students with disabilities and the meaning of that 
to my family, with my mother here and I know my brother Charley 
is still watching, and the great success that my brother has 
had in school and in life has to do a lot with the investments 
that have made, some very familiar, both as a family member, 
but also understanding as we address this.
    It is a very important and critical issue. How do we better 
support our students and how can the Department of Education 
support our students? And it takes a commitment and a promise 
that is made and then kept to our students with disabilities, 
and especially looking at what--how we would address learning 
loss. In San Diego Unified, we have addressed this by having a 
call to action, supporting our students with disabilities and 
making sure that we are providing the kinds of supports that 
are needed, and knowing that the supports have had to change 
during this pandemic.
    But full inclusion and providing a free and appropriate 
education allows us to put the professional development 
supports in place so teachers are able to learn how to meet the 
needs of all students. And that happens at the local level. And 
I have seen tremendous outcomes for students who have benefited 
from the kinds of supports that we have put in place, the kinds 
of professional development of both of our educators, classroom 
educators, special education educators, and our 
paraprofessionals, and seen great outcomes.
    I believe the Department can also support these efforts by 
lifting up the best practices across the Nation. And I look 
forward to working with the Members of this Committee, 
stakeholders, and best practices that have evidence of how our 
students with disabilities are thriving and recovering from 
this pandemic.
    Senator Casey. Superintendent Marten, thank you. We wish 
you luck on your confirmation. And I want to thank Chair 
Murray.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, sir.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Collins.
    Senator Collins. First of all, let me welcome you and tell 
you that I am pleased to have such an extensive background in 
the classroom, as well as an administrator. I am concerned that 
San Diego, under your leadership, has closed its schools for 
in-person instruction this year with very limited exceptions. 
In February, The New York Times says 175 public health experts, 
mostly pediatricians with an expertise in public health, about 
reopening, and they have largely agreed that it was safe enough 
for schools to be open to younger children in particular.
    Last weekend, when I was in Maine, a young mother came up 
to me and told me that her nine year old daughter had started 
crying every single day. On those days that she was not in the 
classroom, she cried because she missed her friends. On those 
two days when she was in the classroom, she cried because she 
was afraid she would catch COVID despite universal mask wearing 
in her school. Her mother took her to a counselor who said that 
in the last week alone she had seen ten new clients, ten new 
young children with emotional and behavioral problems directly 
related to the closure of schools.
    In California, the physician from--who is the Director of 
COVID response from the University of California in San 
Francisco said that with universal masking, school 
transmissions will remain close to zero. In retrospect, do you 
think you were too slow to open up? I know you have announced 
an April date for reopening, but to open up the schools, given 
not only the loss of learning, but the emotional and behavioral 
toll that closed schools have imposed on our children and their 
families?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator Collins, for highlighting a 
story of a family that got to tell you what their experiences 
have been and highlighting how challenging this has been for 
everybody. And you asked--I want to think about San Diego 
Unified and the decisions that we have made at the very 
beginning, at the very beginning of the pandemic. We were 
fortunate enough to work with a team of about ten doctors and 
specialists from UC San Diego, knowing that is not my 
background. But we worked with the people who are experts in 
this to give us our path and our safe path to reopening.
    Every decision that we made was rooted in safety being our 
strategy as the science was ever evolving. And as it evolved, 
we evolved in our implementation and our path forward. And I am 
happy to say where we are now is being able to open on April 
12th with all of the mitigations that we put in place, knowing 
that things had changed along the way. This is the right time 
for us to open and the case rates in our community in San 
Diego, the large urban core being what they were.
    Senator Collins. Do you support the new CDC guidelines that 
say that you don't have to have six feet between children, that 
three feet is adequate protection among the children--six feet 
with the teachers and the children?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for bringing up the CDC guidance. It 
has been very helpful all along the way to have the CDC 
guidance, as well as the California Department of Health, as 
well as the local experts. We use that as guidance to help us 
make our decisions at the local level. And I know every 
Superintendent struggles with the local decision making 
framework, and we have made our decisions going forward for the 
safety of our students and appreciate the guidance of the CDC.
    Senator Collins. Following up on Senator Burr's question, 
what specifically will you do to ensure that schools are open 
next fall, or perhaps summer school even?
    Ms. Marten. I think summer school is incredibly important. 
And the investment that we have just seen, this historic 
investment, gives us an opportunity to do some very powerful 
recovery as we reengage students being with each other after 
they have been apart for so long. So I do believe that we have 
learned, following the science, following the CDC guidance. We 
have a clear path forward. And I think that we can learn from 
one another, the best practices across the country, to put 
these summer school programs in place. We are calling it a 
summer experience because it is summer school like no other 
before. We need to give our kids some robust learning 
opportunities.
    In San Diego, we have the science museums and the beach and 
a surf camp and ballet and all kinds of things to bring 
children together and reignite that passion for being together 
as learners. And that will allow us for that fall reopening and 
giving us a chance to not just wait till the fall. Right now, 
we have already had 5,000 students currently learning, and I 
see a clear path.
    Senator Collins. Thank you. Let me just say that I 
recognize this is a local and state decision, but the signals 
you send, the guidance you provide will be very influential. 
Thank you.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Cassidy. I think you need to unmute your----
    Senator Cassidy. Can you hear me?
    The Chair. You are--we can hear you now.
    Senator Cassidy. Oh, great, thank you. So I enjoyed the 
conversation. Thank you very much. A couple of things. And if 
somebody else has touched on this, I apologize just because I 
am traveling back and forth between two different committees 
right now, as regards to student loan debt, what are you--can 
DOE decide to forgive student loan without congressional 
approval? Let me ask you that first.
    Ms. Marten. I didn't hear the first part of his question. I 
am sorry, sir.
    Senator Cassidy. Can the Department of Education forgive 
student loans without congressional authorization or 
appropriation, almost?
    Ms. Marten. I believe your question is about student loans. 
Thanks for asking an important question about student loans. I 
know this is a topic that is under great consideration and it 
is a complex issue. And if confirmed, it is something I would 
want to know more about and engage in the appropriate dialogs 
with the appropriate staff as it moves forward.
    Senator Cassidy. That sounds a little bit like a rehearsed 
answer. In fact, it sounds entirely like your prep for that. I 
guess what I want is the un-correct answer, because you must be 
bringing something to the table as regards to what is the 
extent to which the executive can forgive a massive amount of 
debt to the Federal Government without the authorization of the 
Congress, which theoretically holds the purse strings. So do 
you not bring any thoughts to the table on that?
    Ms. Marten. I know that the student loan debt issue is a 
very complex issue, and it is important that I get briefed on 
all of the complexities of the issue. And it is too soon for me 
to make a decision about what would happen with that going 
forward.
    Senator Cassidy. I guess I am not asking for your decision. 
I guess what I am asking for is your thoughts. And it may be 
that your thoughts are that, and I don't at all mean to be 
silly here, but it does seem as if one could bring thoughts 
independently of the briefing that you will receive on the 
Administration's position on this going into the future. And I 
think that would be of interest to us all. So if you are--and I 
know you have been prepped. It is clear you have been prepped. 
But is this a question that you don't feel as if you are going 
to answer further than you have already answered?
    Ms. Marten. No, sir, I do--I would like to learn more about 
it, and not just from what I have been prepped, but I 
understand the importance of student loans and student loans 
are a path to success for many, many people. And it is 
something that's being discussed now. And it is a complex 
issue. And whether my personal thoughts on this matter come to 
bear at this time is less important as I understand the issues 
and the complexities of the issues. And I had a conversation 
with Senator Burr this morning where he began to lay out some 
of the issues. And I would look forward to working with you, 
Senator, to understand some of the complexities and points of 
view, multiple perspectives as we move forward on this.
    Senator Cassidy. Are you familiar with the multiple 
mechanisms already put in place to allow people who are of 
lower income to, or otherwise without a job, to either forego 
or decrease the amount that they would be paying toward student 
loans? For example, only having to put a certain percent of 
their discretionary income toward repayment. And if they lose a 
job, even that can be put in advance--after 20 years, that can 
be forgiven. The loan can be forgiven entirely. Are you 
familiar with those programs?
    Ms. Marten. I am familiar with multiple programs like the 
one that you just described, yes.
    Senator Cassidy. Given that, when people speak of forgiving 
all student loans, knowing that we already have programs in 
place--well, let me ask you differently, if there was a 
neurosurgeon who borrowed $250,000 to go through medical 
school, but now is doing pretty well financially, or an 
attorney borrowed $250,000 to go to law school but is now 
making $1 million a year, it doesn't seem right that they would 
get full forgiveness or even partial forgiveness of their 
student loans, knowing their income would allow them to repay 
that loan over a certain period of time.
    Ms. Marten. Again, Senator, you are bringing out the 
complexities that need to be weighed out as these decisions are 
being considered. And what you have just described there is 
something that you have highlighted what some of the challenges 
might be as decisions are being made going forward on this 
complex and important topic for our students.
    Senator Cassidy. Well, let me ask something different. I 
know, you know, I have an interest in the issue of dyslexia. 
Right now, our country does a miserable job in terms of 
dyslexia. In fact, we funded institutions that do miserable 
jobs in terms of dyslexia. Can you give me any sense what your 
attitude is toward universal screening in kindergarten or first 
grade for dyslexia?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator, for that question. You and 
I had a good discussion about that, and you know that I am a 
reading specialist and I understand the importance of universal 
screenings, and I have seen great success, when you can 
identify what is needed. That is why assessment matters. 
Diagnostic assessments matter. When you know what a need is, 
you are better able to meet that need as an educator. And so, I 
see the relevance and importance, and the work that you have 
done, and your wife has done in this area is something that I 
also want to learn more about. And if confirmed, it is 
something that I believe we can make progress on.
    Senator Cassidy. Many people are advocating using RTI. Any 
thoughts as regards the adequacy of RTI in terms of addressing 
the needs of a dyslexic child?
    Ms. Marten. RTI or Response to Intervention is something 
that is customarily put in place to see how students are 
responding. And as you and I had discussed it, sometimes that 
does not work. Sometimes the response to intervention--you are 
not seeing a response.
    If there had not been appropriate diagnostic measures or 
understanding what the true need is, how long does it take to 
see a response to intervention? And I think it is always 
important that we work together and see the best practices in 
implementing the ways that we are providing interventions to 
students, and if in fact they are responding to those 
interventions, is important.
    Senator Cassidy. Yes, I agree. I will just close with this 
just to make the point, which I am sure you know, on the DOE, 
what works, what doesn't work. RTI is listed as one of the 
things that does not work yet it continues to be used pretty 
pervasively with advocates for, advocates that somehow explain 
away its failure, but we just need to spend a little bit more 
money. At some point, empirical results have to matter. With 
that, I yield back, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Welcome. 
Good to see you again. Thank you for taking the time to speak 
with me before the hearing. This is not a comment for you, but 
just in general, this is more a comment for the folks that are 
preparing, folks to come before our Committee. Often we get 
into the situation where we are asking for an individual's 
personal views. And I frankly think it is Okay for candidates 
for pretty important positions to share their personal views 
and submit for the record that they ultimately are going to be 
carrying out the directives of the Administration.
    We are confirming people, not computers here and so I think 
it is Okay for folks that are appearing to tell us a little bit 
about what they think, even if that ultimately may not be what 
they are implementing. So I just state that for the record. It 
is often a frustration we run into when having these 
conversations. But Ms. Marten, I wanted to talk to you about 
the issue of summer learning because we had a really good 
conversation about this.
    States, as we speak are--and school districts--are getting 
funding deposited into their accounts. That money is eligible 
for summer programing. And there is a piece of the state grant 
that is mandated to be used for a broad array of summer 
programing. And you have thought a lot about this. In fact, you 
have pioneered work in San Diego to make sure that low income 
kids especially have access to really positive summer 
experiences, and summer experiences that aren't just about 
learning loss, but about social and emotional development.
    Just give us a minute on your focus on this issue in San 
Diego and what you think other school districts can do with 
this funding, if they are really bold about expanding out the 
number of kids who can kind of use this summer as an 
opportunity to reset emotionally and psychologically for the 
next school year.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to talk 
about that specifically. I like when you say bold and reset. 
That is--you are speaking our language. So that is actually 
what is necessary right now for our students. And in San Diego, 
our Board recently approved our path forward to do with summer 
experience for all students. Typically, we think of summer 
school as the students who are behind need to be caught up. 
Everybody has been touched by this pandemic. There is nobody 
unscathed.
    What we are planning for our students is learning loss, 
recovery from an academic perspective, but also social, 
emotional perspective. And we pulled together a group across 
the city, working with our Mayor's Office and multiple 
nonprofits across the city and region to be able to give kids a 
tremendous summer experience that we know they are ready for.
    We know they are ready to be able to be back together, and 
kind of affinity type groups, affinity programs for them to get 
together into the summer experiences that are going to allow 
them to reengage socially, emotionally, and academically, and 
is just going to put them on better footing for the school year 
when it begins in the fall. It has been a great investment and 
we appreciate it.
    Senator Murphy. I had a really good conversation with the 
Secretary earlier this week on this topic. I really believe 
that the Department of Education has to lead. You know, school 
districts, as you said, are involved traditionally in summer 
school, but are not traditionally involved with other community 
partners in broader summer programing. This year, the way in 
which the funding is structured, puts school districts and 
State Departments of Education in that leadership position to 
really quarterback broader access to summer programing.
    My hope is that the Department will be bold itself in 
challenging states and school districts to step up. With the 
time I have remaining, I wanted to talk about an issue that I 
have worked on and others on the Republican side have worked 
on, and that is the issue of discipline in our school systems. 
And specifically, I wanted to talk about the use of what we 
call seclusion and restraint.
    We have seen some really disturbing data with respect to 
how kids of color and children with disabilities are either 
physically restrained when, frankly, another intervention would 
be more necessary or in the worst instances, secluded, locked 
up in rooms, sometimes called scream rooms until they can be 
brought back safely to the classroom.
    What have you--what did you do in San Diego when it came to 
practices regarding restraint of students or seclusion of 
students? And will you work with us and the Committee to try to 
level set the requirements that school districts do this the 
right way?
    Ms. Marten. Yes. Thank you for lifting up this issue around 
seclusion and restraint, and whether it is physical restraint 
or chemical restraint, I have personal experience on what has 
happened to my brother in the past, and it is something that we 
need to make sure all of our students have access to the 
learning environments, that when it comes to discipline, where 
they are treated with respect and dignity and they have the 
opportunity to learn. And it is something that I will look 
forward to, lifting up the best practices to eliminate or 
reduce that to the greatest degree possible.
    Senator Murphy. Great. We have legislation I hope that we 
will consider this year in the Senate. We will look forward to 
working with you on it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator. Romney.
    Senator Romney. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the 
opportunity to be with you, Superintendent, and appreciate your 
service. You have--in the San Diego area, you have a lot of 
schools that are not open, and some schools are open. For 
instance, I presume private schools like the La Hoya Country 
Day School is open, has been having classes. Are you seeing a 
difference in the infection rate of COVID in communities where 
the schools are open, such as La Hoya Country Day, versus the 
schools that are not open?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator Romney, for that question. I 
don't know specifically the infection rate at a particular 
school, but I do--we do track the region and what is happening 
overall in San Diego County and where our schools are, knowing 
that there is an impact, we need to make our decision that is 
the safest path forward, and each system, each school and 
district has made its own decision.
    Senator Romney. Are you seeing a difference in infection 
rate in the places where schools are open versus those where 
schools are not open?
    Ms. Marten. In the surrounding community?
    Senator Romney. Correct.
    Ms. Marten. I don't believe so, no.
    Senator Romney. Help me understand then why it is that we 
continue to have so many schools closed? Why we have not opened 
our schools? Because that is the experience that, as we have 
looked around the world, the countries that have kept schools 
open versus those that have not, there doesn't appear to be a 
significant difference in infection in the community or among 
the students or teachers, and yet the cost to children in 
learning of not having schools open is so overwhelming that I 
can't understand why it would be that we would not be insisting 
that schools be open and have--should have been open a long 
time ago.
    How is it that even to this day, that even in the San Diego 
region, that there are schools not open yet? That--I have also 
seen research that says we are better to have schools open 
entirely as opposed to a hybrid system, on a couple of days, 
off a couple of days, because the back and forth means more 
exposure to more people, being full time school would be less 
exposure.
    I am wondering why it is we still have schools closed in 
your district and around the country, given the fact that 
scientific data doesn't suggest that there is an additional 
risk for teachers or students or the community by having them 
open.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. This, as you know, is a 
complex topic. And each school, each leader, each system leader 
has had to make their best decisions given the evidence and the 
circumstances and the resources that they have locally to make 
a safe path forward.
    Senator Romney. But the evidence--but the scientific 
evidence is available to us. I wonder--this has been a year. We 
have had evidence, we have seen what has happened around the 
world and in school districts in our own country, and yet we 
have people making local decisions not based upon Federal 
guidance, local decisions to keep schools closed. And one has 
to wonder whether this is because of a special interest group 
of some kind that has insisted on not going back to work.
    I mean, you are the Superintendent of your own region. You 
have got a lot of schools closed. I don't understand how they 
can continue to do that given the lack of evidence that would 
suggest that they are actually keeping their kids healthier by 
doing so.
    Ms. Marten. Making the decision for specifically to San 
Diego, I think is what you are referring to.
    Senator Romney. Yes.
    Ms. Marten. In our schools----
    Senator Romney. Yes.
    Ms. Marten. This has been a tremendous challenge. And I 
know across the country, people are grappling with the same 
issues that we grapple with in San Diego to make our path 
forward for reopening. That is why we did turn to the local 
experts. We did put the mitigations in place. We started to 
reengage our most vulnerable youth. Senator Murray brought up 
our homeless youth, foster youth, students with disabilities, 
students with the greatest challenge being able to start to 
come for in-person learning.
    For appointment based learning, we began with that and 
began to slowly or gradually reopen. And that was the path 
forward that we chose for San Diego and putting all these 
mitigations that were so important in place, including the 
surveillance testing that we knew was necessary. And now the 
vaccinations have been completed and we have got a clear path 
forward that is working for our community, and making sure that 
students are able to have----
    Senator Romney. I sure hope--I certainly hope that the 
Department of Education, that you will be able to provide 
guidance that helps the entire Nation as opposed to saying that 
every school district, hey, why don't you get your own experts 
to figure this out? Because we do have experts at the National 
level who said to us it is Okay to open schools and yet the 
schools remain closed.
    The Administration has just passed, the Democratic Party 
rather, has just passed a very substantial support program for 
schools. $168 billion more on top of the roughly $70 billion 
that was already passed. How are you going to use that money? 
What is that money going to be used for? How is it going to 
keep your kids healthier and safer? Why is it necessary for the 
opening of your schools?
    Ms. Marten. This is a great, historic investment as we all 
grapple with addressing not just the physical mitigations that 
are necessary for reopening schools, but the social, emotional 
learning losses that have happened. Our students are going to 
need more time, more attention from their teachers, from 
paraeducators to address--we need smaller class sizes because 
of some of the distancing guidelines we will need to follow.
    Senator Romney. The distancing is now three feet so that is 
probably not going to require new classrooms, but additional 
time, are you planning on having longer school days and 
insisting that teachers go--that the school year goes through 
the summer or--given all this money, what are you going to do 
in San Diego and Nationally what are we going to do with these 
funds?
    Ms. Marten. First, investment is in the summer experience 
program that I just highlighted with the previous conversation. 
That is out the gate. We need to--that is extra time for our 
students, and it is for all students to have that experience 
with educators and community partners to be able to get back 
together again and get to learning. It is super important, and 
we are really glad for the investment. We appreciate it, sir.
    Senator Romney. Thank you. My time is up. Thank you, Madam 
Chair.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member 
Burr, colleagues. Superintendent Marten, I want to pick right 
up on that last point that my colleague was making about summer 
learning. I think the ARP investments in K-12 systems can be 
used to, do building adjustments if that is needed, or better 
air filtration systems. But I really hope a lot of these 
dollars go into enhanced summer experiences for the students to 
deal with learning loss issues.
    I think educators are generally pretty aware of learning 
loss issues just in the normal summer. Kids come back in 
September and they have slipped a little bit from early June. 
But I really worry that the experience of the last year is 
going to lead to some significant learning loss. And I would 
hope that both summer of 2021 and summer of 2022 might be 
powerful opportunities for us to help kids catch up, but we 
might also learn some things about what the optimal length of 
the school year should be. I mean, we could use it as an 
experiment and we might come out of the experiment and decide 
that, the September to May, there is nothing magic about it.
    Possibly the best way to help our kids is to have a longer 
school year or to readjust the school calendar to minimize 
learning loss. So I know these funds go to Governors and school 
systems and then they have discretion with how to use them. But 
I would hope with your own experience, should you be confirmed, 
that you will really be promoting the use of these dollars to 
use the summers of 2021 and 2022 to deal with the learning loss 
phenomenon. Would you like to comment on that anymore?
    Ms. Marten. Yes. Thank you, Senator Kaine. I think that you 
have cast a vision not just for this summer, but the following 
summer. And that is the kind of forward thinking that I think 
would be important, if I should be confirmed, that we are able 
to not just have an immediate reaction to what needs to be 
addressed, but long term planning. This investment that is 
being made in education is historic. And the lessons that have 
been learned have been lessons that should take us well into 
the future.
    What we build this summer, I can say from very real 
experience as a principal in an inner city school, we were a 
year round school and we had summer programs as well, and I 
always saw the difference that it made when students had 
uninterrupted learning. And what you can do when you create 
these kinds of robust summer experiences makes a huge 
difference. I spent a lot of time with putting up summer 
reading programs for kids because we would call it summer 
reading loss. You know, kids would leave us at the end of 
kindergarten reading at a grade level and then come back and 
they will have lost that time if you don't give them exposure 
on time during the summer. So there is great practices.
    I think San Diego's model, what we have come up with for 
the summer experience, while everybody has to make their own 
local decision, I think you have cast a vision. And if I should 
be confirmed, I would like to lift up the best practices across 
the country that would allow us to use this investment wisely 
and giving our students the time and attention and experiences 
that they need after all of this time being apart and being 
isolated from one another.
    There is so much good that can come of this because of this 
tremendous investment. If administered well, we can do 
something sustainable, scalable, and replicable across the 
Nation, minding the local environment.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Superintendent Marten. One other 
question I will ask, and I almost always ask this question of 
any education nominee, deals with the career and technical 
education. So I grew up in a house where my dad ran a welding 
shop and my brothers and I worked with these really highly 
trained, union trained iron workers. But I went to a high 
school that didn't offer career and technical opportunities at 
all because there were sort of a well, that is not, that is not 
good enough.
    I mean, we got to focus on college and career and technical 
opportunities aren't things we want our students to avail 
themselves of. And that was in the 1970's. And I hope we are 
thinking in a better way. That probably came out of some notion 
that maybe career or vocational ed had been used to track kids, 
may be in some inequitable ways, but now I think we know that 
youngsters have different skill sets and different talents and 
the job of educators is to find those skill sets in and ignite 
them.
    I think high quality career and technical education has got 
to be part of our entire educational palette from pre-K to 12, 
but also at the higher level and beyond. If you would just 
share briefly some of the things in the career and technical 
headspace that you have been proud to work on as Superintendent 
in San Diego. And I only have 35 seconds, so just share one 
thing you are proud of, so I won't get in the other Senator's 
way.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. This is a very important 
program in San Diego. And career technical education, as you 
said, sometimes can be tracking kids, and that is not the way 
we have looked at it. It is college and career ready, that 
students that leave our robust CCTE pathways that we have in 
San Diego Unified are prepared to go to college if they so 
choose or to go down the career path during these priority 
sectors that we have identified as being the skilled labor that 
we need in our state. And we are working with workforce 
development to put those programs in place.
    Senator Kaine. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam 
Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Madam Chair. And 
Superintendent Marten, welcome. Thank you for your commitment 
to schools and to our kids for so many years. We appreciate 
that. I hear a lot from our educators in Alaska, our 
Superintendents talking about the different regulations that 
come out of the U.S. Department of Ed. More often than not, 
they are complaints about the different regulations that they 
face. We all want to get to--we all want to get to that place 
where we are providing the best education possible for our kids 
at all stages, and sometimes it feels that the regulations are 
for purposes that don't necessarily enhance or better those 
educational opportunities. Open ended question to you, what 
regulations within the U.S. Department of Ed would you most 
like to rewrite or get rid of?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator, for that question, and I 
think you have probably heard from the educators, as you said 
in Alaska about this, that some of them are not helpful to 
them. Off the top of my head, I am not thinking of a regulation 
that I would most like to rewrite. I think that those would be 
things that I would want to discuss with staff. I would 
actually want to learn from the educators that have brought 
them to your attention, that have been the most difficult, so 
that I can seek to understand what has been most challenging.
    Senator Murkowski. I am sure they would be happy to provide 
you with a list of those areas where they would want to start. 
But I do think it is something that needs to be considered and 
evaluated. Let me ask a more specific question then. According 
to the Lincoln Cluster report released January 29 of this year, 
62 percent of Black students can neither read or write on grade 
level and 72 percent do not perform at grade level in 
mathematics. Report also states that for the 2018, 2019 school 
year, 38 percent of Black students were proficient in English 
language arts, while 76 percent of white students were 
proficient. In math, 28 percent of Black students were 
proficient, 70 percent of white students were.
    You have got pretty considerable achievement gap, according 
to this report, of 38 and 42 points, respectively. Can you tell 
us for the Committee what you have done during your tenure as 
Superintendent to address these gaps? What would you do, if 
confirmed, to assist school districts to address and to reduce 
their achievement gaps?
    I cite these statistics with regards to Black students, but 
I also recognize in my home State of Alaska, we have 
significant disparity when it comes to our Alaska native 
students. So if you can speak to how we can address these 
educational disparities.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for raising the issue of the 
achievement gap. And I think quite possibly it is the greatest 
challenge we have across our Nation is addressing the 
achievement gap and how we address that and what we do to do 
that. So I want to speak specifically, Chicago Tribune said 
that in 2019, addressing the achievement gap, the San Diego 
Unified is one of the positive outliers when it comes to 
combating the racial achievement gap. That was from an article 
in 2019.
    The reason why they said that, I believe, is because of our 
results. When I started in 2013, our eighth graders were 
achieving at average across the country looking at the NAPE 
scores among the big city districts. And then in 2019, we were 
first in the Nation in reading and second in the Nation in 
math.
    These achievement gaps have been reduced between Black and 
white students by seven points in math and between Latino 
students and white students by seven points in reading. So we 
see that we can address the achievement gap----
    Senator Murkowski. How did you do that?
    If confirmed, those improved outcomes come with the 
relentless focus on what it means to interrupt some of the 
practices that have produced those gaps. For us, it was around 
building capacity, a relentless focus around professional 
development in our classrooms with our educators on an ongoing 
basis to improve outcomes for students.
    Professional development has been key to the work that we 
have done in that area. We have also made investments in the 
investment around equity where there is greater need. We have 
doubled down on our investment in the schools that needed 
additional supports.
    Senator Murkowski. Well, I appreciate what you have shared. 
I would hope that if you are confirmed that you would make the 
effort to come to states like Alaska that have very rural 
areas, very high populations of Alaskan native students, out in 
the villages where we have some challenges just keeping good 
folks in our schools. Where you talk about professional 
recruitment and retaining is a challenge for us. But I would 
certainly welcome you to come and understand our issues that we 
face in many parts of my state. So thank you. I appreciate your 
time this morning. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Smith.
    Senator Smith. Thank you very much, Chair Murray, and it is 
great to be with you. Thank you so much, Superintendent Marten, 
for your willingness to serve, and I look forward to supporting 
your nomination. I just was thinking about what Senator 
Murkowski was asking about this terrible challenge we have with 
systemic opportunity gaps between students of color and 
indigenous students, Alaska native students, and white 
students, and how this is, as you say, is really one of the 
greatest challenges that we face in our education system.
    That actually really leads well into what I wanted to ask 
you about, which is the question of teacher shortages and 
especially shortages of teachers of color and a diverse 
teaching workforce. So let me ask you a little bit about this. 
So prior to the pandemic, I had heard a lot from 
Superintendents in Minnesota about teacher shortages and how 
difficult it was to find and hire qualified teachers. And then, 
of course, like so many things, the pandemic has made this 
issue so much worse. I mean, in many ways, the teacher 
workforce has been stretched thin, like it has never been 
before, trying to do so many different things in so many 
different ways.
    I have actually introduced legislation to address this. It 
is a bill that would go after teacher shortages in three areas, 
one in rural districts, something that matters a lot in 
Minnesota, also in Alaska and many other states, how to address 
shortages in hard to staff subject areas, for example, and 
special education, and then, of course, increasingly diversify 
the teacher workforce. And we know, I think it is quite clear, 
that a more diverse teacher workforce helps to address some of 
these systemic inequities and opportunities and achievement 
gaps for students of color.
    Could you, Superintendent, just talk a little bit about 
this issue. What in your experience have you seen works when it 
comes to addressing teacher shortages and particularly as 
Deputy Secretary of Education, what you would do to help to 
support efforts to attract and hire more diverse teachers and 
educators broadly?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for lifting up this important topic 
around the teacher workforce. And that is something I am very 
passionate about. And specifically in San Diego, some of our 
efforts to diversify the teacher workforce, to attract and 
retain highly qualified teachers as part of the success that 
was highlighted in the Learning Policy Institute report around 
the types of teachers in the workforce that we have in San 
Diego being highly qualified. And what does it take to attract 
and retain teachers, especially in these high needs jobs. So I 
think that you are exactly right around how it is stretched 
thin.
    Our programs around grow your own, we invest in our 
students and putting them in a pipeline to become educators or 
paraprofessionals, end up becoming a great place where we have 
teachers--paraprofessionals seeking to become teachers. That 
helps with the diversification of our teacher workforce. And we 
work with the local universities to put these programs in place 
so that we have clear grow your own pipeline strategies at 
several of the universities, including the University of 
California, San Diego and several others.
    I think the investment that you are talking about would be 
well spent and is much needed right now to invest in the 
teacher workforce and build a really powerful approach for 
local grow your own strategies to deal with the issues that you 
have addressed. And if confirmed, I would love to work with you 
and the appropriate stakeholders on how to do that.
    Senator Smith. Well, thank you. We also have seen grow your 
own strategies to be really, really effective. And one of the 
reasons it seems that it is working is that not only are you 
able to, as you say, kind of create a pipeline of people that 
are connected to community, and that means it is more likely 
that once they are hired and they are in place and they are 
trained, that they are going to stay in place.
    Let me just ask if you could elaborate a bit more on the 
issue of retention. Many school districts will tell you that 
they work hard to recruit diverse educators, but then they fail 
in some way to kind of keep them in their roles and growing in 
place. Could you just address that issue?
    Ms. Marten. Yes. That is so important that we address how 
to not just attract the high quality teachers, but to retain 
them and to keep them in a long career in education. And what 
we found locally in San Diego is investment. What teachers want 
more than ever is collaboration time. They want to work 
together. They want professional development. They want to be 
learning in ways that increase the outcomes for students, 
because teachers, when they feel a sense of efficacy and they 
feel supported by their administrator and by the district to 
grow their practice, they want to stay committed and stay in 
the profession. And that is how we are able to do those 
investments. And we have seen success in San Diego with that. 
People want to stay, and they want to be part of making a 
difference and delivering for students.
    Senator Smith. Well, thank you so much, Superintendent. I 
think that those experiences would be very valuable at the 
Department of Education as we think about this really important 
issue of recruiting and retaining diverse educators. Thank you, 
Chair Murray.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair. When we had our 
discussion, I think we had a lively one around school choice. 
The state I am from, Indiana, I think leads the Nation in it. 
And I also--and I told you I was on a School Board for ten 
years prior to becoming a state legislator, and that if you 
ever wondered whether you had an appetite to be a U.S. Senator 
someday, try the School Board. So you will get an earful of 
something sooner or later, but I am a believer that is an 
important part of the package. And like I said, I come from a 
really great public school system. My kids went there as well.
    What is the role of alternatives to a paradigm that 
generally works in most places but in a state like Indiana, we 
have had two places where the states had to take over the 
school district because it just was not doing the job? And even 
in a place down in the more rural part of the state where I 
live, we had a school district that was struggling with 
enrollment and the Board's decision was to eliminate one of 
three grade schools that was the highest performing of the 
three and also the most distant from where they would have had 
to have gone to school. A charter school. They worked really 
hard, put resources together, scraped and scrapped and got it 
done to me.
    I think it is important that it is there as an alternative 
and then how you pay for it. In Indiana, we didn't fund it in 
the same way. We did it probably to the tune of roughly 85 to 
90 percent and then have backed it up with vouchers, to make 
sure that kids at the lowest end of the economic scale have 
that opportunity. Tell me what you think about school choice 
and vouchers to support it.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. We did have a lively 
discussion about that. And I talked about in San Diego, what we 
have in terms of our charter enrollment is 20,000 students, 20 
percent of our students are enrolled in the charter schools and 
in San Diego Unified. And we have a long history of authorizing 
46 charter schools and that is going back to 1993. And I think 
that was a surprise to you, the level of investment that we 
have made and including some bond campaigns where we have 
invested in the facilities and the infrastructure to build 
those high quality classrooms.
    At the end of the day, my belief is that every student 
deserves to be in a classroom experience that is great for them 
and parents would have choices. As I said, my son attended a 
local public charter school in San Diego, and I understand that 
parents need the right to be able to choose the learning 
environment that is best for their student.
    Senator Braun. Would you take your unique position to 
actually promote it across the country and weigh in, in a 
positive way from the Federal Government's point of view, 
wherever it could, especially when it works so well in an area 
that you, spent your time in education?
    Ms. Marten. Yes, I see our role of absolutely being able to 
lift up the best practices and our students getting a good 
experience. At the end of the day, the classroom experiences in 
the schools, as you said, the decision was made locally to 
close a school, that was not--I don't know what the particular 
circumstance was that you mentioned, but specifically, are we 
giving students access to the learning conditions and 
opportunities that are best for them and for their community? 
And do parents have choices?
    At the end of the day, I truly hope and believe that they 
should be able to go to their neighborhood public school as 
their best first choice. And I know that there are other 
choices around and that those choices are viable as long as 
kids are getting the access to the type of learning that is 
best for them and that they are achieving their goals and their 
best potential.
    Senator Braun. Good. I would hope that you would be a 
proponent of what we just talked about. Indiana, also, we are 
the lowest unemployment state in the Midwest. Workforce 
development, sadly, when I got to the state Government level, 
was sad to see that our own Department of Education and so 
forth, there was actually stigmatizing to some extent that 
guidance and approach to getting kids maybe into a high demand, 
high wage job. And I think that is another important place that 
we need to do better with.
    We are going to reach kids actually when they are in eighth 
grade prior to getting even in the middle school. And I know 
that the main stakeholder in education, in my opinion, would be 
the parent and that they maybe are tired of being misguided 
with a direction that ends up with a pile of debt and not a 
good job. So briefly comment on that, because we are close to 
being out of time.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. I mentioned before the 
career technical pathways that we have in San Diego have proven 
to be very helpful for students, that they have choices for 
career pathways, but that choice doesn't limit them from going 
to college if they choose. And rather than tracking them into 
one or the other, that we have those programs that are aligned 
to the skilled jobs that we know are so necessary for our local 
region or across the country. And I think smart decisions are 
being made in this space and there is great practices that can 
be replicated.
    Senator Braun. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chair and 
Ranking Member Burr, for having this hearing. And thank you, 
Superintendent Marten, for your service and your willingness to 
serve and to your family as well. I want to start by just 
talking about the importance of engaging adult learners.
    I recently introduced the Gateway to Careers Act with 
Senators Young, Kaine, and Collins. This bipartisan bill would 
support career pathways programs where students can make an 
income while they also earn educational credentials. The bill 
also includes important wraparound supports for learners who 
face barriers to completion, like help to access affordable 
housing or to cover transportation costs. Do you agree that it 
is important to support these kinds of programs? And can you 
share some of your thoughts on how we can better serve adult 
learners who have struggled to engage with traditional 
educational opportunities?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for talking about the adult learners 
and what their pathways might be. My brother is one that is 
looking for what his career opportunities are as a 
developmentally disabled adult and the pathways that we have 
put in place for him that he has been able to follow. And I 
think that there is some very great best practices and programs 
at work, and further investment in that I think would be 
beneficial to the people that would be best served by this. And 
I would want to learn more about that with you.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you very much. Now, let's turn to 
another topic. Recent data shows a more than 9 percent decline 
Nationally in students completing their free application for 
Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, this year. This concerning 
decline is even greater for low income students and students of 
color. As the Superintendent of one of the largest school 
districts in California, have you taken steps to increase 
completion of the FAFSA this year? And can you speak to how the 
U.S. Department of Education could help address this issue?
    Ms. Marten. Thanks for highlighting that decline, because 
the FAFSA can be such an important path for our students and 
make sure that we have access, and that was something that we 
put effort into in our district. Off the top of my head, I 
cannot remember what the numbers were, but we did make--we did 
invest in that.
    We did make a difference because we saw the same thing that 
you mentioned highlight, the decline there, and I believe that 
the Department can play a role in local districts that have 
made a dent in this and put it back in the right direction 
because it is critically important for our students to have 
that kind of access.
    Senator Hassan. Yes, I think they have to really be able to 
see themselves moving forward and realize that there are 
opportunities there, and some straightforward gestures and 
outreach can really make a big difference.
    Ms. Marten. Counselors have been critical in that role. 
Thank you.
    Senator Hassan. Last question. I share the concern raised 
by my colleagues regarding how COVID-19 has impacted students 
who experience disabilities. One particular concerning trend is 
the reduced number of infants and toddlers being identified by 
their pediatricians and child care providers to receive early 
intervention services under the Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act, or IDEA. These services can provide important 
supports to families and be integral to a child's longer term 
success. So what can the Department of Education do to identify 
children in need of these services who have fallen through the 
cracks during this pandemic?
    Ms. Marten. This is so important, especially because it has 
been highlighted in the pandemic, infant and toddlers being 
able to get the access they need. My mother sitting behind me 
can speak to what happened when my brother needed to be 
identified as an infant with severe developmental intellectual 
disability. So I understand how important it is. And what does 
that look like at the Department level?
    Once again, there are some good practices in this area. I 
think that things have had to change because of the pandemic. 
And so whatever was working before in this area, where do we 
see examples of infant and toddler assessment and understanding 
sooner what their needs might be and are those needs 
exacerbated. And I think that we should lift up those best 
practices where we have seen them across the country so they 
can become scalable and replicable.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. I would look forward to 
working with you on that. Your mother and I have something in 
common in raising a young man with developmental disabilities. 
So it is nice to meet you, ma'am, and I look forward to working 
with you on this.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Madam Chair. Cindy, thanks 
for being here today. Mom and Andrew, good to see you. You 
know, I spent 40 years teaching and coaching. We talked about 
that. It has been a passion of mine. And to be a teacher, you 
have to have passion. If I had my druthers, we wouldn't have a 
Department of Education. And I will tell you why. We started it 
under Jimmy Carter years ago and our country is built on 
education. And I have seen a lot of bad things happen. And I 
have been in almost every state, high schools all over the 
country recruiting, talking to counselors, read thousands of 
transcripts, and we are losing our education. We are losing--I 
have heard all kind of talk today about different things and 
different problems.
    We got problems, all right. We got problems educating our 
kids. And education, to me is a key to freedom. And if we don't 
get education back in our schools and teaching our kids what 
this country is about and teaching them how to handle 
themselves and be able to control their livelihood in the 
future, we are not going to make it as a country. I spent two 
years running for this job just because of education, because I 
have seen how drastically it has fallen.
    You will do a good job because you are passionate about it 
and you have to be. We got more problems than most people in 
here understand about education. We have got attention deficit. 
We have got drugs that we are giving kids to go to school. We 
don't have a lot of discipline in a lot of schools in our 
country and you know that. We have turned the schools over to 
the kids and not to the teachers. And I would love to give the 
schools back to the teachers where they can teach, where they 
don't have to worry about anything that is going on in the 
classroom.
    As you heard earlier, we are losing--we have lost 100,000 
teachers. We don't have anybody that wants to teach anymore. 
You know, K through 12 to me is the most important thing about 
education. The heck with higher to be honest with you. I mean, 
it is not for everybody anyway, but if we don't teach our kids 
to read and write and math, we are going to have huge problems. 
So we are here--we are worrying about a lot of problems in 
here. And, we have had this pandemic which has set us back. We 
have got to get back to school. You know that. So, you look at 
the rankings, United States of America, out of 79 countries, we 
are 36th in math. We can't do that. I mean, we cannot accept 
that. We can't do it.
    Our kids can't read. And you are talking to somebody now 
that has brought kids that have made straight A's in high 
school, and I give them a test on reading and writing, and they 
don't have a sixth grade reading level. So we are fooling 
ourselves--it is not about money, it is really not. So what I 
want to ask you is, how do we regain that in our classroom?
    How are you going to go about that as, maybe one most 
difficult jobs in the country, your job, because your boss is 
going to be out there taking pictures and signing autographs 
and you are going to be running our country's education. How do 
we do that?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator, for your passion for 
education. You spent two years running because of education and 
you saw students that didn't quite get what they needed, and 
they showed up on your football field and didn't have the 
preparation that they needed. And I have great experience in 
that and know what it takes to interrupt those types of long 
standing inequities that cause students to graduate without 
knowing what they need to be able to be successful in school 
and in life.
    In San Diego, we increased our graduation requirements. We 
wanted a diploma to mean something when they graduate from our 
system, that they are able to be successful not just in school, 
but in life, on the football field, but also be college 
prepared. And I know that the best practices that exist, giving 
teachers the support that they need.
    I have seen tremendous return on the investment. When you 
give teachers the support they need to do what they want to do 
most, they want to teach students, they want to have the 
professional development, they want to know how do you take 
that most difficult student who isn't learning and get into a 
student centered coaching cycle with that teacher to figure out 
how to turn that around. When you see that magic happen, when 
the teacher learns how to teach a challenging student, that has 
great returns, because when you learn how to teach one, you 
learn how to teach many more.
    From that, I see teachers being supported in powerful ways. 
Being able to get to that type of outcome you are looking at 
is, let's invest and teach the strong academics that you think 
are so important.
    Senator Tuberville. You know as well as I do, you are a 
lifelong educator, schools have become the homes for a lot of 
kids. They have no home. They come there. They are eating 
meals. They get their discipline. They learn life at the 
schools. I want to know what you think about standardized 
curriculum, K through 12. You know, if you don't learn to read 
before the fourth grade, you are done. You can't--I mean, that 
is a given. And so we do all the standardized curriculum now 
and we don't look at the fine points of learning and what to 
teach. What do you think about that?
    Ms. Marten. I want to lift up the craft of teaching and 
recognize any educators or teachers that happen to be watching. 
Curriculum is everything to a teacher and what teachers are 
teaching. We teach the student more than we teach the 
curriculum, and understanding what a student needs, but 
understanding that there is certain expectations of what 
students need to know and be able to do to be successful in 
school and in life, as I have always said, teachers hold sacred 
the ability to teach the students what they need to be 
successful. And that is why assessment matters, so you 
understand how students are learning and what they need to 
learn next to grow in their abilities.
    Senator Tuberville. From one teacher to another, good luck. 
And if I can help in any way, I look forward to helping you 
because our children's lives are in your hands. Thank you very 
much.
    Ms. Marten. Yes, they are, sir. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Chair Murray.
    Superintendent, I want to welcome you today. I know your 
family is behind you there. I want to thank you for your 
willingness to serve, for engaging in the difficult issues that 
educators are facing today, pandemic aside, and I really 
enjoyed our conversation yesterday and I look forward to 
working with you after you are confirmed. I want to build 
upon--people are talking about STEM or we talked about STEAM 
and we discussed some of these things in our meeting.
    One of my top priorities in Congress is really supporting 
STEM education and the STEM workforce. Our U.S. workforce is 
recovering from the pandemic and the economic impact, and we 
have so many jobs across the STEM spectrum, whether it is in 
medicine, whether it is programing, technology, all the 
science, technology, engineering, and math, and we have to 
break down the barriers that stand in the way of all of our 
students, regardless of their background, their age, or their 
gender. And so we also have to--we have to give opportunities 
to them. And as was mentioned before by Senator Smith, we have 
to have a certified STEM and career, and technical teachers 
that can deliver this.
    Building upon much of what has been discussed today, if 
confirmed, how would you go about increasing access to high 
quality STEM classes so that all students are prepared to enter 
the workforce with the kind of skills that they may even need 
to set a baseline to do whatever it is they are interested in 
doing?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for that question and for recognizing 
my mom and my family that is here. I appreciate that and 
appreciated our opportunity to speak yesterday and get to know 
each other a little bit more. And what you highlight around 
STEM is a key promising practice. And what is important with 
STEM and those programs we actually talked about, including the 
A and the arts, and we talked about the R for making sure the 
academics are in there too, so you can add a lot more letters 
to that.
    But to your point, these career pathways are critically 
important, and we have some success in San Diego in our STEAM 
initiatives. And the arts education has been critically 
important, and I don't want to take us off track there, but 
that has been critical. And what is helpful with these career 
pathways is it gives students a chance to aspire to something. 
How do you aspire to a career that you don't know exists? How 
do you get some hands on, minds on learning where you are able 
to engage with professionals in the field, whether it is at our 
local industries?
    We have many business partners across San Diego that are 
with us on our mission for a robust STEAM education program and 
our career pathways. So those are San Diego's great models, and 
if confirmed, I think that there can be National work done at 
this level. And I would look forward to working with you and 
other stakeholders either at the Department and partners to see 
what it looks like for students. Everything that I say today 
goes back to outcomes for our children.
    When children are given meaningful, robust experiences that 
ignite their passion and their interest, they learn and they 
become, what I always say is, our outcome is contributing, 
actively literate, contributing, participating members of 
society. And these STEM pathways are a clear pathway to do so. 
And I look forward to, if confirmed, seeing how we grow those 
more because they are so meaningful and relevant to students.
    They, at the end of the day, create the outcomes that we 
also desire not just for our children, but the communities 
which they eventually serve.
    Senator Rosen. Well, I think you are exactly right. I think 
that the businesses in each and every one of our communities 
should come down to the elementary school levels. We have 
assemblies with the parents there too. Let the kids know what 
kind of jobs are really out there. Let the parents know. Let 
them know what it takes. I think that is a great idea. I just 
have about a minute left.
    I want to talk about supporting our students of color. You 
know, in Clark County, Nevada, we were only the fifth largest 
school district in the Nation, and Latino students make up 
nearly half of our total enrolled population for K through 12 
students. And statewide half of our colleges are HSIs or 
Hispanic serving institutions. We also have one of the fastest 
growing AAPI communities in the country as well.
    Decades of research have taught us, and we have talked 
about this again today, about some of the achievement gaps and 
that they can have long lasting impacts. So Senator Murkowski 
talked about this and others. If confirmed, how will you work 
to just broaden this education policy to really address a 
broader set of factors that are repeating success for our 
children in each of our communities, working at a public 
private partnership, working maybe with nonprofits and 
communities, whatever those collaborations are that may point 
us toward success?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you for that question, Senator, and 
highlighting what is so important here. Bringing down--bringing 
partners together, and you use the key word collaboration, how 
would we do that to address some of these longstanding 
inequities, whether it is an achievement or discipline, that 
these gaps need to be eliminated. You don't have to close the 
achievement gap if it never opens. If you have access to early 
learning and early literacy skills, we know what an impact that 
can make.
    When you have great community partners all across the 
cities, across the country, we see great outcomes with that. 
And so I have had the wonderful experience of seeing what it 
looks like to collaborate with partners to interrupt some of 
the things that are holding our students back. And I think that 
is the way forward, when what we have learned during this 
pandemic, I say, will serve us well in the future because so 
many silos have come down and interagency approaches when it 
came to serving meals to our students and technology and access 
to broadband.
    What we have done to deliver on the hope and promise of 
education during a pandemic has forced us to not only look at 
the inequities, but to solve problems that previously seemed 
unsolvable, intractable, and we have solved them. We have done 
things that we didn't think were possible, and we want to be 
able to do these things going forward. And it took 
collaboration. It took multiple agencies and stakeholders.
    If confirmed, I would like to work on that as a 
collaborator and somebody who takes pride in bringing people 
together to solve very challenging, complex problems.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know that 
our future success as a Nation for America is in our elementary 
school students today and what we have prepared them for. So I 
look forward to working with you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Marshall.
    Senator Marshall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Marten, 
again, welcome to you and also your family. I am sure they are 
proud, and they are brave to come with you today for your 
toughest job interview ever, probably. I am a first generation 
college student who got to go to medical school. I have lived 
the American dream and education was the reason I got to live 
my American dream. And a loving family, coaches and teachers, 
my public education gave me the chance to compete academically 
against anybody in the world.
    To those people, I owe a debt of gratitude. And I think 
that is why I am here in the Senate now is fighting to make 
sure that future generations had that same opportunity to live 
that American dream. And no matter who you are or where you are 
from, education is going to be a big part of living that 
American dream. When I came to Washington just a few short 
years ago, many politicians look at issues in silos. And I am 
going to talk about three or four issues with a common 
denominator and give you some rope to kind of just have a 
conversation with me. The overriding theme is the cost of 
college and college debt and what you can do about that in K 
through 12.
    I just want you to talk about the importance of preparing 
students for the jobs we have, the importance of community 
colleges and technical colleges. My wife and myself, both 
community college graduates. Maybe talk a little bit about 
Perkins grants. And I think the theme here, and I am kind of 
teeing this up for you, when people come to me and say, my 
gosh, our college debt is so much, and I will say, well, did 
you look in a mirror?
    What could you have accomplished in high school to get 
college credit to take this concept--why does college--why is 
it five years now? It should be able to be easily accomplished 
in four years because of the opportunity to get college 
credits. And of course, going to a community college or 
technical college, if you are having to borrow money for a 
university just doesn't make much sense to me. Calc one is calc 
one. Comp one is comp one. And regardless of where you go.
    I am giving you the opportunity, of how important is this 
concept of preparing students for the jobs we have, preparing 
them for the--what can you do to make an impact on that college 
debt?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator. You have obviously thought 
a lot about this. And you talked about what opportunities have 
meant to you. And so how do we replicate that, so it is for 
everybody? I can say specifically, community college and 
college access while students are still in high school is 
something we have invested in San Diego Unified with dual 
enrollment pathways, so students are leaving with some college 
under their belt when they leave our system and they are able 
to go on to either at the community college, and then the 
community college through what is called the CCAP program in 
San Diego, moving on to a four-year university after two years 
of community college.
    We have seen great success. I believe every student needs 
to have a path to meet and achieve their goals and their dreams 
and their abilities to be able to be contributing members of 
society. And that path is not the same for everybody. And how 
do we level the playing field, as you said, so that people too 
find their path forward, and have students, I think you talked 
about college debt, are there programs like the Perkins grant 
and some of the programs that could be put in place that kids 
could find a path forward and be successful, and not be leaving 
the system with so much debt that it makes it difficult for 
them to move forward in their lives and have their livelihood 
and support their families.
    Senator Marshall. Yes. One of our jobs in elected office to 
figure out what is working and what is not working. Accentuate 
the positive. And I look forward to working with you too, the 
TRIO program comes to mind and some other programs besides the 
Perkins grants, getting first generation college students the 
opportunity as well. And just that general counseling for 
students, that there are alternatives than borrowing $40,000 to 
go to your freshman year in college, right.
    I think that how do we--all these moneys that we are 
appropriating, I hope that we try to figure out how can we best 
use those in guiding people down the right track. And also, as 
I think about the money we have appropriated, I would just ask 
you your priorities. Give me a good school teacher and a 
chalkboard over plexiglass and I don't know what else that is, 
but I hope that it is going to come down to--this mental health 
crisis we have right now in the youth, there is no computer, 
there is no program that is going to fix it. The only thing 
that is going to fix it is a loving teacher and a loving coach.
    Ms. Marten. I couldn't agree with you more what is 
necessary here and the best, you mentioned best practices, I 
think that is a key role of the Department. And if confirmed, I 
would want to be able to lift up--we can inspire and lift up 
the best practices across the country.
    When we think about the counseling services that are going 
to be needed for the social and emotional toll that this 
pandemic has taken, what will that need to look like school by 
school, community by community? And we already have some 
examples of where it is going well, what is working, but how do 
we use these investments, as you are saying, to give kids the 
access to what they are going to individually need?
    At the end of the day, big scale programs come down to an 
individual child. Did this child get what he or she needed, 
when they needed it, in the way that they needed it? That is 
how we define equity. And we can do big scale programs that if 
you can't go back to the individual child and say this is 
changing, outcomes for you, then we didn't deliver on the 
mission.
    Senator Marshall. Yes. Madam Chair, just give me one more 
second, if you don't mind.
    The Chair. We have a vote on, so we are going to have to 
wrap up really quick here.
    Senator Marshall. Okay, thank you. I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Senator Hickenlooper.
    Senator Hickenlooper. [Technical problems.]--and delighted 
to meet you, even virtually. Have many friends in San Diego. 
Have heard nothing but glowing reviews, so very excited about 
what you can do for our country. One of the issues I am most 
committed to working on is improving access within the 
educational system to apprenticeships, not just the traditional 
apprenticeships, but those in a wide variety of industries. Our 
Committee is going to have an important role here in the 
recovery from the pandemic with the nexus of educational needs 
and the labor workforce.
    Now, Colorado's--we have got a program that we started 
about six years ago called Career Wise, which is matching young 
people with paid apprenticeships in local businesses. And in 
three years, these students graduate with a high school degree. 
They have got some college credit. They have got substantial 
work experience, sometimes over $10,000 in savings. And it also 
is helping to close employment gaps in key industries.
    As Deputy of Education, are you--could you be a strong 
partner to help programs like Career Wise, that are now in 
about 20 different states, to make sure that we can scale 
academic partnerships like that?
    Ms. Marten. Yes. As I think you have heard, a little bit of 
a theme for me this morning that my approach is to always take 
something really great, when you see the seed of an idea that 
is delivering on outcomes for students and you can replicate 
that and scale it, and you just outlined some of the key 
aspects of the Career Wise program with the paid 
apprenticeships and closing those employment gaps, there is a 
very good promising practice.
    At the end of the day, when a program has meaning for a 
student and its community, the surrounding community, it is a 
program that is worth looking at. What were the building blocks 
that put that together? And if confirmed, I would love to learn 
more about the Career Wise and work with you to find the best 
practices that we can replicate, because these are the things 
that make a difference for our students. And we know 
apprenticeships are meaningful way for kids to enter the 
workforce.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Great. I look forward to working with 
you on that. And one other quick question. I spent a lot of 
time, while I was Governor of Colorado, working on all 
education, but really focusing on elementary schools and 
certainly it has become clearer, and I saw you have your 
training was, original training was in elementary school, 
getting kids to study STEM at an early age appears to be such a 
crucial part of engaging them in science and mathematics and 
technology for the rest of their lives.
    Increasingly, we see that it is not only their jobs and 
their careers, which is very important, but it is also going to 
be a function of our country's ability to respond to 
international competition and security needs. I could go on and 
on. What is your sense on how to get STEM more widely taught 
into elementary schools across the country, recognizing that, 
states have primary responsibility for their education systems?
    Ms. Marten. Thank you so much for asking that question. I 
know San Diego teachers are watching right now and they are 
cheering because they are so proud of our elementary STEM 
program, and their kindergarten tinker spaces that we have put 
in place, and getting hands on, minds on learning with our 
youngest learners, putting them on these pathways for STEM 
learning. We call it STEAM in San Diego, because, as I said, I 
know our arts teachers are watching as well in San Diego 
because we know an engaged student with, like I said, hands on, 
minds on learning is a student who learns and learns well and 
has great results. And so I think it couldn't be more critical.
    If confirmed, I would love to work with all the 
stakeholders that have brought light to why early education, 
and thanks for noticing that my background is in elementary 
education, from the University of Wisconsin and lacrosse, you 
actually can major in Elementary Education, which I did, and 
that is what my original training was.
    I know how important it is for the earliest learners to 
have access to not just hands-on learning. That is more than 
that. And it is truly that engagement in meaningful, relevant 
curriculum that makes a difference. And I look forward to 
working with you on that if confirmed.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Well, thank you so much. I look 
forward to voting for your confirmation and I look forward to 
working with you to really rebuild this education system after 
the pandemic. Thank you so much for your public service.
    Ms. Marten. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Burr.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. A little bit of 
housekeeping real quick. Oversight is an important function of 
Congress and hopefully we can, that can be done in a bipartisan 
way. But if it is not, I intend to exercise my oversight 
authority as Ranking Member of this Committee, just as Senator 
Murray did when she was Ranking Member. A couple of yes or no 
questions. You commit to providing me and my staff with the 
information that I or other minority Members of the Committee 
requests from the Department of Education within the requested 
timeframe?
    Ms. Marten. Yes, Senator.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff 
with documents that I or other minority Members of the 
Committee request from the Department of Education within the 
requested timeframe?
    Ms. Marten. Yes, Senator.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff 
with documents--excuse me, do you commit to providing me and my 
staff or minority Members of the Committee with briefing 
requests from you or your staff within the requested timeframe?
    Ms. Marten. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing the Department of 
Education's Inspector General and the Government Accountability 
Office with any information, briefings, and documents they may 
request?
    Ms. Marten. Yes.
    Senator Burr. Do you commit to testifying when called 
before a congressional committee?
    Ms. Marten. Yes.
    Senator Burr. I appreciate all those answers. Madam Chair, 
I would end on this. I have got a five-year old granddaughter. 
Her idol in the world is Elsa. Now, that is not for anybody who 
has a five-year old. But I watched the video last week of a 
teacher that comes in twice a week to her preschool who teaches 
Chinese. And I saw my five year old granddaughter be asked 
questions in Chinese, she answered. And then as she got through 
with three questions, she politely sat down.
    You know, expectations are everything. And we have got kids 
that are sponges today and we don't expose them to everything 
they can absorb. I think what you have heard today on both 
sides of the aisle is, let's change the paradigm. Let's start 
really inspiring these kids to start learning on day one when 
they get into the system. Let's not waste any time. Let's not 
miss the opportunity. I thank you for being here today.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Burr. I just wanted to say 
that as students and families across the country have had to 
navigate distance learning and surviving the pandemic, it has 
really become hard for them to make complicated decisions about 
their future and navigate the road to college or career. And we 
have seen a decline in the completion of the FAFSA, the form 
that students need to complete access to financial aid for 
higher education. Nationwide, FAFSA completion among high 
school seniors is down more than 9 percent on average compared 
to this time last year.
    Every single state has seen a drop and the decline is 
almost five times worse at schools with high populations of 
students of color compared to high schools that are 
predominantly white. If we do not act fast, we are going to see 
an historic drop in the number of students of color who go on 
to higher education and even greater inequities in higher 
education for years to come.
    If you are confirmed, I hope you will work with your 
colleagues at the Department of Education, bring attention to 
this issue, and work to make sure the Department implements the 
bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act that we passed last 
December to unlock more financial aid. Thank you.
    With that, I will end our hearing. I want to thank my 
fellow Committee Members for their participation, and 
Superintendent Marten for taking the time to share your 
experience with us and discuss the issues that students and 
families and schools across the country are facing. I look 
forward to working with you to get our schools safely reopened 
for in-person learning and address the long term inequities in 
our schools too many of our students face. And as we work on 
these challenges, I want to take a moment to recognize 
President Biden's Executive Order from earlier this month that 
requires review of agency actions around sexual harassment and 
violence.
    We have got to work together to hold schools and school 
districts accountable for providing a safe environment for our 
students. And that includes holding schools and school 
districts accountable for preventing and addressing campus 
sexual assault. I have heard from survivors, institutions of 
higher education, families, school districts across the 
country. We have got to do better. It has to be a priority for 
the Department to change the DeVos Title IX rule.
    With that, for any Senators who wish to ask additional 
questions of the nominee, questions for the record will be due 
by Thursday, March 25th at 5 p.m. The hearing record will 
remain open for 10 days for Members who wish to submit 
additional materials for the record.
    It is my intention to schedule a vote in Committee on 
Superintendent Marten's nomination as quickly as possible so 
she can begin the important task of helping to lead the 
Department of Education. The Committee will next meet tomorrow, 
Thursday, March 25th in Dirksen 430 at 10 a.m. for a hearing on 
improving health equity in the wake of this pandemic. With 
that, this Committee is adjourned.

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                     statement of senator tim scott
    Thank you HELP Committee Madam Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr 
for holding this important hearing today.

    I cannot say that I am not surprised by the amount of calls, 
letters, and coalitions against the nomination of Ms. Marten from 
parents, advocacy organizations, disability groups, school choice 
coalitions, and certain charter school divisions regarding her 
suitability for this job.

    I am alarmed by the accusations against you, Ms. Marten, and take 
the concerns of parents and school leaders seriously. Especially, 
charter school leader's accounts of retaliation and ideological 
preferences for certain charter schools to expand over others.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the letter of 
        opposition from NAACP San Diego Chapter to the Nomination of 
        Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the Department of 
        Education.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the letter of 
        opposition from Freedom Coalition For Charter Schools to the 
        Nomination of Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the 
        Department of Education.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the three 
        letters of opposition from Emily Forgeron and Lilly Higman, 
        parents of San Diego Unified School District Students to the 
        Nomination of Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the 
        Department of Education.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the tweet in 
        opposition from National Parents Union to the Nomination of 
        Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the Department of 
        Education.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the tweet in 
        opposition from National Charter Collaborative to the 
        Nomination of Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the 
        Department of Education.

          I ask for unanimous consent to submit the tweet in 
        opposition from Center for Education Reform to the Nomination 
        of Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary of the Department of 
        Education.
                                 ______
                                 
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    [Whereupon, at 12:02 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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