United States Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a visit this morning to Johnstown.

DeVos toured classrooms at the Greater Johnstown Elementary School and sat in on a presentation about the local opioid epidemic.

DeVos got a first-hand look at the school’s social-emotional learning framework: students are assessed for risk factors and taught skills to increase their resilience, like emotional regulation, problem-solving and peer interaction.

“I’m really impressed with the Greater Johnstown School social-emotional learning program. It’s focused on promoting good behavior and not just reacting to bad behavior,” said DeVos.

DeVos also chose to visit Johnstown because Cambria County has the highest drug-related overdose death rate per capita in the entire state and addressing the opioid crisis is a priority for the white house administration.

“The leaders here have recognized this is a real issue for their current population and for the future. Too many lives here have been impacted by opioid abuse, whether it’s a parent, a sibling or a friend, everyone knows someone,” DeVos said.

DeVos said other schools across the country could benefit from similar programs and that in next year’s budget, $43 million will be dedicated to identifying and implementing successful programs.

“Prevention is a really, really important piece of it. To the extent that communities can adapt and do adapt programs like Johnstown  has here will be to the benefit of all students,” said DeVos. “We need to identify and then help others in other communities and in other state aware of these opportunities and sort of seed-fund these sort of programs to get started in other states and other communities.”

Greater Johnstown Schools Superintendent Michael Vuckovich said federal funding is key to continuing similar programs.

“This is a great opportunity to advocate for our kids, our community,” Vuckovich said. “I think she was observant. I think she was willing to hear us out. Hopefully, she does her part to help advocate for our kids too. Because all kids means all. And our students need a lot of help.”

Vuckovich said there’s always more the community and federal government could do to help students overcome barriers like poverty, blight and crime to make sure every student has the opportunity for a successful future.

 “Public education is strong and public education works. I don’t believe in the voucher policy. I don’t believe it’s something that should be a proposed policy at the federal level, but it doesn’t really mitigate my responsibility and advocate. I think what you saw today was a real great opportunity to show the strength of public education, the challenges we face and how we’re working together as a community to overcome them,” Vuckovich said.