1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Transformational Reforms and Updates to Ensure Educational Quality and Urgent Investments in Today's Youth Act of 2023 or the TRUE EQUITY Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) The fate of our Nation and the opportunities it creates for our children and grandchildren to enjoy successful careers and rewarding lives depends on the quality, equal access, and effectiveness of pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education in every local school district across the country. (2) Our education systems must prepare students to compete in an interconnected, global economy. (3) Despite the current combinations of Federal, State, and local funding and innovative educational policies, States with historically well regarded kindergarten through grade 12 education systems may find their students falling behind their peers nationally and internationally. In Maryland, a State with a historically well regarded kindergarten through grade 12 education system, fourth and eighth graders placed in the middle of the pack nationally in reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress. (4) The United States as a whole scored well down the second quartile among students from 72 countries on the Programme for International Student Assessment. (5) Even in States with reading and math scores higher than the national average, there may be significant and persistent racial, ethnic, and income disparity gaps between students of color and low-income students compared to their higher income and white peers. (6) These same disparities carry into college enrollment, with fewer students of color and low-income students enrolling in college than their higher income and white peers. (7) The novel coronavirus (COVID–19) health pandemic forced the physical closure of schools nationwide in March 2020, moving students from the classroom to online learning. The public health necessity to turn to online learning further exacerbated the significant and persistent racial,