Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say a GOP probe into whether teachers' unions had too much influence on pandemic school closures has come up empty.

A spokesperson for the Democrats says that in fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consulted a wide range of stakeholders before the American Federation of Teachers was even aware of the guidance to close schools.

At a hearing in March, California U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz - D-Indo - blamed the lengthy school closures on the Trump administration's attempt to minimize the threat of the virus.

"Instead of working to efficiently manufacture personal protective equipment, scale up testing, and promote basic public health measures - like masking and social distancing," said Ruiz, "President Donald Trump chose to politicize this virus calling it a hoax and downplaying its severity, saying it would go away just like the flu."

Republicans said students suffered trauma during the period of remote learning - and alleged teachers' unions prolonged the return to onsite classes.

In a statement, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said, "the right wing's attempt to blame educators and their unions for the effects of the pandemic was both wrong on the facts and a callous undermining of the very people who tried to help children and families in their darkest hour."

Virginia Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center and the Independent Women's Forum, testified at the same hearing - alleging that school administrators knew that school closures were ineffective at preventing transmission of the virus, but went along with the closures for fear of crossing the unions.

"Many feared the political consequences for prioritizing open schools," said Gentles. "Let's be honest, school stayed closed primarily because the teacher's unions in our country have enormous political power, and parents do not."

Maryland U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume - D-Baltimore - criticized Republican members who focused on the negative effects of school closures, but opposed funding for President Biden's American Recovery Act.

"Many of my colleagues," said Mfume, "who sometimes seek to assign blame and suggest that there was some sort of weird evil plan in effect, are the same persons who have a long track record of pushing draconian cuts to programs that support American schools and American children."




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Illinois high school seniors have new hurdles to overcome to get to college. High school students are waiting several extra weeks to get their hands on a newly designed Free Application for Student Aid. You might know it better as FAFSA.

The delay in the current process puts students behind when applying for financial aid.

Tabitha Jackson, senior seminar instructor for CICS Longwood High School, works with seniors at the charter school in Chicago. She said FAFSA has always been an Achilles heel, but the delay -- combined with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to repeal affirmative action -- has further exacerbated the process.

"It's so frustrating and it's so hurtful to let a student know, 'Because of who I am, I may not have some additional support or some additional support benefits of being able to go to this school,'" she said. "My question is to my students: 'If affirmative action stops at this level, what's next?'"

Jackson added a lot of students don't want debt, and financial aid helps determine which college they can afford. The 2024-25 FAFSA form is expected to be available by the end of 2023.

The cumbersome conditions coincide with a downward trend for high school seniors who are participating in career and college aid counseling.

Doug Keller, partnership lead with San Francisco-based YouthTruth, said its Class of 2022 Survey underscores troubling findings from respondents.

"We found that there's significant declines among particular student groups and their participating in counseling about how to pay for college -- specifically, among Hispanic or Latinx students, multi-racial and multi-ethnic students and boys," he explained.

Keller said the largest gap is among American Indian, Alaskan and other Indigenous students, with a 14% gap between those who want to go to college and those who expect to attend.


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A program giving high school students a taste of college and college credits along the way is celebrating its 33rd year of operation in Washington state.

The Running Start program offers 11th and 12th graders an opportunity to take college courses at the state's 34 community and technical colleges and three of its universities.

Julie Garver, director of policy and academic affairs for the Washington State Council of Presidents, which represents universities, said the program eases the transition to college-level learning.

"By being able to explore those things within high school, which is a safer environment or within those contexts, then students are able not only to get the confidence but to get those skills," Garver outlined. "They are not surprised and learning that transition while they're also taking college courses when they're at one of our campuses."

More than 27,000 high school students were enrolled in Running Start at community and technical colleges in the past academic year.

Jamie Traugott, director of dual credit and strategic enrollment initiatives for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said students in the program report feeling better prepared for the next step in their academic careers.

"The confidence of being able to complete a college-level class, but then really to be like, 'OK, I did this. What else can I get involved with?'" Traugott noted. "Or, 'Maybe, I thought I would go to a community technical college, but I never considered that I could also transfer to a four-year institution.'"

Traugott added the program has been helpful for the students who are able to access it but there is still more work to do to close equity gaps in enrollment.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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Degrees and credentials after high school will become increasingly important in the job market, a new report found.

Analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce showed 72% of jobs will require postsecondary education or training by 2031. Oregon ranks 11th for most jobs requiring additional education.

Nicole Smith, chief economist at the center and a co-author of the report, said there could be a skills shortage in the market if the U.S. does not prepare.

"Some of the concern we have is that we're not producing enough people with the credentials, education, the skills, the training that we need for those jobs that will appear in the future," Smith explained.

Between 2021 and 2031, the report found an average of 238,000 jobs will become available annually in Oregon. It said 168,000 of those openings will be for workers with postsecondary training of some sort.

Smith emphasized the window is closing for workers who only have a high school degree and opportunities need to be set up to ensure they can get further education.

"Those that don't have the key to the future -- and that key is a postsecondary vocational certificate, certification, some type of credential beyond high school -- if you don't have that key, you run the risk of being left behind," Smith stressed.

Smith added greater education will not only be important for people who just have high school degrees.

"Even if you're standing in a particular type of job, if you want to move forward, you want to advance, you want to get to be the manager in that profession, you want to get to be the team leader, a lot more education and training is required in order for you to advance to that level," Smith pointed out.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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