This hearing is now called to order. This morning, we are here to discuss how chronic underfunding of public education is affecting students, parents, teachers, and communities.

The widespread support for public education makes our longstanding tradition of failing to prioritize public education both confounding and frustrating.

In a time of extreme polarization, support for public education is a rare bridge across our political and cultural divisions.

Workers should not be forced to work at poverty level wages regardless of where they live.

H.R. 582 will begin to restore the original intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act, to ensure that all workers have a minimum living standard.

Gradually raising the minimum wage is good for workers who experience a better standard of living.

The result is that the Federal minimum wage is no longer serving its purpose.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 in all regions is good for workers, good for businesses, and good for the economy.

After 10 years with no increase in the Federal minimum wage, minimum wage workers have suffered a 17 percent pay cut due to inflation.

Raising the minimum wage is one of the most hotly debated and intensely studied labor policies.

Our Nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of ensuring to all of our working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.