COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING STATE CAPITOL MAIN BUILDING HOUSE FLOOR HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021 PRESENTATION FROM PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BEFORE: HONORABLE STANLEY SAYLOR, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE MATT BRADFORD, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE ROSEMARY BROWN HONORABLE LYNDA SCHLEGEL-CULVER HONORABLE TORREN ECKER HONORABLE JONATHAN FRITZ HONORABLE KEITH GREINER HONORABLE DOYLE HEFFLEY HONORABLE JOHNATHAN HERSHEY HONORABLE LEE JAMES HONORABLE JOHN LAWRENCE HONORABLE ZACH MAKO HONORABLE NATALIE MIHALEK HONORABLE TIM O'NEAL HONORABLE CLINT OWLETT HONORABLE CHRIS QUINN HONORABLE GREG ROTHMAN HONORABLE MEGHAN SCHROEDER HONORABLE JAMES STRUZZI HONORABLE JESSE TOPPER HONORABLE RYAN WARNER HONORABLE JEFF WHEELAND, virtual HONORABLE DAVE ZIMMERMAN ————————— JEAN DAVIS REPORTING POST OFFICE BOX 125 • HERSHEY, PA 17033 Phone (717)503-6568 1 BEFORE (cont.'d): 2 HONORABLE AMEN BROWN HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK 3 HONORABLE MORGAN CEPHAS HONORABLE AUSTIN DAVIS 4 HONORABLE ELIZABETH FIEDLER HONORABLE MARTY FLYNN, virtual 5 HONORABLE EDWARD GAINEY, virtual HONORABLE PATTY KIM 6 HONORABKE EMILY KINKEAD HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY 7 HONORABLE LEANNE KRUEGER HONORABLE BENJAMIN SANCHEZ, virtual 8 HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER HONORABLE JOE WEBSTER 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: 2 DAVID DONLEY, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RITCHIE LaFAVER, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 3 ANN BALOGA, DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TARA TREES, DEMOCRATIC CHIEF COUNSEL 4 HONORABLE BARBARA GLEIM HONORABLE MARK GILLEN 5 HONORABLE CRAIG STAATS HONORABLE CURT SONNEY 6 HONORABLE MARK LONGIETTI HONORABLE NAPOLEON NELSON 7 HONORABLE MARY ISAACSON HONORABLE BOB MERSKI, virtual 8 HONORABLE CHRISTINA SAPPEY, virtual HONORABLE PERRY WARREN, virtual 9 HONORABLE JAKE WHEATLEY, virtual 10 11 12 JEAN M. DAVIS, REPORTER 13 NOTARY PUBLIC 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X TESTIFIERS 2 3 NAME PAGE 4 NOE ORTEGA, ACTING SECRETARY, 6 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 5 MATT STEM, DEPUTY SECRETARY, 18 6 ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 7 DANIELLE MARIANO, DEPUTY SECRETARY, 44 8 ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Mr. Secretary, are you 4 there? 5 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: I am. Can you hear me, 6 Chairman? 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: I can hear you. 8 Mr. Secretary, I understand it's you and it's 9 Danielle Mariano, who is the Deputy Secretary for 10 Administration; and also Matt Stem, who is the Deputy 11 Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education. 12 The three of you will be testifying this morning; 13 am I correct? 14 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: That is correct. 15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Anyone else? 16 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: No, that will be it 17 from our team. 18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: All right. 19 Well, to get started, if you all three would 20 raise your right hand and I will swear you in. 21 22 (Witnesses sworn en masse.) 23 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Thank you. 24 And with that, we'll start off with our first 25 questioner, which is Representative Rosemary Brown. 5 1 REPRESENTATIVE R. BROWN: Good morning. Happy 2 Monday. 3 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: Good morning. Happy 4 Monday to you. 5 REPRESENTATIVE R. BROWN: Good morning. 6 Listen, I'm standing up here today not only 7 speaking as a legislator but also as a mother of three 8 children, one in college, one in high school, and one in 9 middle school as well. So I have been through the year of 10 not being in school for almost a full year, full time, with 11 my two children at home. I have seen the struggles. I have 12 had the conversations with my children. I've watched 13 emotional aspects of the situation. 14 This is setting our children back for years, 15 years that they will never get back, let alone on the 16 educational piece. But let's talk about the mental health, 17 the truancy, the food and safety aspects, the parent 18 employment parameters. There's a great concern here to get 19 our children back to school full time as soon as possible. 20 Last week I questioned Secretary Beam and the 21 Department of Health in regards to the State's distribution, 22 the Vaccine Distribution Rollout Plan, and the 23 disappointment with that plan and the inefficiency. 24 I'd like to know, at this point, what the Wolf 25 Administration is specifically doing to get our teachers 6 1 vaccinated and prioritized. 2 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: Representative Brown, 3 thank you for the question. 4 And if I may begin with a strong heartfelt 5 apology to the many students who have been impacted by the 6 pandemic. These are really challenging times. And many of 7 them have gone, as you mentioned before in your question, 8 without access to in-person instruction in the way that's 9 more familiar to them for quite some time now. It doesn't 10 end there. 11 There are folks that are also being effected 12 beyond the students, which are our staff, teachers, school 13 leaders, all of which I would be remiss to not say have 14 responded commendably to the challenges that they've faced 15 with regards to the pandemic. 16 From the onset, we, too, have been trying to 17 reconcile what's been coming to us from the CDC, the Federal 18 Administration, but also the developments that we're seeing 19 around research, as well as with the Department of Health 20 here in Pennsylvania has begun to put forward, to reconcile, 21 all this in a way that creates the condition for folks to 22 begin to return back to in-person instruction at their 23 schools. 24 We've offered guidance that allows schools to 25 begin to make these decisions at the local level and when 7 1 we've been required to, have had to pivot with regards to 2 local transmission as well. And this is just a narrative of 3 the way that it's gone by. 4 REPRESENTATIVE R. BROWN: So, Mr. Secretary, I'm 5 sorry. I know you know that the time is very limited here. 6 We get about five minutes. 7 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: Sure. 8 REPRESENTATIVE R. BROWN: You know, I understand 9 that with some of the local decisions. But there's been 10 other states that have gotten this accomplished. Why can't 11 we get it done? 12 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: I appreciate the 13 clarification. So let me just move ahead with regards to 14 the second part of the question, Representative Brown, with 15 regards to what we're doing to make sure that we can get 16 students back in classrooms. 17 We've, of course, begun to put out guidance that 18 matches the CDC with regards to mitigation efforts and 19 continue to work with the Department of Health, the most 20 recent Legislative Task Force as well, the Joint Task Force 21 as well, with regards to the importance of vaccination. And 22 as more information is made available to us, we continue to 23 advocate and work with folks to create those conditions. 24 At the moment, the vaccination protocol remains 25 aligned with what's been put out by the CDC, but we're also 8 1 working to make sure that while that's happening, while they 2 process information that comes to them, either federally or 3 locally, we continue to do what we can with what we have 4 available to us, which is comprehensive mitigation approach. 5 REPRESENTATIVE R. BROWN: So, Mr. Secretary, I 6 know that I signed on to a letter as well from many members 7 of the Education Committee on the House side. And I know 8 there's been individual letters sent to the Administration 9 and to the Department of Health requesting that our children 10 get back to school and that we need to vaccinate our 11 teachers in order to have this happen. 12 The ancillary effects are tremendous on our 13 families, our children, our society. I still can't 14 understand why we can't get it done when other states have 15 gotten it done. I think that that's the real gist of my 16 question here. 17 We have legislators pushing. I know the 18 Professional Teachers Association is looking to make sure 19 this happens. And I know my teachers are requesting it from 20 me. And I know my children are requesting it from me. So 21 why can't we get it done? 22 ACTING SECRETARY ORTEGA: We are working closely 23 with the members that you described, the Teachers Union, 24 along with other professional groups, to have the 25 conversation on whether or not we need to continue to act 9 1 collectively and work to get vaccination recommendations 2 up -- and we do that -- as well as making sure that what's 3 being discussed with us also gets discussed in the 4 Legislative Task Force. 5 So I want to assure you that these conversations 6 about what you're sharing with us in terms of the importance 7 of vaccination are not lost on us, Representative Brown. We 8 continue to advocate and work with these stakeholders. 9 At the moment, what we have available to offer 10 our schools to create the conditions for safety is really 11 relying on the mitigation efforts that are in front of us.