The Numbers · No. 01 Published May 2026 · EdPwr
An EdPwr project

Congress is supposed
to be working for
our kids.
Not against them.

Nearly 1 in 4 kids is chronically absent. 14 million children live in homes without enough food. Schools are short more than 400,000 teachers. And on June 10, the House Education and Workforce Committee will hold yet another hearing about book bans, pronouns, and "woke" schools. Here are the receipts.

RAND · 2024-2025 school year
1in 4
American kids was chronically absent in 2024-25. That is about 10.8 million children missing nearly a month of school or more. In half of all urban districts, the rate tops 30%.1
Source: RAND Corporation
USDA · Household Food Security 2024
14M
Children lived in households without enough food in 2024. The highest level since 2014. And Congress just cut roughly 20% from the program that feeds them.2
Source: USDA / FRAC
Learning Policy Institute · 2025
411K
Teaching positions are either empty or filled by someone not fully certified for the job. About 1 in 8 teaching jobs in America. Then the administration cut $200 million that trained new teachers.3
Source: Learning Policy Institute

§ 01The problems Congress could be solving

These are the things keeping parents up at night. Kids who can't get to school. Kids who are hungry. Classrooms without a qualified teacher. Every one of them is a problem Congress has the power to work on. Every one of them is real, measured, and getting worse. And every one of them is being ignored in favor of a culture war.

Chronic absenteeism · 2024-2025 · RAND

23%
Of US students were
chronically absent in 2024-25
In school regularly
Chronically absent

More than 1 in 5 kids missing nearly a month of school or more. About 10.8 million children. Up from roughly 1 in 7 before the pandemic.1

Child food insecurity · 2024 · USDA

1in 5
Children lived in a
food-insecure home in 2024
Enough to eat
Food insecure

14 million children in 2024. The highest level since 2014. And Congress just cut roughly 20% from SNAP, the program that feeds them.2

And yes, kids are struggling academically too. 40% of fourth graders can't read at a basic level, the worst result since 2002.4 But notice the difference. When the committee talks about reading scores, it blames teachers and "the education establishment." When kids can't get to school, go hungry, or sit in a class without a qualified teacher, the committee has the power to actually help. It is choosing not to.

§ 02What Congress was busy doing instead

House Ed & Workforce hearings · since December 2023

Campus antisemitism
9 hearings
9
AI in schools / future workforce
4 hearings
4
K-12 reading & math
1 hearing
1
Chronic absenteeism (10.8 million kids missing school)
no hearing
0
Child hunger and the SNAP cuts that deepen it
no hearing
0
The teacher shortage (400,000+ positions)
no hearing
0
School shootings and student safety
no hearing
0

Ranking Member Bobby Scott on the record, July 15, 2025: "This is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months." The one K-12 reading hearing is "Foundations First: Reclaiming Reading and Math through Proven Instruction," held September 3, 2025, chaired by Rep. Kevin Kiley. By the committee's own staff count, AI got four hearings — four times the lone hearing on whether kids can read or do math — yet not one AI-literacy bill has moved.

Nine hearings on one campus issue. Zero on the 10.8 million kids who can't get to school. Zero on the 14 million kids going hungry. Zero on the 400,000 teaching jobs that can't be filled. The receipts, May 2026

§ 03The bills they buried

A committee shows its priorities not just in what it holds hearings on, but in what it refuses to touch. These are real bills, introduced in this Congress, formally referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee. Each one addresses a problem parents actually worry about. Each one has been left to sit with no hearing and no markup.

Bills referred to the committee · no hearing, no markup

American Teacher Act
H.R. 2021 · raises teacher pay toward a $60,000 minimum salary
No action
PLAN for School Safety Act
H.R. 2577 · evidence-based school violence prevention grants
No action
Increasing Access to Mental Health in Schools Act
H.R. 6131 · recruits school-based mental health providers
No action
Mental Health in Schools Excellence Program Act
H.R. 3534 · bipartisan, builds the school counselor pipeline
No action
Adult Education WORKS Act
H.R. 2789 · strengthens adult literacy and workforce training
No action

After the shootings at Annunciation Catholic School and Evergreen High in fall 2025, committee Democrats formally asked the chair for a single hearing on school gun violence. The request was declined.5

You do not have to agree with every one of these bills. That is what hearings and markups are for. The point is that the committee will not even discuss them. The teacher shortage, school safety, student mental health, none of it gets a single day on the calendar, while the culture-war hearings keep coming.

§ 04The chaos parents are living

Beyond what gets ignored, there is what gets actively made worse. Here is what families are dealing with right now that the committee has chosen not to investigate:

$1T
Cut from Medicaid over the next decade in the 2025 budget reconciliation law. Nearly 70% of school districts use Medicaid to pay for special education services like speech therapy, school nurses, and mental health support. Those dollars are now at risk.6
20%
Cut from SNAP, the nation's largest anti-hunger program. SNAP feeds about 16 million children every month. Cutting it as child food insecurity hits a 10-year high means more kids showing up to school hungry and unable to learn.2
112
Civil rights resolution agreements the Office for Civil Rights reached in 2025, out of 11,985 pending cases. A 78% drop from 2024. Special needs families describe filing into a black hole. NPU tracks every case at OCRWatch.org.7
50%
Of the Department of Education's workforce was cut in 2025, from 4,133 employees to 2,183. Districts trying to access federal grants are calling offices that no longer have staff to answer.8

Every one of these things is a kid. A kid who needs a speech therapist their school can no longer bill for. A kid who comes to school hungry. A kid whose civil rights complaint sits unanswered. A kid in a classroom without a qualified teacher. The committee with the gavel held a hearing about pronouns.

§ 05While the world races ahead

PISA 2022 · Math · Where U.S. 15-year-olds rank

1 🇸🇬 Singapore 575 pts
2 🇲🇴 Macao (China) 552 pts
3 🇹🇼 Chinese Taipei 547 pts
4 🇭🇰 Hong Kong (China) 540 pts
5 🇯🇵 Japan 536 pts
6 🇰🇷 Korea 527 pts
↓ Twenty-seven countries down ↓
33rd 🇺🇸 United States 465 pts

Singapore teaches coding to primary schoolers. Korea is rolling out national AI textbooks. China set targets for AI-trained graduates by 2027. Only 7% of American 15-year-olds are top performers in math. In Singapore, that number is 41%.9 Our kindergartner today graduates high school in 2038. The career that kid will hold has not been invented yet. The skills that kid will need are the skills the committee holds hearings on and never acts on.

Math is critical to global competitiveness and leadership. We need a math revolution. Miguel Cardona, former U.S. Secretary of Education, December 2023

§ 06The receipt in one view

What Congress chose

9

Hearings on campus antisemitism.

1

Hearing on K-12 reading and math.

1

Subpoena to a sitting superintendent for the June 10 culture-war hearing.

What kids needed

10.8M

Kids chronically absent and missing school.

14M

Kids living in homes without enough food.

411K

Teaching jobs unfilled or held by someone not fully certified.

§ 07Go deeper

Stop the clown show. Get to work for kids.

Our kids do not need another casting call. They need a Congress doing the actual work. Reading. Math. Safety. Special needs. AI literacy. A functioning Department of Education. The clock is running and the show needs to end.

Take Action Join NPU

Sources

  1. Chronic absenteeism, 2024-25: RAND Corporation estimates roughly 22% of K-12 students (about 10.8 million) were chronically absent, up from roughly 15% before the pandemic. In half of urban districts the rate tops 30%. rand.org. State-reported data compiled by AEI and others put the figure around 23%. returntolearntracker.net
  2. Child food insecurity: USDA, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024, released Dec. 2025. 14.1 million children lived in food-insecure households, the highest level since 2014. frac.org. The 2025 budget reconciliation law (HR1) cut roughly 20% (about $287 billion) from SNAP, which feeds about 16 million children monthly. cbpp.org
  3. Teacher shortage: Learning Policy Institute, June 2025. At least 411,549 teaching positions nationally were unfilled (45,582) or filled by teachers not fully certified (365,967), about 1 in 8 teaching jobs. learningpolicyinstitute.org. The administration eliminated the Teacher Quality Partnership program, roughly $200 million annually for teacher training.
  4. 2024 NAEP Reading Assessment, NCES. 40% of 4th graders below NAEP Basic, the highest share since 2002. nationsreportcard.gov
  5. Bills referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee in the 119th Congress with no hearing or markup as of May 2026: American Teacher Act (H.R. 2021), PLAN for School Safety Act (H.R. 2577), Increasing Access to Mental Health in Schools Act (H.R. 6131), Mental Health in Schools Excellence Program Act (H.R. 3534), Adult Education WORKS Act (H.R. 2789). School gun-violence hearing request: Reps. DeSaulnier and Scott, Oct. 2025; Rep. Hayes et al., Sept. 2025. desaulnier.house.gov
  6. Medicaid: the 2025 budget reconciliation law cut roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade. Nearly 70% of school districts use Medicaid to fund special education services; Medicaid is the fourth-largest funding stream for public schools at over $7.5 billion a year. Washington Post, Healthy Schools Campaign
  7. OCRWatch.org, "Justice Denied: The Impact of OCR Cuts on America's Students," an NPU project. 11,985 pending cases, 112 resolution agreements reached in 2025 (a 78% drop from 2024). Drawn from OCR's own public databases. ocrwatch.org
  8. Department of Education workforce reduced from about 4,133 employees to 2,183 in 2025. federalnewsnetwork.com
  9. PISA 2022, OECD. U.S. ranks 33rd of 35 OECD countries in math (score 465 vs. OECD average 472). 7% of U.S. 15-year-olds are top performers in math; 41% in Singapore. oecd.org