 Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to Senate Education. I believe it is the 12th of January. Let's see what I got here. Yes, at 1.32 in the afternoon. We are going to take a pause on our work on COVID-19 updates related to schools. We will pick that up again later this afternoon at 2.30. But right now we are going to hear from Senator Taranzini, as well as a number of witnesses, including our Ledge Council on S189 and accruing to the status of Holocaust education in public schools. I want to thank Senator Taranzini for bringing this forward. I also know he has worked with a student, I believe is at the University of Vermont who will also be joining us. But before we have a walkthrough with Senator Taranzini, I mean with Ledge Council, I thought we'd start with the Senator. And Senator Taranzini, if you would just give us a little bit of background as to what decided, what made you decide that this was a bill that was good to put in. Yeah, thanks, Senator Campion. So last summer, myself, Senator Hooker, and a few others from the Rutland legislative delegation were actually contacted by one of our witnesses today on our screen, Ms. Sobel. And she asked to meet with several of us. So we did one afternoon and she really brought it to our attention that we could really do a better job of having a standard in Vermont of educating the next generation in regards to the Holocaust in general. And in a few moments I look forward to hearing what Ms. Sobel has to say, but this bill, which I'll also point out has really tripartisan support in the Senate, including there's four or five of us in this committee alone that have co-sponsored it, which I think speaks to the volume of this bill. But we know the enormous tragedy that the Holocaust was with the loss of over 6 million Jewish followers. We know that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States and across the world at this time. And we know that the Nazis killed somewhere between 17 and 20 million people during World War II. And this bill would call for a study basically and then over the next year for the Department of Education to look into is there a standard out there of teaching about the Holocaust in World War II? What can we do to improve upon it? The bill would call for it to be taught in our schools. So I want to personally thank Ms. Sobel for bringing this to the Rutland County delegation's attention. And there also is a very similar bill, if not the same exact bill in the house that Representative Peter Fagan is the lead sponsor on. So I'll kick it back to you, Senator Campion. Okay, thanks, Senator Taranzini. That was very helpful. Appreciate again your advocacy on this issue, as well as your work in pushing us on civic education and these kinds of issues in general. With that, Mr. Demeray, before we get to our witnesses, would you take us through the bill, please? And you're muted, Jim, just so you know. Would you like to on the screen? Yes, please. Okay, great. Okay, so for the record, Jim Demeray, that's console. I have to be enabled first. Right, Daphne. Let me know if. Okay, there is. Yep. Great. Thanks. And this is. Okay. So this is a very short bill. It's adding. It's a special law. It's, it's requiring a report by a way it says on before. January 15 of next year. We should issue a written report to you. On the status of Holocaust education in public schools. And its recommendations to ensure. That Holocaust education is included in the educational programs provided to students in public schools. It says in preparing the report and recommendations, the agency sees shall work with the Vermont Holocaust Memorial to avail themselves of that organization's knowledge of the subject experience in Vermont schools. And the first to date is on passage. My apologies. Ms. Sobel, would you like to jump in at this point. And tell us a little bit about. Your experience in reaching out to the Rutland delegation as well as. A little bit around. Why you think this bill is important. Yes, thank you. I reached out to my local senators representatives and legislators over the summer because I was concerned about. The increasing rise of anti-semitism among young people. And with my own personal experiences, I felt that it was very necessary. I prepared a quick speech. Hello, my name is Maya Sobel, and I'm a Jewish for Monter, who is the granddaughter of Jews who escaped the Holocaust on both sides of my family. Other members of my family were not so lucky. I'm alive by coincidence. In 1941, the United States decided to join the allies for several reasons. None of which really included saving Jews. They won the war and liberated concentration camps from the Nazis. This act stopped the Holocaust. Once again, anti-semitism is rising. And as only 2% of the world's population, we need support. Our country's youth tends to be some of the loudest voices when it comes to fighting against hate and the most tolerant when it comes to respecting minorities. A study from Harvard and Tubbs found the opposite to be true for young people and Jewish allyship as anti-semitic attitudes were consistently higher among younger generations. How did this happen? What went wrong in this country? Did we not learn from the atrocities of the Nazis? I grew up learning stories about the challenges my people faced throughout history. Over thousands of years, we were persecuted by the Babylonians, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Assyrians and more. Those empires no longer exist today. But somehow we, the Jewish people, are still here. Learning this history makes me proud of my heritage, culture, and Jewish identity. In reality, most people do not know stories of Jewish history, aside from the limited knowledge about Germans killing Jews during World War II. I am asking for us to start here with this event. Why teach the Holocaust? It was not the largest genocide in history. I believe that the Holocaust is worth teaching because it is the most documented genocide in history. Through historical records, we can clearly see how lies, propaganda, boycotts, and dehumanization made educated, sophisticated, and normal Germans believe that it was necessary to wipe out the entire ethno-religion of Jewish people. In addition, the event shows that hate is never contained to one form, as the Romani people, LGBTQ plus people, disabled people, black people, and Jehovah's Witnesses were also targeted and murdered for the way they were born. The truth is, for Monters, our Jewish people are going to learn about Jews, whether the state wants to teach them or not. Social media is transforming into a new kind of platform where anybody can spread lies through creating professional-looking infographics about any topic and pass them along as facts. Platforms such as Instagram are set up in a way that does not allow for public discourse when a user shares a post to their story. This creates an issue when propaganda about Jews is created online, especially when spread by celebrities and influencers who have millions of followers more than the world's total Jewish population. I am from Rutland, Vermont, and I feel fortunate that Rutland High School included Holocaust education in their world history curriculum. If there's one thing I've learned from my experience with teenage peers, it is that we need to emphasize why over how when it comes to the Holocaust. It is the gas chambers and human experimentation that grabs apathetic students' attention. I believe the focus should be on the human tragedy so each of us can identify with the victims. In addition, we need to teach critical thinking so that people who graduate from our high schools will be able to recognize anti-Semitic propaganda and question its validity. The current situation is that anti-Semitism is allowed to flourish on social media, and that extends to the real world. Schools and universities across the country are breeding grounds for this ideology. Our state university that I attend is not exempt. Many examples can be found on Jewish on Campus' Instagram page, which is a nonprofit organization run by Jewish college students across the world. Students at the University of Vermont have reported a variety of anti-Semitic incidents. One report was of a student who found a tape decoration of mountains transformed into a swatztika across from their room. Their roommate encouraged them not to report the incident, but they notified their hall's residential advisor anyways. A floor meeting was called, and the RA proceeded to complain about how the students ruined their decorations rather than to call attention to the hate symbol that was created. Another post explained how LGBTQ plus students were told not to carry the star David, I'm sorry, yeah, I'm sorry, to told not to carry the star David to any of the school's pride events because it would look like they support Israel. 27, and in addition, another post reported concerns from a student who was told by their peers that their identity as a Jewish sexual assault survivor would not be valid unless they renounced their support for the state of Israel. 27% of Vermont UVM students are Vermont residents and have been through the school system of Vermont. What happens to anti-Semitic students when they graduate? They enter the workforce as the world's next generation of teachers, politicians, doctors and lawyers. 92% of graduates from the University of Vermont are employed or continue their education in the state of Vermont. I'm approaching you as senators who are elected to support the people of Vermont to take action and stop all forms of hate. I strongly believe that the most effective way to combat prejudice and hate is through education. We need to start at a high school level to teach students the facts of the Holocaust and train them to critically think about the information they are consuming surrounding ethnic and religious minorities. It is true that anti-Semitism, also known as the world's oldest hatred, was around long before the Holocaust and is stuck around far after its conclusion. But the Holocaust is also the most important event of Jewish history, and it is a baseline example of how lies and stereotyping can bring out the most evil side of humans. I have the graves of over 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Romani, LGBTQ, Black, disabled and Jehovah's Witnesses sitting behind me today. They are urging me to speak out now before it's too late. They are telling me to never let a coincidence such as my existence occur again. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Ms. Sobel. Thank you for your very powerful testimony. Credit to you, certainly. The Rutland Public Schools, your family, as well as the heritage that you've referenced. So thank you. I have a few questions, but senators, questions from Ms. Sobel at this point. So one thing I'm just thinking, I think you've allowed, given some of the experiences that you've also referenced at the University of Vermont and perhaps in our other state colleges and public schools, there may be a piece of this that we would want to explore around how to, to make sure our universities and schools know how to, I don't think you have the RA situation that you outline. you know, resident assistants receive around how to deal with anti-semitism, how are teachers perhaps trained to deal with anti-semitism in the classroom. So there's the teaching component, the academic component that we'll hear a little bit about today. There's also that happens always in the classroom or largely, but we also know there are many teaching opportunities outside of the classroom, such as the ones that you referenced at the University of Vermont and in our daily lives. So I think that's something also worth exploring, so I appreciate you raising that. Any questions or comments? Ms. Sobel, did you want to add anything? Oh, no, I was just wondering if you had like any more questions. I think not seeing any, I'm just grateful, I guess the one question would be are you, do you have time right now to stick around as we hear from other witnesses or do you need to get back to class? I have time. Okay, terrific. It'll be good to have you on. Senator Terenzini. Senator Kavyan, a little off subject to the bill, but I think this committee should also recognize Ms. Sobel's, both of her parents, both of her parents are physicians in in Rutland and especially her father is a doctor at Rutland Regional Medical Center. He's on the front lines every day, you know, fighting the COVID war. So her parents, her family is really very instrumental in our community. So I wanted to thank them from all of us. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Senator. Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that as well. We're so grateful for everyone that's on the front lines in hospitals and in schools. Those seem to be the two areas, of course, hospitals in particular that this disease is hitting the hardest. So I really appreciate you recognizing the Sobel family. There are also, she's out of curiosity, there's a Jane Sobel in my community. I don't know if there's any relation. Not that I know of, but it is nice to see more of the last name in Vermont. Yeah. Yeah. Great. All right. Well, great. Thank you. Let's see. Jess DeCarolis. Good to see you. Happy New Year. Senators will recall that Ms. DeCarolis is with the Agency of Education. I'll let her reintroduce herself in her involvement with curriculum in the state. Jess. Thank you. Happy New Year. Good to see everybody again for the record. I'm Jess DeCarolis, division director at the Agency of Education of the Student Pathways Division. I am also joined by my colleague, Wendy Geller, who I'm going to pause just so she can put herself on the record. My name is Wendy Geller. I am the division director for the data management and analysis division here at the Agency of Education. Thanks for being with us. Yeah. And, you know, so we came, we didn't prepare any sort of formal testimony. I think we came to attend the walkthrough and hear from Ms. Sobel, but also to have the opportunity to maybe ask some questions and maybe collect some questions that might help guide the committee in its decision-making process. And that would allow us to go back and do some legwork. You know, what I did hear and what I've read is I did hear two very clear questions that I think we can take back, but I just want to make sure that we collect as many questions as possible. So I did hear that there is a desire, at least this is the language of the bill, a status of Holocaust education in the state, and this would be in the K-12 public education system. I also heard, though, is there a standard for teaching the Holocaust come up, which I think is an important question to ask. I do know that there have at least been, I think, 21 states who have put forward legislation in looking at some of the, and of course I was, we got this notification pretty late in the day, so I haven't been able to do as much research as I would like to do before coming in front of you. But in looking at some of the states that have adopted legislation and then standards, there's some significant variety. And so I do want to allow for us to maybe do some examination when we're looking at that, because obviously we have a very specific regulatory structure in the state when it comes to our public education system. And certainly when we talk about standards, we do have state adopted standards, content standards, but we don't actually have state level curriculum. And so when we start to get into subject matter, specific content within those content standards, we don't actually have something at the state level in which we can sort of point to directly. And I understand that that might be something that the committee is considering. I just want to sort of put that out there, so there's nothing that we can sort of like quickly turn to or look to. And that would be a departure from our sort of existing regulatory structure. It also sounds like I did hear some references to probably like media literacy and digital literacy. We've been doing a lot of work in the state on equity literacy. And so when we talk about Holocaust education, probably sort of considering things like there's been a number of sort of historical instances of genocide that we could speak to when you're, whether you're looking at Rwanda or Bosnia or the Uighurs. So I think again, coming to, you know, a question around what is the scope of what you might want us to sort of investigate. And then my colleague Wendy is here because certainly we also want to attend to what would be then the data collection mechanism, what would be the involvement and level of interaction with the field in order to collect that information and turn that into a report by next year and what we might need in order to make that happen. So I guess I would sort of echo you, Chair, which is, are there additional questions that maybe people want to pose for my colleague Wendy and I to maybe go back and do some research and come back to the committee? Sure. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. As we make our way through the bill, this is only our first day. We will have additional questions. I'm sure we'll have edits to it. You know, you mentioned the Vermont standards and this is, this is something we've come back to a number of times, I think, in this committee. So for me, it'll be interesting to see where, if there's a way, what percentage of our schools are not teaching the Holocaust. We keep bumping into this in a way. In other words, we find out that schools aren't all offering calculus or just have, possibly have no foreign languages. It's just this regular thing that's frustrating to me and I think to everybody here, to Vermonters, you could move into a community and just not have the same opportunities as are there in other schools for a number of different factors. And so, and this just raises that concern again. Are you going from one district to another where it might be something that's covered in a history class or not? So that's sort of where my concerns lie a little bit. I don't know if you want to say something to that, Jess. I do. I just, I recognize, Wendy, you raised your hand so I didn't know if you wanted to raise something real quick. Okay. So again, my name is Dr. Wendy Gillar. I am the division director for data management and analysis here at the agency of education. I don't know if I have the ability to share my screen. Okay, do I have permission for that? Brilliant. So what I can help folks to get a sense of is what we do collect and what we do currently display. So easy place to navigate. So I often get questions about, you know, where can I find certain data? So Dr. Gillar, just so you know, we don't see your screen yet. I'm not sharing it. Okay. I don't want you to have to suffer through the navigation. Okay, okay, fair enough. There with me one moment. There we go. And how are we doing now? Beautifully. Okay, super. So in the last three years since data management and analysis divisions inception in late 2018, we've been very focused on paying down the technical debt that has existed here at the agency. And we're not unique in that technical debt, essentially any place you look really public sector, private sector doesn't really matter. And so an area that we've been focused on is the degree to which we have publicly accessible, interactive data visualization platforms that are backed with obviously publicly shareable, which means that these data are have already undergone privacy measures. So data suppression measures to ensure the protection of student data privacy. And then we're on a what we call a quarterly release schedule. So what that means is that we're always developing new content. And we release new functionality and or new data on a roughly quarterly cycle. And so one of the most recent releases that we have pushed where we're in beta at the moment. And what that means is that we're still testing it. It's not final. It's not finished. We in fact, we would really love folks feedback. We have a feedback form here, just on the landing page, if you will. But we do display at the moment, as I said, in beta, interactive. And this is fully exportable. If folks want to like actually get into the data, if you're along click me fully exportable data around course of moment. And so you're, you're absolutely welcome to hop in here and take a look anytime you'd like give us a shout. And again, as I said, we would be very interested in folks feedback through the feedback form. But Senator Campion had mentioned, you know, curiosity around who or which perhaps I should say, which organizations are are providing what types of course taking. So if anybody wants to hop around in here, you're more than welcome to do that. Again, feedback is always welcome. You can take a look at this through disaggregation here on the left hand side. And I would just again call folks attention to that this is a beta, it's unofficial. These data are undergoing review. And we would very much appreciate feedback understanding as we're as we're moving through that work. Now in terms of what we collect. So Miss Geller, do you mind? It's not possible. I'm sorry, Senator Campion. Is it possible to go back and just search under Holocaust? You can use the filter to engage that way. But regardless of whether or not that topic is covered, as that's curriculum content may not be captured in the course title. So I'm getting two titles here. So I would recommend we take a look at the interactive knowledge base. And this will cover essentially what we collect in my division. And this is still under construction. Essentially we're folding in as the collections move through the cycle. We're on an annual cycle, as everybody knows. But you can definitely take a look here to identify elements. Now Vermont uses a combination of the we call them SCED codes. These are federally developed codes. They're standards that are established at the federal level. It's essentially a standard way of naming what your course might be. Now, obviously, there are many, many, many different codes for for how we might capture data around course taking. They may not necessarily have a title specific to a particular content area. But they again, they're geared towards being a standard. So sometimes orgs on the ground. So schools or in this case, we collect these data at the SCED level. They might have to use a more general title for the course to report their data to us. It may cover content that is related to the Holocaust or perhaps other genocide events. But the title of the course itself may not necessarily reflect that specific content. So that's just there for folks to know where to find it. Just wanted to share that. So folks are aware. And I am going to stop the share here now. And Wendy, I guess I want to just reiterate that what you've just shown the the beta, it's still under development. And I will say kudos to this committee. As you will recall, I was pulling down Excel spreadsheets last year as we were trying to delineate the sort of full scope of civics education, US education last year. So Wendy's team really has worked hard to try to build a usable platform. And this is a result of probably them wanting me to stop annoying them. So congratulations. You did it. Thank you, Chair Campion. Dr. Geller, you have numbers about students that are enrolled in courses and courses that may deal with the Holocaust. Is there any data on the content of these courses? And I'm not sure what the course at Rutland High was like. Was it a particular semester course? Was it just a unit on the Holocaust that was incorporated into a civics course? Is there any information that tells us that type of detail? So we do not collect curricula. So for example, in order to kind of drill down, if you will, into what the course content would be, we would have to engage in a collection of things like sell by. So there are certainly definitions for like if you're going to code a course as being civics, for example. In the knowledge base, those code sets would show you or we can actually see if I can pull up the SCED codes for folks so you can like actually see an example. There would be a certain level of definition. This course contains topics like A, B, C, D. But in order for us to determine the course level of content, like specific content areas, that would mean a whole new level of collection for us and therefore a whole new level of reporting for the folks in the field. And by the folks in the field, that essentially means the school personnel and then the SCED personnel. Thank you. I would also add that it would be across multiple content areas as we know that it wouldn't, you know, I think people sort of conceptualize, you know, global citizenship or social studies, but you're also going to find this in a lot of other content areas such as English language arts. So you would really be looking across the scope of content areas. Senator Purslick. Thank you. You're very good, Jared. Intuiting. I can anticipate. I can anticipate. I have a good chair. Thanks for bringing this up. The only question I have is how it may or may not relate to the work that's ongoing from Act 1 of 2019, the social equity studies, because I remember that was the first year I was in this committee and when that was being formed, there was a conscious effort to make sure that the history of the Jewish people were included in that as an ethnic group. And I know that we had them in and there was a lot of work amongst that ethnic studies coalition about including that work, but I don't know. I looked really quick at the report and they're still kind of working on that. So I don't know if either Jess or we folks have a comment on that or if we should have Amanda Garces in to talk about it or if anybody came across that Senator and senior others when they were looking at this bill. Yeah, I would say that was something that immediately jumped to mine for me as well. And again, that would be something as we're collecting these questions. That would be what would be coming back to give a formal testimony on which is, again, you have some work in flight. And so in thinking about how in the context of the pandemic and everything that is sitting on top of schools right now, when we think about what it is that we want to achieve, what's the best road to achieving that, and how do we make sure that we don't add additional complexity through sort of logistical pieces as we're trying to engage in our work and thinking about how we can improve our education system. So that would be something we'd be bringing back and obviously that that wouldn't preclude also talking to Amanda. Senator Lange. I'm sorry, Senator Percival. No, thank you. Senator Lange. Okay. Well, thank you. This is really terrific. And I do have a question. I just want to share that I think that it's most powerful when folks can meet and interact with people who have historical knowledge and stories. And so your grandparents, for example, Ms. Sobel probably have enriched you in a way that others have not been enriched. One of the most powerful interactions that I had was to meet and have dinner with Elie Wiesel and talk with him for long period of time. And then even more powerful is when schools can take field trips to Washington, DC and go to the Holocaust Museum, which is a fully amazing experience. So I'm wondering, my question actually relates to, is for the agency of education. And that is, do you do anything like sort of what I would call the spot check of curriculum and maybe pick out some courses that indicate they cover Holocaust issues or discrimination against the Jewish folks or do you do anything like that? Or do you identify courses in various schools that are best practice and share those with others? So I'm thinking there is that benefit once we are fully engaged and understand the importance of these issues on a personal level around anti-discrimination and how discriminatory practices that we see today are creating division. But once we understand those, then we can share the best way to communicate with students. And so I'm just wondering if any of that is part of your work. So I want to, I think there's a couple questions in your question. And I feel like this can also maybe circle back to Senator Campion's initial question around calculus and global languages. We do have our education quality review process. Part of that is our integrated field reviews. Those are built around the education quality standards. And so that sort of evaluation or that review process will be tied very closely to our education quality standards and our accountability system. And because we don't actually examine at that granular level content, we would be looking for things like a coordinated curriculum, that things are tied to state adopted standards. That sort of spot check that you're talking about is not something that we normally do. And I think it would be hard to figure out the line around, well, what else should we be looking for when we're starting to get into that sort of grain size. However, I do think that there is something to be said about that professional learning that I think you're sort of talking about this idea of standards. And I think that when you talk about how we deliver content, we should be thinking about what are all those resources that are available and how can we surface those. And we do on our website and through our various sort of listservs and interactions with the field provide access to different content, professional development providers, best practices, evidence-based practices. Again, this is something I can sort of bring back, but we have recently launched something that we've called Spotlights on Equity, where we have crosswalked that with our sample, proficiency-based graduation requirements and provided links to resources specific to engendering equity literacy across the board. And that's something that we can provide. But again, you're right that you are going to see differences across the state. I think Senator Campion, when you asked, we still have some schools who maybe are not offering calculus or maybe not offering a global language or a foreign language, there's a difference between saying we've got a school that doesn't offer a math curriculum and a school that maybe doesn't offer a calculus class. And I think that that can be hard to parse, but you're right that often that comes down to access to trained professionals, right, resources, that sort of geographic difference as we walk across the state. And so I think a great question that this is giving me to investigate is to say, how might a state legislative initiative or mandate to teach something like Holocaust education resolve those disparities in resources? And also to examine, are there other mechanisms that we have to to review if we want to sort of resolve some of those inequities? Thank you, Senator. Honestly, from the outset, I fully support this bill and makes a lot of sense. I don't see any reason to not support it. One question I have about a possible amendment, and this might be more directed towards Jim Demeray, has to do with it. It's stating education in public schools, connecting with another broad discussion. This committee is tackling this session. I wonder if it might make more sense to ask to us to report back on any school receiving public money. Maybe we can't inquire of private schools that are receiving tuitioning dollars, but I personally as one legislator would like to know if private schools that are receiving public monies are not teaching the Holocaust, or if they're not teaching it in a way that's consistent with accepted historical records. I don't know if you have any reaction to that, Jim, if we don't have purview to inquire of the agency of education of all schools receiving public monies, but I certainly would be interested to know of anybody receiving public money, how they're teaching the Holocaust. Jim? So yeah, so the education strategies have numerous requirements for independent schools, and so it's very common to impose that kind of requirement. So if you want to expand this to cover independent schools receiving public monies, that would be a policy choice. Okay. Senator Taranzini. Hey, Senator Campion. Just a quick question if you don't mind for Jim, and then one more thought. Has the House Education Committee talked at all about this, Jim? Not yet. Not yet. I had one final thought in regards to the bill and the country of Israel, more specifically. When the Holocaust took place, Israel wasn't even a country yet, as it was formed in 1948. And I could see, you know, Israel has become quite a polarizing and political sort of hot potato over recent years. And I think it's really important to separate the two, regardless of someone's individual feelings of support or not so much in favor of Israel's politics or their alignments with different political world leaders and so on. This subject to me has nothing to do with politics in general of either being pro-Israel or maybe not so pro-Israel. This really has to do with, I think, acceptance, tolerance, love, support of different folks and different walks of life. And that's really important to remember when we talk about this bill. Yeah, thank you for that. I think we do need to shift to our next witness, but, and we will have Jess and Wendy, Wendy back and others, but Ms. DeCarolis, how does it feel if you come back in a couple of weeks? You've heard some of our questions. I would also put it out there that, you know, this is a, if ever in the history of this country, this is the time to even broaden it a little bit. You know, and by that, I mean, you know, what is totalitarianism? What is, you know, for students to really understand the climate and the history that we're in right now as well. And so I would just throw it, throw that out there that in terms of your thinking to think broadly about, you know, what we're trying to accomplish here. Jess, go ahead. Absolutely. And I can hold my question and resolve when I come back. I had a new question just to sort of guide us is to the senators right now who are here, have you had an opportunity to reach out to some of your local educators? And have you heard that they have not been teaching the Holocaust? As a matter, of course, it's fairly common in US history classes, in English language arts classes, whether you're reading night or, you know, the diary van Frank or the boy in the straight pajamas. Have you heard from your local educators that there has been a concerted effort to prevent them from teaching the Holocaust as a matter of course? Good question. I have not. Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Yeah, Sam Persley. Just I'll take the opportunity from that question to say the opposite of my experience of Montpelier, my daughter had Holocaust content and I think three different classes. I think she had a government class that talked about it. She had a literature class that read some of those books and others and then also history class. So for my experience for my daughter at Montpelier High School, that it definitely was covered pretty well, Sam. And as I just add to that, as is always the case, and I think this is work that you do quite a bit of, Jess, is making certain that where things are successful, those resources are shared, finding ways to, you know, if Montpelier High School is where things are really happening with this, you know, are there ways to share this, these kinds of ideas? I mean, I think back to some of the things that have come out of Brandeis University and I know the Brookline Massachusetts Public Schools teaching history, there were ideas there that I think really took off throughout the country. So any way that we can expand those kinds of educational opportunities for those who are standing before our kids to teach us, I think, the better. Final comment, Dr. Geller. I just wanted to show folks, so really sometimes a visual is easier than talking through. Can folks see now? So I put some links in the chat for Daphne so that those can be distributed if folks want to take a look through some of the pieces that I have talked about, but this is from the federal government. We take, these are the SCED codes, it's the school codes, of course, exchange of data. So there was a question earlier about what level of granularity might the course naming conventions have? So you'll see here that there are quite a number of these. Let me see here, 712, so 720 rows, but you'll get a sense of the level of specificity that you can expect from the course naming conventions through here. It's just a supportive document if folks really want to get in there and take a look. So I did provide a link to that in the chat for folks to use if they would like to get a sense of that. But again, as I said, from a curriculum standpoint, we don't collect any further down into topic area granularity. There was a question about what is collected and is not collected from the independent schools. The independent schools at this point in time do not submit the data that the SCED and SCED submit around course enrollment to us. So if that were to be something that you would want to engage in going forward, that would be quite a large engagement in terms of both a record keeping standpoint and then a mechanism. So like a data and technical infrastructure standpoint to be able to report these data up to the agency of education. And so just to note that that infrastructure doesn't currently exist to speak to that ingestion. Okay, that's good to know. It's great having you here with us, Dr. Geller. It was very helpful to see all the data and I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind emailing all of those links to Daphne. That way, she'll just be able to forward them to us as well as put them on our committee page. And we'll look for it. Daphne will be in touch to schedule some time during the week of the 24th for the two of you to come back. But please feel free to come back and engage us before then if you have any questions. Great. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Good to see everybody. Yeah, great to see you. Great to see the two of you. Thank you, Maya. Thank you for having us. Happy new year, everybody. You. Ms. Steinerman, welcome to Senate Education. Where are we finding you today? Hi, thank you, Chair Campion. Thank you for inviting me today to testify in support of Holocaust education in Vermont. Senator Taranzini, thank you for initially sponsoring this essential bill. And Senate committee members, thank you for taking up this important educational issue so promptly. As you said, my name is Deborah Steinerman. I live in Jeffersonville. Great. I'm blessed to be the child of fortunate Holocaust survivors. I'm the relative of at least 23 victims of the Holocaust that I can name. And currently I'm the president and co-founder of the Vermont Holocaust Memorial, a nonprofit established in 2017, whose mission is Holocaust education in our state. A recent survey found that students receiving Holocaust education are more open to differing viewpoints, more comfortable with people of a different race or sexual orientation, have a willingness to challenge incorrect or biased information, are more apt to confront intolerant behavior and are more likely to stand up to negative stereotyping. The rise of extremism and anti-Semitism in the United States and globally, including by those whose mission it is to deny, minimize, sanitize, rewrite, or mock the Holocaust demonstrates why the need for Holocaust education is more urgent than ever before. Based on information from the US government department of justice, 2020 hate crime statistics for Vermont show that the majority are motivated by religion, race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias, and those crimes have been dramatically increasing here in the past year. And according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, one major contributor may be White National's hate group, Patriot Front, which has been tracked as operating in our state. We all know, as you said, anti-Semitism is sharply on the rise worldwide. 79% of Jewish college students are reporting fear of anti-Semitism on campus, not only from their peers, but from their professors. The recent horrible Holocaust reenactment fiasco that you may have heard of that took place in a DC school, that had already happened here in Georgia, Vermont, in a school in 2017. And I'm sure you're aware of other such terribly disturbing instances that have occurred in our schools and neighborhoods. So you see Vermont is not immune to anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Senators, Vermont needs more than what this bill currently offers. Vermont needs to establish standards of Holocaust education for our school districts. And my organization is standing by ready to help create those standards. The status of Holocaust education in Vermont has already been researched for us. Why spend more time and money on a redundant report? Are you aware of the 2020 state-by-state claims conference report on Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z? I've submitted the link for that report in the information that I sent, but please allow me to summarize how Vermont students ranked in that survey. 42% of Vermont's youth couldn't name a single concentration camp or ghetto. 29% didn't know what Auschwitz was. 29% believed fewer than 2 million Jews were killed. 65% didn't know that the actual number was 6 million. 43% have seen Holocaust denial or distortion on social media online. 52% have seen Nazi symbols on their social media platforms in the past five years. And 7% think Jews caused the Holocaust. But most importantly, 79% think it is important to teach about the Holocaust in parts so that it doesn't happen again. So as you mentioned, or I believe from the Agency of Education just mentioned that to date there are 23 states already that have enacted Holocaust education requirements. Those are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Well, all over the United States map. Let's add Vermont to that list. However, even in states that have mandates, the results show that it's not enough to just pass a mandate and assume that teachers will get it right. Or in some cases even try to get it right. We must support our educators with Holocaust education standards and make sure the teachers are doing the work and doing it appropriately. When studying the Holocaust, students are engaging with complicated moral questions, many of which do not come with simple answers and cannot be answered very quickly in one class session. Learning about the Holocaust encourages students to promote social justice, human rights and genocide awareness. It supports the effective examination of basic moral issues, provides reflections on the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic and indifferent to the oppression of others. Holocaust education helps students identify danger signals and to know when to take constructive actions. It supports students in understanding the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism and stereotyping in any society, provides understanding about the responsibility of citizens in any society. Perhaps it has the potential to encourage young people to think about how to make a positive impact through individual and group actions, gives students the opportunity to develop an awareness of the value of diversity in a pluralistic society. Holocaust education encourages sensitivity to the positions of minorities and it helps students to develop an expanded view of humanity. As students gain insight into the Holocaust, they gain awareness of the complexity of the subject and a perspective on how a convergence of factors can contribute to the disintegration of democratic values. Most students demonstrate a high level of interest in studying Holocaust history, precisely because the subject raises questions of fairness, justice, individual identity, peer pressure, conformity, indifference and obedience, issues that adolescents confront in their daily lives. Now the Federal Never End Education Act which was passed in 2020 provides money and resources to states needing help funding mandates. That now removes funding as an obstacle to require Holocaust education here. So we can't let Holocaust education slip through the cracks. The Vermont Holocaust Memorial has heard from hundreds of Vermonters, parents, administrators, teachers, students who want Holocaust education properly taught in their schools. Students at Mount Abraham Union High School even started a petition last year asking to help make Holocaust education required in all Vermont public secondary schools. That petition received close to 1,000 signatures and hundreds of offers to testify and help. Our speakers have presented in schools across the state from elementary through high school since 2017. We have professional development workshops for educators, we offer projects, exhibits and many resources and lesson plans to help our educators teach the invaluable lessons of the Holocaust. The call to us has been great especially lately because of students loss of connection resulting from missed opportunities due to the pandemic. Learning is most impactful with repetition. Repetition at different grade levels and taught by professional educators. Our small volunteer organization cannot continue educating about the Holocaust on our own. Senators please skip the costly and unnecessary status report. The backing of your fellow committee members and senate colleagues in sponsorship of this act is clear and convincing. Aid our teachers and students by establishing the standards needed for this important portion of their curriculum. The resources already exist are educators wanted. That's been proven by the registrations we've received to each of our annual workshops and the many requests to share our family stories of survival in schools. Let's make sure our Vermont students properly learn what it means to be upstanders. Let's educate them now on the lessons learned from the Holocaust to bring about a more tolerant and caring world for them and for the future. In commemoration of international Holocaust remembrance day later this month I urge you to make it your obligation to ensure when we say never again Holocaust history is understood, learned and accomplished and I thank you for your support on this and I'm available to answer questions now or at any moment at any time in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Committee members, any questions for Ms. Steinerman at this point? Yes, Senator Hooker. Could I just ask Ms. Steinerman to send your written comments to our assistant so that we can have them on our webpage? Thank you. I see that you have a number of documents but I'd like to see your written comments as well. Sure. Ms. Steinerman, where is the memorial being proposed, the siting of it? Do you know yet the Holocaust memorial that you're working on? So are you talking about the monument that we? Monument, yeah. So yeah we just started getting design ideas for that monument. Okay. At this time we're looking at placing it in stone. In stone. Well certainly monument memorials as we know are a huge component to education, massive component. So I appreciate your work on that. We will, this is just our first day on this topic so I'm sure we will be engaging both you and Ms. Sobel as we move forward. As you may have heard, we're going to come back to this when the agency comes back to us with some recommendations and some ideas in a couple of weeks. So I hope you'll stay tuned and continue to participate on this. But for now we're going to leave it there. Thank you both. Maya, thank you for your leadership on this and your work with Senator Taranzini. Committee, let's take a 10 minute break and we will come back and pick up our work on COVID-19 and schools.