Broadband

Floor Speech

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Ms. HASSAN. Madam President, in New Hampshire and all across the country, school supplies are lining the shelves of stores, but school board members, teachers, and parents are still wrestling with the decisions about what exactly this school year will look like.

No matter if schools open fully remote, fully in person or a hybrid of both, we have to do all we can to ensure that young people receive a quality education while also keeping students, school faculty, and their families safe.

Just as schools are trying to make decisions, just as administrators, educators, and families are trying to figure out what this school year will look like in their communities, they have been met by a lack of resources and clear guidance from this administration and from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

We have known for months that schools would face enormous challenges this fall, and Federal delays have only made the situation more challenging across the country.

For months, the Senate majority leader stalled action on an additional COVID-19 relief package, saying that he felt ``no urgency.'' But school districts across this country have felt plenty of urgency. Instead of giving them time and appropriate resources to plan, Senator McConnell kicked the can down the road. Now he has released a completely inadequate and unacceptable proposal that provides too few resources to schools and would actually withhold aid if schools don't fully reopen in person.

My Democratic colleagues and I have focused on an approach that would actually help schools navigate the year ahead. We proposed $430 billion to help schools implement public health protocols, address the challenges of students who have fallen behind, and provide quality education to all students regardless of how schools reopen. This proposal would help address some of the most pressing issues facing our students.

When I talk to educators back home in New Hampshire, a common theme I hear from students and educators is that they need more and better high-speed internet access to support online learning. This is a challenge both for remote and also in-person learning. For instance, last week, Kevin Carpenter, principal of Kennett High School in North Conway, told me that part of his school's reopening plan requires expanding broadband capacity at the school. This would enable students to access online materials in every classroom and minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19 by minimizing physical transitions from class to class.

Other educators have noted that in many areas of our State, families are still having trouble accessing an adequate broadband connection and devices that can support online learning throughout the day at home. Just as Senator Klobuchar referenced some of the conversations she has had in Minnesota, in a discussion I had in New Hampshire earlier this summer, a teacher in the Gilmanton School District said that some parents were taking their children to the parking lots of their school to do their schoolwork from the car because it was the only way they could access a Wi-Fi connection.

Too many students are at risk of falling behind because they lack broadband access. Our proposal includes $4 billion in funding to help ensure that all K-12 students have adequate home internet connectivity and devices during the pandemic, which is a priority that I have been fighting for throughout the last several months.

I urge my Republican colleagues to support this proposal and to work with Democrats to deliver sufficient relief without any further delay.

As we approach the upcoming school year, our families and educators are facing unprecedented, heart-wrenching uncertainty. Even in areas where the infection rates are low and schools are well-resourced, the lack of testing capacity and the lack of clear guidance from this administration, for example, on what to do if a teacher or a student tests positive for the virus are exacerbating the effects of this awful pandemic. Inaction and ineptitude are making a truly difficult set of challenges much, much worse, and at a certain point, inaction and ineptitude are indistinguishable.

Congress must address these needs so that our educators can overcome these immense challenges and do what they do best--help our children learn and grow.

Thank you.

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