K-12 Education
Democratic and Republican Committee Members are working on a bipartisan reform of the nation’s primary federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) – currently known as No Child Left Behind.
Key Legislation:
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization -- currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
The Graduation for All Act of 2009
21st Century Green High-Performing Public Schools Facilities Act »
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act »
No Child Left Inside Act »
"No child should have to learn on an empty stomach. Nearly 65 years ago, America made protecting the health of our children a national priority by developing the National School Lunch Program. This groundbreaking program has prevented hunger and promoted education by enabling our young people to have access to safe, balanced, and affordable meals at school. It has also supported their development, encouraged their learning capacity, and instilled life-long healthy habits. This year, during National School Lunch Week, we recognize the vital importance of this historic program, and we recommit to serving meals that will contribute to the health and well-being of a new generation."
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"NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of October 10 through October 16, 2010, as National School Lunch Week. I call upon all Americans to join the dedicated individuals who administer the National School Lunch Program in appropriate activities that support the health and well-being of our Nation's children."
The Committee passed the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504) on July 14, 2010 to dramatically improve children’s access to nutritious meals, enhance the quality of meals children eat both in and out of school and in child care settings, implement new school food safety guidelines and, for the first time, establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools.
“A national campaign aimed at curtailing the number of brain injuries suffered by student athletes was introduced Monday at Pinole Valley High School, where a concussion awareness poster was unveiled at a news conference held by federal officials and representatives of the National Football League.
“‘There was a time when athletes who left the field because of a concussion were told to suck it up and go back out and play,’ said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. Instead, he said, athletes should be told, ‘When in doubt, sit it out.’
“The poster being distributed by the federal Centers for Disease Control is similar to one now found in NFL locker rooms and describes possible symptoms on brain injuries that could be worsened if not diagnosed.”
Chairman Miller also spoke about legislation he recently introduced, the Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act. San Francisco’s ABC affiliate, KGO, reported:
“Miller has introduced legislation that would set safety standards for public schools in dealing with concussions. This after hearing horror stories from student athletes during a Congressional hearing.
“‘In one case, a student is fully disabled because of an injury in a softball game with multiple concussions [which were] improperly diagnosed,’ says Miller.
“The stories were enough to move Miller to carry the ball on the danger of concussions.”
Watch a Contra Costa Times report on Chairman Miller's press conference below:
-- Chairman George Miller at NBC's Education Nation Summit.
Chairman Miller was in New York City on September 28 taking part in NBC’s Education Nation Summit. Before discussing his views on education reform with other policymakers, teachers, students and parents he appeared on The Today Show, Squawk Box, and Morning Joe to discuss education policy and jobs.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Watch Chairman Miller on Morning Joe, the Today Show and Squawk Box:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
“The family of a pre-schooler filed a lawsuit against the Mona Shores School District for restraining the disabled child in a chair for the entire school day for one semester, according to the suit.
“Ethan Holden was a special ed student at Ross Park Elementary School, documents say. His mother came to a class Christmas party in December 2008 and saw her son strapped in a chair, his feet lifted off the ground.
“She later learned this is how Ethan spent his days, the lawsuit says. Alan and Nichole Holden claim they were never informed of their son's restraint. Ethan has a speech problem and couldn't communicate easily with his teachers and other staff.
“The child had fallen over while strapped in the chair as he tried to escape, according to the suit, filed in July in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.”
The Holden family traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with Chairman Miller about their experience in late 2009. The Keeping All Students Safe Act would establish minimum safety standards in schools to protect children like Ethan from this abuse.
The Education and Labor Committee today held a hearing on legislation that would better educate students, parents and coaches about the danger of concussions in young athletes. Witnesses included a former NFL player, a neurologist, a high school athlete and a mother grieving the loss of her young son. CNN reported on the hearing:
“The House Education and Labor Committee's hearing came after news last week about the first active college football player known to have a debilitating condition usually seen in retired or aging athletes who've suffered repeated head injuries.
“Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy revealed that a 21-year-old defensive lineman, Owen Thomas, had mild stages of a type of brain damage called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
“Thomas, a captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team and a student at the Wharton School of Business, hung himself in his room in April.
“Owen Thomas, 21, was found to have mild stages of a type of brain damage called chronic traumatic encephalopathyCTE, which is a type of brain damage, has been more typically seen in older former athletes and can cause neurobehavioral disorders and bizarre behavior, including suicide. It is impossible to determine whether Thomas' brain condition and suicide were linked.
“‘The only possible explanation we can see for the presence of CTE is that Owen started to play football at the age of 9,’ his mother, Rev. Katherine Brearley of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said in her testimony at the hearing.”
The Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act would help improve concussion safety and management for student athletes by requiring school districts to develop and implement a community-based plan for concussion safety and management.
And it’s not just football players who are at higher risk, as witness Alison Conca-Cheng showed. USA Today wrote:
“That point was brought home by Alison Conca-Cheng, a 17-year-old high school soccer player and honors student from Ellicott City, Md., who suffered a concussion when she collided with a teammate's head in a practice game.
“‘I had tunnel vision,’ she told the committee. ‘Then I had severe balance problems and lingering headaches. I was dazed and confused.’
“Conca-Cheng had taken a pre-season computerized baseline concussion test, which she was required to repeat after the injury. In two attempts, she failed to match her pre-injury scores on tests of short-term memory and reading and was kept out of practice for two weeks.”
The Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act would establish minimum standards in K-12 schools on concussion safety and management, including educating students, parents and school personnel about how to recognize and respond to concussions. The Education and Labor Committee held a full committee hearing on the issue in May and hosted a field hearing in Long Island, New York in early September.
Concussions for student athletes are a growing problem that demands immediate attention. According to recent research, high school athletes suffered 400,000 concussions in the 2005-2008 school years and studies show many sports-related concussions go unreported.
Youth athletes are at greater risk of sports-related concussions than college or professional athletes because their developing brains are more susceptible to injury. Female youth athletes are even more susceptible to concussions.
It’s up to parents and coaches to help recognize and make the decision to pull a student athlete off of the field, ice, court, or track if they think a student athlete might have a concussion. The Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act would make this decision easier by making sure school districts have concussion management plans that educate students, parents and school personnel about how to recognize and respond to concussions.
Specifically, this legislation will:
Increase Awareness of Concussion Signs, Symptoms and Risks
- Provide student athletes with information about how to prevent and manage concussions by requiring school districts to develop and implement a standard, community-based plan for concussion safety and management, as well as conduct outreach to parents and students about concussion and the plan.
Improve Concussion Safety and Management for Student Athletes
- Inform and empower student athletes, parents and school personnel about concussions by requiring schools to post information about concussions in a way that is publicly visible within the school and on the school website.
- Support students’ health and recovery by implementing “when in doubt, sit it out” policies that require a student suspected of sustaining a concussion during a school-sponsored athletic activity to be removed from participation, prohibited from returning to play that day and evaluated by a health care professional. Parents must also be notified.
- Prevent prolonged recovery by making sure students recovering from concussions have the supports they need as they return to athletic and academic activities in school.
At the request of several members of the Education and Labor Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated the prevalence of concussions in high school athletics and found that concussions often go unrecognized. Recent research shows that concussions can have serious repercussions for student athletes both on the field and in the classroom. During the 2005-2008 school years, an estimated 400,000 concussions occurred in high school athletics – brain injuries that often go unnoticed and untreated.
The Education and Labor Committee held a full committee hearing on the issue in May and hosted a field hearing in Long Island, New York in early September.
CNN Health summarized the report and its implications:
“More and more children and teenagers are suffering traumatic brain injuries while playing basketball, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
“Researchers examined emergency room visits of people under the age of 20 who were treated for basketball related injuries between 1997 and 2007 and found the number of traumatic brain injuries shot up by 70%.
“Overall the proportion for traumatic brain injury doubled for boys and tripled for girls, said senior study author Dr. Laura B. McKenzie.
“Coaches, athletes and parents need to understand what can cause traumatic brain injuries and learn to recognize a possible concussion according to McKenzie.”
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York today chaired a field hearing in Long Island to explore the prevalence of concussions among youth athletes and examine the best prevention strategies. Witnesses included two former NFL players, a high school athletic trainer, and a former high school athlete who suffered numerous concussions. After hearing their testimony, committee members concluded “legislative action is needed to ensure safety in all high schools.”
Today’s hearing marks the second time the Education and Labor Committee has investigated the prevalence of concussions in youth sports and its impact on academic outcomes.
“The risk of concussions for millions of the nation’s young people who play high school sports has received too little attention,” said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. “We must change the 'warrior mentality' culture that discourages immediate treatment, and I look forward to working with Chairman Miller, Rep. Bishop and my colleagues on how we can address this issue.”
"I am very pleased the Governor has decided to sign legislation to use the money for teachers' jobs in California that Congress approved this summer. Saving teachers' jobs is vital to our economy and to the education of our children, which is why the legislature took decisive action to expedite the bill. The money Congress approved will help 16,500 California teachers stay in their classrooms, and I am glad to see the Governor's support for this critical effort."
Iowa’s Waterloo Courier reported:
“Iowa school districts will split a pot of $96.5 million in federal funding intended to save or create education jobs.
“Districts will receive monthly payments throughout the 2010-11 fiscal year starting in September or October based on enrollment. In Northeast Iowa, that means a total of $2.35 million for Waterloo Community Schools, $885,245 for Cedar Falls Schools, $386,161 for Waverly-Shell Rock, $300,669 for Independence and $134,235 for Hudson.”
The Salt Lake Tribune has similar good news to share, “The Alpine district already has added more teachers and the Provo district is paying for full-day kindergarten.”
The Austin Daily Herald of Austin, Minn. also reported that many local school teachers are able to keep their jobs due to the Congress’ action:
“More Austin Public School teachers will keep their jobs thanks to an estimated $1 million dollars in federal aid from the Education Jobs Fund.”
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“The incoming aid helps ease the district’s projected $1 to 1.5 million deficit for next year, acting as an insurance against possible job cuts in the immediate future.”
Vicki B. Escara, President and CEO of Feeding America, published an op-ed in the Huffington Post urging passage of Chairman Miller’s bill. She wrote:
“… for low-income families who struggle to overcome hunger, back-to-school season brings an end to the strain of putting additional meals on the table when the free and reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches are unavailable.”
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“Every child in America should have enough to eat regardless of the season -- summer, fall, winter or spring. Children need access to nutritious food year-round, so why shouldn't the programs that serve them be able to operate year-round? With a gap of nearly 17 million children unserved by summer feeding programs, we ought to do everything we can to make it easier for food banks and other community-based providers to reach children in the summer. Passage of Chairman Miller's child nutrition bill is an important first step to making sure no child goes hungry next summer.”
José Andrés, an internationally-known chef and owner of ThinkFoodGroup, also commented on the need to pass childhood nutrition legislation in a column published in the Atlantic:
“The lunch ladies, the administrators, the people who feed our kids want to do better. But they are limited by one thing: a lack of money. The federal government spends about $2.51 per child per day to feed them lunch. Out of that you have to pay for labor, facilities, and administrative costs, leaving about a dollar for food. Imagine trying to feed yourself a nutritious meal every day with only a dollar. Very difficult. Now imagine trying to do that while satisfying the picky palate of a typical school kid.
“Right now, we have an opportunity to change that. Every five years, Congress takes another look at the issue when the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is voted on, opening the door for discussion about possible improvements to these programs as well as increased funding. Among other things, the CNR provides money for and sets nutritional guidelines school for school lunch programs. Every five years it comes up for renewal. It is the most important piece of legislation that no one has ever heard of.”
The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act increases the federal reimbursement rate for the first time in 30 years.
In May, the committee held a hearing that looked at the effect of concussions on student achievement. Witnesses testified that student athletes’ academic performance in school suffers when concussions are not properly managed. Each year, about 140,000 high school athletes suffer concussions.
WHAT:
Field hearing on “The Impact of Concussions on High School Athletes: The Local Perspective”
WHO:
Craig LoNigro, Athletic Trainer, Physical Education and Health Teacher, Comsewogue High School, Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.
Caitlin Monaghan, former high school athlete, Garden City, N.Y.
Dr. Hayley Queller, M.D., Orthopedic Associates of Long Island, East Setauket, N.Y.
Additional Witnesses TBA
WHEN:
Monday, September 13, 2010
11:00 AM EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
Babylon Student Center
Suffolk County Community College-Ammerman Campus
2nd floor
Selden, New York
On Friday, the Department of Education authorized $1.2 billion for California as part of the recently passed Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. That money should help return an estimated 16,500 teachers to their jobs in California.
One school district is already putting that money to good use. With their share, the Vallejo school district has the money to pay the teachers they hired back earlier this month in order to bring K-3 classes back down to 28 students.
District spokeswoman Tish Busselle said:
"The jobs bill has become a great relief because we still don't have a state budget," she said.You can learn more about the emergency teacher jobs bill and see how many estimated teachers will be back in the classroom because of the efforts by Chairman Miller and the rest of the Democratic Caucus.
In early August, State Administrator Richard Damelio agreed to give 20 laid-off Vallejo teachers their jobs back as a way to prevent K-3 classes from increasing to 31 students.
All told, some 38 teachers were brought back recently, though the unresolved state budget casts uncertainty on school district funding levels.
The teachers were laid off in anticipation of state funding cuts, but were hired back just prior to the start of the new school year.
Vicki B. Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, has a post at Huffington Post about why the House Child Nutrition Bill is Better for Children.
She said:
The House Education and Labor Committee approved a strong bill in July, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010 (H.R.5504). This bill includes many of the same improvements to nutritional quality as the Senate bill but does far more to invest in increased program access. The House bill would significantly increase access to food at breakfast, after-school, on weekends, and during the summer. Children need access to food every day, before, during, and after school, and the House provides much-needed improvements to address these gap periods.
The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 pays particular attention to increasing access because hunger doesn't take a summer vacation or stop at the end of the school day.
Specifically, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act improves access to school meal programs by:- Increasing the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification.
- Providing enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility.
- Increasing children’s access to healthy school breakfasts by providing competitive grants to school districts to start up or improve their program.
- Ensuring fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school based and community based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas.
- Improving access for children in home-based child care by reducing administrative costs for sponsors of child care meal programs.
As schools return from their summer break, many students will again have their only chance at a healthy meal all day. And those meals are key according to a new report by Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Public Policy Peter Hinrichs.
According to the Associated Press, Mr. Hinrichs said:
"The research found that the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has not had a dramatic effect on health into adulthood, but it has had a significant effect on educational attainment," Hinrichs said. "The NSLP today is still broad in its reach, but it targets poorer children. There are higher standards for eligibility and also special funding for poorer schools. Had these elements been in place at the inception of the program, there may have been a more detectable effect on health in its early years."
That is why under H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010, the program increases the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification. It also provides enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility. The more eligible students who are having a regular, nutritious lunch the more students will be performing in the classroom.
The bill passed out of committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor.
Learn more about H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010.
“…with increased focus on school reform under this administration, it seems some companies with little or no expertise in education are purporting to be experts in school turnaround to try and take advantage of available federal money. Companies who are hired to help turn around schools as partners should have the best expertise and the best qualifications. I plan to hold a hearing and use the committee’s oversight authority to investigate the process of hiring providers to help turn around schools.”
Turning around under-performing and failing schools is one of the objectives of the committee’s bipartisan rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently known as NCLB). Miller chaired a hearing on successful school turnaround in May and made the importance of the issue clear, saying to his fellow committee members:
“There are 5,000 chronically low-performing schools in this country doing a disservice to
hundreds of thousands of students.
“Two thousand high schools produce 70 percent of our nation’s dropouts.”
Turning around chronically under-performing schools can have significant impact on local communities, and many private companies have begun offering turnaround services to school districts. But, a recent New York Times investigation revealed that some of these companies lack the necessary experience to effectively overhaul a failing school:
“With the Obama administration pouring billions into its nationwide campaign to overhaul failing schools, dozens of companies with little or no experience are portraying themselves as school-turnaround experts as they compete for the money.”
…
“Many of the new companies seem unprepared for the challenge of making over a public school, yet neither the federal government nor many state governments are organized to offer effective oversight, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit group in Washington.”
“With days to go before classes begin, the Broward County School Board gave the OK Tuesday for its superintendent to start recalling nearly 100 laid-off teachers and other teachers whose work has been curtailed.
“Broward schools will receive about $54 million to rehire teachers and other employees, thanks to a new federal stimulus package with $10 billion earmarked for education jobs.”
Chairman Miller has been a lead congressional advocate for emergency aid to stop teacher layoffs, saying on many occasions, “We can’t allow a child’s education to become a casualty of what is happening in our economy.”
Miller proposed a $23 billion dollar emergency “Education Jobs Fund” in late 2009 and authored the Local Jobs for America Act, which would help save local communities from devastating public sector layoffs.
The News-Leader of Springfield, Mo. reported:
“The bill would send Missouri $292 million for Medicaid and $189.7 million to help cash-strapped schools rehire staff or prevent future layoffs. The education funding will save 3,000 jobs statewide and more than 1,200 in the 4th, 7th and 8th congressional districts. The Medicaid funding would help states meet other budget needs, such as keeping thousands of police officers, nurses and other public workers employed.”
Montana’s Great Falls Tribune passed on similar news:
“Montana will receive $38 million in Medicaid funding and $30.7 million to avoid layoffs, mostly of K-12 teachers, from the bill. The U.S. Education Department estimates that the money will save about 700 teachers' jobs in Montana.”
California’s Coachella Valley will also benefit greatly, according to The Desert Sun:
“Valley schools may be able to rehire teachers and shrink the size of classes when school starts now that a $26 billion jobs bill has become law.
“‘I guess there is such a thing as Christmas in August,’ said Ricardo Medina, superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District.”
Chairman Miller appeared on MSNBC yesterday morning to voice his passionate support for the legislation and discuss why job creation is vital to the economic recovery:
“What we’re talking about is creating jobs for teachers, for firemen, for police, for nurses – the people that hold our public spaces together in this country. And we should not have our children lose a year’s education because the Republicans refuse to create jobs.
“And you know what they call teachers and firemen and nurses and policemen with jobs? You know what small businesses call them? They call them customers.”
“It’s not the first time this Congress has voted to support jobs, teachers and the future of this country. And we are not done working to rescue this economy. Sadly, it is also not the first time Republicans have voted against jobs and against assistance for families across the country.”
“With this vote today, we’re taking decisive action to prevent our children from becoming victims of this economy by ensuring more teachers remain in the classroom. This legislation won’t save every job but it will certainly provide much-needed relief and a critical lifeline to schools,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
Later today, the House will vote on H.R. 1586, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. It provides $10 billion for additional support to local school districts to prevent imminent layoffs. The latest estimates from the Department of Education are that this fund will help keep 161,000 educators employed this coming school year. It pays for these additional funds by closing loopholes that encourage corporations to ship jobs overseas.
Last week, the Washington Post editorial board didn't think it was important to save teacher jobs. In Chairman Miller's letter to the editor today, he sets them straight about the importance of saving teacher jobs:
It is disappointing that The Post's editorial board, which consistently supports school reform, opposes efforts to keep teachers in the classroom by way of a $10 billion education jobs package ["Throwing money at education," editorial, Aug. 6]. Across the country, damaging budget cuts have forced school districts to lay off hundreds of thousands of employees, shorten school years and increase class sizes -- to the detriment of students. All of these decisions were based on decreased revenue, largely due to the financial crisis that was no fault of any principal, teacher or student.
This emergency investment in our schools will save teacher jobs and keep students in their classrooms, learning, growing and succeeding. If we were to take the path suggested by The Post, we would let our schools suffer, stifle our students' futures and reverse the progress made in schools under the Obama administration. Congress won't let that happen.
This morning Chairman Miller appeared on MSNBC to explain why the House is returning from its 6-week district work period to vote on this important piece of legislation. Watch him after the jump:
This morning Chairman Miller appeared on MSNBC to explain why the House is returning from its 6-week district work period to vote on this important piece of legislation.
Chairman Miller also wrote a letter to the editor about the importance of saving teacher jobs.
After the Senate passed the measure last week, Chairman Miller said:
“I applaud the Senate for passing this emergency legislation that protects not only our teacher jobs but our economic competitiveness. Next week, my colleagues and I in the House will return to Washington to take this important vote -- a vote we’ve taken twice already in the House -- to keep thousands of teachers in their jobs. We need this bill to ensure our teachers remain in the classroom and our students continue to learn. It’s clear our students, our teachers and our country will reap the benefits of our decisive action. This investment will save jobs and help prevent districts from shortening the school year, increasing class sizes and closing libraries in the wake of horrific and damaging budget cuts. While this latest round of funding isn’t enough to avert all layoffs, it is a critical investment in our children and in our future.”
Based on analysis from the Council of Economic Advisors of projected State budget shortfalls for FY 2011, we estimated that as many as 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs could be at risk across the country in the upcoming school year.
We know States and districts are working hard to find ways to minimize job losses and keep cuts away from classrooms, but some are making cuts that we know will have an impact on kids. Furlough days, cutting after school programs, and cutting or reducing summer school are some of the tough choices being made when we know we need to be expanding learning time.
We also know these job losses would ripple through the wider economy and undercut ongoing efforts to create jobs.
That is why the House will take a rare August vote to pass this legislation and send it to President Obama for his signature prior to the start of the new school year.
See below the fold for a table of each state's allocation and an estimation of teacher jobs saved. [Updated to reflect new projection on August 9, 2010]
“We owe it to the children who aren't reaching their potential because they're not getting the nutrition they need during the day. We owe it to the parents who are working to keep their families healthy and looking for a little support along the way. We owe it to the schools that are trying to make progress but don't have the resources they need. And we owe it to our country -- because our prosperity depends on the health and vitality of the next generation.”
Hers is a sentiment shared by many – that there is no more important investment we can make for our country’s future than feeding our children healthy meals. Television host and author Rachael Ray has also been vocal on the issue, appearing with Chairman George Miller to introduce the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act and publishing an op-ed in today’s issue of the Albany Times-Union. Ray also pushes for quick passage of a child nutrition bill and argues passionately in favor of the legislation:
“Nearly 17 million American children struggle against hunger. For these children, school food programs are sometimes the only access they have to food. At the same time, one in three American kids is overweight or suffering from childhood obesity, because their families simply cannot afford fresh, nutritious foods. School food systems are one of the few ways we have to provide good nutrition to all of our kids.
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“Child hunger and malnutrition in the world's wealthiest nation is morally unacceptable. The U.S. economy loses at least $28 billion per year due to poor school performance and long-term health care spending due to poor child nutrition. We can pay now or pay a much greater price in every sense later.”
They say:
Being overweight or obese is the leading medical reason why young Americans cannot join the military. Over the last 30 years, child obesity rates have tripled. One study found that 80 percent of children who were overweight at ages 10-15 were obese at age 25.Watch Major General Paul D. Monroe, U.S. Army (Ret.) of th Executive Advisory Council of Mission: Readiness, testify at a hearing about H.R.5504, Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act on July 1, 2010 after the jump.
Here in Maine, 41.2 percent of youths from ages 18 to 24 are overweight or obese. In addition to hindering our military preparedness, obesity also costs the American people billions in medical expenses every year.
From the mid-1990s to 2000, the state of Maine spent $375 million per year on obesity-related medical expenses. This data is 10 years old -- Maine's current expenditures are surely much higher today.
What can we do to address the problem? One way is to improve the quality of food and beverages served in our schools. The school environment is critical for shaping the eating and exercise habits of our youth.
...
The White House has proposed additional resources for a robust child nutrition reauthorization package that would reduce child obesity and improve the diets of children. Current proposals in the House and Senate include provisions that will raise the quality of all foods and beverages served in schools by requiring the secretary of agriculture to establish new nutrition standards that are consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
"Mission: Readiness" strongly supports these provisions and urges Congress to enact reauthorization legislation immediately.
By applying increased nutritional standards to all foods sold on school grounds, expanding access to healthier meals, and supporting schools in implementing proven programs that educate children and their families about healthy eating and exercise, we can get junk food and high-calorie beverages out of schools and out of our children's daily diets.
Recent research provides strong evidence that receiving school meals can help low-income children maintain a healthy weight.
“From journalists and educators to politicians and parents -- there is a growing sense that a quiet revolution is underway in our homes and schools, classrooms and communities.”
During his presentation, Secretary Duncan announced the 19 finalists for the Race to the Top grant program, the impetus behind this education revolution. He continued:
“With a budget of just $5 billion dollars -- less than one percent of total education spending in America -- this minor provision in the Recovery Act has unleashed an avalanche of pent-up education reform activity at the state and local level.
“Forty-eight states voluntarily collaborated to raise the bar and create common college and career-ready standards -- solving the single biggest drawback of NCLB -- without a federal mandate or a federal dollar. So far, 27 states have adopted those standards. Even Massachusetts -- universally viewed with the highest standards in the country -- voted unanimously to adopt last week.”
Race to the Top was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and provides competitive grants to selected states that commit to key areas of education reform.
The success of Race to the Top has helped encourage education reform across the country and sets the stage for the kind of bipartisan overhaul The Education and Labor Committee is currently undertaking to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This “quiet revolution,” as Secretary Duncan put it, is welcome news for students, parents, and teachers across the country.
"A gallon of milk is $3-something. A bottle of orange soda is 89 cents…Do the math."
The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act, recently approved by the Education and Labor Committee on a bipartisan vote, aims to help solve this problem by increasing access to nutritious foods year-round in school, after school, during holidays, on the weekends, and during the summer. Among other improvements to childhood nutrition programs, the legislation increases the reimbursement rate for school lunch for the first time in more than 30 years – a move that will significantly increase the availability of healthy foods to children. Cliff Toomey of the Indian River School District in Delaware attests to the importance of the increase in today’s News Journal:
“‘Higher reimbursement rates would mean more food choices,’ he said. ‘It would allow us to possibly go with more fresh fruits and vegetables.’”
Today, approximately 22 percent of the nation’s children lack access to nutritious food and one in three children is overweight or obese. Pam Fessler of NPR succinctly describes the relationship between hunger and obesity:
“Hunger in America is complicated. It's not just getting enough food, but getting the right food — and making the right choices.”
- 9 percent
- 16 percent
- 27 percent
- 65 percent
Continue reading for the answer.
After the vote, First Lady Michelle Obama released her first-ever formal statement on pending legislation. She praising the committee for its work on her signature issue: reducing childhood obesity. The First Lady stated:
“I congratulate Chairman Miller and the House Education and Labor Committee on the successful bipartisan passage of a child nutrition reauthorization bill out of the Committee today. This important legislation will combat hunger and provide millions of schoolchildren with access to healthier meals, a critical step in the battle against childhood obesity. I urge both the House and Senate to take their child nutrition bills to the floor and pass them without delay. The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.”
The bill includes sweeping reforms to significantly increase access and remove barriers to child nutrition programs, improve the quality of the meals served and implement new school food safety guidelines. The bill would increase the reimbursement rate for schools -- the first increase in over 30 years. Additionally, for the first time, it would require schools to set standards for foods served outside the cafeteria, including vending machines.
On Wednesday, July 14, and Thursday July 15, the House Education and Labor Committee considered bipartisan legislation to expand access and improve the nutritional quality of meals in schools and child care. The committee examined H.R. 5504, the “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act” earlier this month.
The legislation would help set American children on a path of healthy eating and healthy living at a time when approximately 22 percent of the nation’s children lack access to quality food and one in three children are overweight or obese. Today, over 32 million children rely on federal child nutrition programs.
H.R. 5504 would dramatically expand access for millions of children to healthy meals year-round in schools, child care, and community based settings, and for the first time, establish nutrition standards for foods sold outside of the cafeteria.
Lincoln delivered the letter to the President during a meeting at the White House where she was joined by other Senate leaders to discuss legislative priorities before the August recess. Lincoln’s “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act” passed the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously in March and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a mark up on its version of child nutrition reauthorization legislation – the “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act” – tomorrow, July 14.
“As recent reports have shown, the occurrence of hunger and childhood obesity among our nation’s children is unacceptably high—especially in my home state of Arkansas. We have an historic opportunity to put our country on a path toward ending childhood hunger and reversing the trend of childhood obesity with a strong child nutrition reauthorization. We cannot afford to make American children and families wait any longer for a bill that will make real progress toward ending childhood hunger and obesity. I know that the President shares my goal of addressing this important priority, and I ask him to please join our efforts to ensure that passage of child nutrition legislation is a top legislative priority in the coming months,” said Lincoln.
“In this economy, millions of families rely on the child nutrition programs as a nutritional safety net for their children to ensure they are able to focus and learn in school. Children need healthy meals to be able to grow and thrive in the classroom and in life. If we allow our children’s health to dwindle, if we allow more children to hungry by not taking swift action with this legislation, we fail our children, their families and the future of this country. We have a real opportunity to make dramatic reforms to help prevent hunger, to improve children’s health and increase access to healthy meals. The health and academic success of an entire generation of children is at stake,” said Miller.
Full text of the letter is below:
Communities around the county are taking steps to provide their students with year-round access to quality meals and are demonstrating why ensuring access to healthy food is vital:
In Sioux City, SD, increasing numbers of children are eating healthy meals through the Summer Food Service Program, which serves children from low-income families. The Argus Leader reported:
“At the YWCA in downtown Sioux Falls on Wednesday, primarily elementary-aged boys and girls filed through a serving line while workers filled their trays with a sloppy joe sandwich, green beans, pineapple and milk. On average, the agency dishes out 220 lunches and 110 breakfasts each weekday, said Karla Johnson, director of child care services.
“‘There's no question in my mind that this program is really helping those children and their families. And we're seeing more of that,’ she said.”
According to the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore’s Pimlico Road Youth Program has been similarly successful and has witnessed increased need for their services. The Baltimore Sun reported:
“Workers at the Northwest Baltimore center say at least half the students have come to depend on the sponsored meals to tide them over for the evening, food that serves as a substitute for the free lunches the children receive during the school year.
“With school out, state and federal officials say about 25 percent of the 328,000 low-income Maryland children who received free school meals during the year got them last summer. The numbers, however, are on the rise.”
“We need to get our country back on a pathway of healthy eating and healthy living – this starts by not only ensuring our children are eating healthy meals in schools, but also teaching them healthy habits that will last them a lifetime,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. “This bill is a great opportunity to improve our school meal programs, to meet children’s nutritional needs at every venture and to change the future of this country.”
Currently, over 32 million children rely on the federal child nutrition programs.
The reforms would provide stronger oversight to ensure that employers comply with the law, empower workers to speak up about safety concerns and give the Department of Labor the tools it needs to ensure that all workers go home safely at the end of the day.
Mary Clare Jalonick reports:
Hungry children looking for a free meal this summer may not be able to find one.One reason why Chairman Miller is pushing so hard for the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 is because children shouldn't go hungry. This bill would, among other things, improve access to out of school meal programs by ensuring fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school based and community based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas. It will also improve access for children in home-based child care by reducing administrative costs for sponsors of child care meal programs.
States and cities have cut funding for summer meal programs as need has skyrocketed, according to a new report from an anti-hunger group that tracked the program in 2009. Budget woes that have left many families hungry are also affecting local governments that find themselves without the needed dollars to feed children while they are out of school.
"Low-income children across the country clearly bore the brunt of budget cuts," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, which compiled the report to be released Tuesday.
Summer nutrition programs aim to feed children who get most of their nutrition — or sometimes their only real meal of the day — at school. The food research group measures the effectiveness of those summer programs by comparing the number of low-income children receiving meals during the summer with those receiving free and reduced-price school meals during the school year.
The Committee will hold a hearing on H.R.5504, Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act on Thursday at 9:15 ET. We invite you to watch via our live webcast.
The Times reports:
Schools these days are confronted with complex questions on whether and how to deal with cyberbullying, an imprecise label for online activities ranging from barrages of teasing texts to sexually harassing group sites. The extent of the phenomenon is hard to quantify. But one 2010 study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, an organization founded by two criminologists who defined bullying as "willful and repeated harm” inflicted through phones and computers, said one in five middle-school students had been affected.Confronted with questions such as these, the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee held a hearing on Ensuring Student Cyber Safety on June 24, 2010.
Affronted by cyberspace’s escalation of adolescent viciousness, many parents are looking to schools for justice, protection, even revenge. But many educators feel unprepared or unwilling to be prosecutors and judges.
Often, school district discipline codes say little about educators’ authority over student cellphones, home computers and off-campus speech. Reluctant to assert an authority they are not sure they have, educators can appear indifferent to parents frantic with worry, alarmed by recent adolescent suicides linked to bullying.
Whether resolving such conflicts should be the responsibility of the family, the police or the schools remains an open question, evolving along with definitions of cyberbullying itself.
Nonetheless, administrators who decide they should help their cornered students often face daunting pragmatic and legal constraints.
Watch Dr. Phil and Dominique Napolitano, a teen member of Girl Scouts, discuss cyber safety after the jump.
On Thursday, the entire Committee will hold a hearing on H.R.5504, Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act, bipartisan legislation to improve the nutritional quality of meals in schools and child care settings introduced earlier this month. The bill would dramatically expand access for millions of children to healthy meals year-round in schools, child care, and community based settings and for the first time, establish nutrition standards for foods sold outside of the cafeteria. Currently, over 32 million children rely on the federal child nutrition programs.
You can view that hearing via our live webcast.
In an interview with CBS Early Show, Dr. Phil said, "So much of what's going on today is beyond parents because our kids are much more computer literate than we are. They can Photoshop pictures and put a child in a humiliating or embarrassing situation. They write e-mails, write letters, and so often we see these kids become isolated, withdrawn, they stop going to school. And they can even, as we have seen so tragically with situations like Phoebe Prince, can wind up actually taking their lives. I mean, this is a terrible burden on these kids. We've got to give the educators the tools they need to prevent this, to intervene in this. It requires training. They need to know how to intervene when it is happening. We've got to raise awareness about this."
CNN reported his testimony, "McGraw told the subcommittee that kids who are cyberbullied are 1.9 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population.
'I get tens of thousands of letters at 'The Dr. Phil Show' of kids asking for help about this. It is a serious crisis -- 42 percent of kids say they have been bullied on the internet, 35 percent of kids say they have been threatened.'"
Watch Dr. Phil's testimony below the fold and learn more about the ensuring student cyber safety hearing.
Miller (D-Martinez), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that the new grants for low-performing schools will boost school quality improvement efforts in his congressional district.
The report was conducted at the behest of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chair of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Assistant to the Speaker and U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), chair of the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Thousands of Contra Costa County children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches during the school year. But come summer vacation, many of them no longer have access to regular meals.
"During the summer, they don't have that program and the resources of families are stretched," said Barbara Jellison, food services director for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. "I don't think they get the nutrition that they need."
Chairman Miller's Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 addresses this problem directly. It would ensure fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school-based and community-based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas.
Learn more about the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010.
Supporters of H.R. 5504 include:
- 4C Council of Santa Clara County
- 9to5, National Association of Working Women
- Action for Children North Carolina
- Action for Healthy Kids
- Advocates for Better Children’s Diets
- Advocates for Children and Youth, Maryland
- Afterschool Alliance
- Alberts Organics
- America SCORES
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Association for Health Education
- American Beverage Association
- American College of Preventive Medicine
- American Commodity Distribution Association
- American Dental Association
- American Diabetes Association
- American Dietetic Association
- American Farmland Trust
- American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
- American Heart Association
- American Humane Association
- American Public Health Association
- American Rivers
- American School Health Association
- American Society of Bariatic Physicians
- Association of Schools of Public Health
- Association of State & Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors
- Association of State Nutrition Network Administrators
- Audubon California
- Audubon Dakotas
- BJ Enterprises
- B.J. Jordan Child Care Programs
- Bread for the World
- California Association of Food Banks
- Alameda County Community Food Bank
- Food Bank at Contra Costa and Solano Counties
- Redwood Empire Food Bank
- San Francisco Food Bank
- California Association of Nutrition & Activity Programs C-A-N –Act
- California Center for Public Health Advocacy
- California Climate and Agriculture Network
- California Farmers Union
- California Food Policy Advocates
- Camp Fire USA
- Campaign for Better Nutrition
- Campaign to End Obesity
- Catholic Charities USA
- CDI/CDC-Choices for Children
- Center for Rural Affairs
- Center for Environmental Health (CA)
- Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Central Valley Children's Services Network, Child Care Food Program
- Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage
- Child & Family Resources, Inc.
- Child Care Council
- Child Care Development Services, Inc.
- Child Care Food Program Roundtable
- Child Nutrition Initiative
- Child Nutrition Program of Southern California
- Child Welfare League of America
- Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition
- Children First for Oregon
- Children Now
- Children’s Alliance
- Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire
- Children’s Campaign, Inc.
- Children’s Council of San Francisco
- Children’s Defense Fund
- Church Women United of New York
- Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc.
- Coalition on Human Needs
- Community Action Partnership
- Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CA)
- Community Bridges Child & Adult Care Food Program
- Community CROPS (NE)
- Community Food Security Coalition
- Community Health Partnership: Oregon’s Public Health Institute
- Concord Child Care Center
- Connecticut Farmland Trust
- Connecticut Forest and Parks Association
- Conservation Law Foundation
- Consumer Federation of America
- Contra Costa Child Care Council
- Defenders of Wildlife
- Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
- Directors of Health Promotion and Education
- Early Care and Education Consortium
- Emergency Food Bank of Stockton/San Joaquin
- Environmental Defense Fund
- Environmental Working Group
- Escondido Community Child Development Center
- Family Resource & Referral Center
- Farm Aid
- Farm Fresh Rhode Island
- Feeding America
- First Focus Campaign for Children
- Fixing School Food Alliance Monterey Bay
- Food Bank for Monterey County
- Food for People
- Food Lifeline
- Food Marketing Institute
- Food Research & Action Center
- FoodLink for Tulare County, Inc.
- Foodways Alliance (AZ)
- FRAMAX, CACFP Sponsor
- Go For Health! Collaborative of Santa Cruz County
- Hunger Action Los Angeles
- ICNA Relief
- ICNA Council for Social Justice
- Inter-Faith Ministries
- Interfaith Council of Amador
- International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO, CLC
- International Institute of Los Angeles
- International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, (UAW)
- Islamic Circle of North America
- Izaak Walton League of America
- J.C. Family Home Association
- Jewish Council for Public Affairs
- Kansas Action for Children
- Land Stewardship Program
- Land Trust Alliance
- Lawyers Helping Hungry Children
- Lean & Green Kids
- Learning Care Group, Inc.
- Leopold Group, Iowa Sierra Club
- Louisiana Upgrading Nutrition for Children's Health (LUNCH Program)
- Love Little Children, Inc.
- Maine Children’s Alliance
- Mayor Bloomberg, New York
- MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
- Meredith Matthews East Madison YMCA
- Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
- Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (WI)
- Michigan Land Use Institute
- Michigan’s Children
- Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
- Minute Menu Systems
- Mission: Readiness
- Montana Dietetic Association
- Montana Farmers Union
- Monterey County Office of Education Food & Nutrition Services
- Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MD)
- Montgomery County Community Action Development Commission (PA)
- Mount Adams Resource Stewards (WA)
- National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
- National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
- National Association for the Education of Young Children
- National Association of Conservation Districts
- National Association of County and City Health Officials
- National Association of School Nurses
- National Association of Sport & Physical Education
- National Audubon Society
- National Catholic Rural Life Conference
- National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
- National Center for Appropriate Technology
- National Consumers League
- National Council of Jewish Women
- National Council of La Raza
- National Family Farm Coalition
- National Farm to School Network
- National Farmers Union
- National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
- National Parent Teacher Association
- National Research Center for Women & Families
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
- National Wildlife Federation
- National WIC Association
- National Women’s Law Center
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- Nemours
- New England Farmers Union
- New England Small Farm Institute
- New Mexico Voices for Children
- New York Coalition for Healthy School Food
- New York State Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Alliance
- North Dakota Dietetic Association
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – Connecticut
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – Massachusetts
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Hampshire
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Jersey
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – New York
- Northeast Organic Farming Association – Vermont
- Northern New Mexico Stockman’s Association
- Northwest Harvest
- Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (CA)
- Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
- Ohio Farmers Union
- Oklahoma Composting Council
- Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition
- Oklahoma Institute For Child Advocacy
- Options Child Care Agency
- Oregon Hunger Task Force
- Organic Farming Research Foundation
- Partners for a Healthy Nevada
- Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon
- Partners for Sustainable Pollination
- PATCH, Hawaii
- Pennypack Farm and Education Center (PA)
- Pesticide Watch Education Fund (CA)
- PHFE/Angels Child Care Food Program
- Pollinator Partnership
- Prairie Rivers Network
- Prevention Institute
- Public Health Foundation Enterprises – WIC
- REAP Food Group (WI)
- RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund
- Revolution Foods
- River City Food Bank
- Roots of Change
- Sacramento Hunger Coalition
- St. Joseph’s Family Center
- St. Mary’s Center
- Salt Lake Community Action Program
- Save the Children
- School Nutrition Association
- School’s Out of Washington
- Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
- Seacoast Eat Local (NH)
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
- Second Harvest Food Bank, Santa Cruz County
- Service Employees International Union
- Shape Up America!
- Share our Strength
- Shasta County Office of Education
- Society for Nutrition Education
- Sodexo Foundation
- South Carolina Wildlife Federation
- South Dakota Voices for Children
- Soyfoods Association of North America
- Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture (NY)
- Sun-Maid Growers of California
- Sunnyvale Community Services
- Sustainable Northwest
- The Alliance to End Hunger
- The Cherokee Nation
- The Nature Conservancy
- The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
- The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (MT)
- Trust for America’s Health
- U.S. Apple Association
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Union Station Homeless Services
- United Fresh Produce Association
- United Way Silicon Valley
- Utah Farmers Union
- Utahns Against Hunger
- Virginia Association for Biological Farming
- Voice for Utah Children
- Voices For America’s Children
- Voices for Georgia’s Children
- Voices for Illinois Children
- Wallace Center at Winrock International
- Washington Child Nutrition Reauthorization Coalition
- Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network
- Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium
- WhyHunger
- Wild Friends Program (NM)
- Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
- World Wildlife Fund
- Women, Food and Agriculture Network
- Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
- Your Care Plan
“We are on the brink of a national crisis with our children’s health. The barriers that prevent children from accessing quality meals mean more children are at risk of obesity and poor nutrition and this has serious implications for the health and well-being of the future of this country,” said Miller. “This legislation creates a nutritional safety net for millions of children who rely on the child nutrition programs by meeting children’s nutritional needs at every step along the way -- in school, on the weekends and during the summer. Child hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation”
Learn more about the Improving Nutrition for America's Children.
Watch Chairman Miller's statement.
Watch Rachael Ray express her support for this bill.
To view additional excerpts of the press conference visit the Education and Labor YouTube page.
Photos of the event are below the fold.
Tonight, in a little strip-mall office next to the local Safeway, a teenage student from Alameda, California will spend the evening dialing up strangers to make an earnest request: please save my school.The AP reports that high school students face hard lesson in economics due to increasing cuts in teachers, programs and other important school staff.
The budget ax is about to fall on this Bay Area city. Seven million dollars in K-12 education cuts are planned this year, nearly $10 million will be lopped off next year, and a massive $17 million cut looms in 2012. A few weeks ago, Alameda's Board of Education handed out pink slips to 130 teachers, administrators and staff.
"This is the worst yet," said Superintendent Kirsten Vital, a 20-year veteran of California's education system. "I've never seen anything like it."
Across the country, mass layoffs of teachers, counselors and other staff members — caused in part by the drying up of federal stimulus dollars — are leading to larger classes and reductions in everything that is not a core subject, including music, art, clubs, sports and other after-school activities.
Educators and others worry the cuts could lead to higher dropout rates and lower college attendance as students receive less guidance and become less engaged in school. They fear a generation of young people could be left behind.
...
"Literally tens of millions of students will experience these budget cuts in one way or another," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is urging Congress to provide another round of emergency funding for schools. "If we do not help avert this state and local budget crisis, we could impede reform and fail another generation of children."
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has introduced legislation that would create a $23 billion fund to help schools retain teachers, principals and other staff members. The fate of the bill is uncertain.
The American Association of School Administrators estimates that 275,000 education jobs will be cut in the coming school year, based on an April survey. Other AASA surveys found that 52 percent of administrators plan to cut extracurricular activities, and 51 percent are reducing elective courses not required for graduation.
As Chairman Miller said, "Our responsibility to keep the economic recovery moving forward has not ended. That’s why I introduced the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812) earlier this year. It will create up to a million jobs quickly in both the public and private sectors and help restore vital services that families rely on. I am pleased to see so many of my colleagues support this legislation and that Senator Sherrod Brown announced he will be introducing a companion bill in the Senate.”
“As the House prepares to vote on the emergency spending bill today, communities across this country are facing an education crisis with hundreds of thousands of teachers at all levels at risk of losing their jobs.The President shares the concern of millions of Americans that cuts to state and local budgets are forcing states and localities to cut education spending drastically, impacting the learning and growth of our nation’s children. While some states may not feel the impact yet, there are thousands of teachers who will receive pink slips in the coming months. The President strongly supports targeted aid focused on preventing these teacher layoffs in order to stem the education crisis.”
The House Appropriations Committee will vote on the legislation later today. [Note: This vote was postponed.]
U.S. Rep. George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and a lead champion to help save teacher jobs, applauded the White House for their clear message.
“The President knows the desperate situation in our schools. He knows the cost of inaction for our schools, our teachers, our students, our families and our communities. Today, he’s sent us the clear message that Congress has to act now to help prevent these layoffs that would punish teachers, devastate communities and set back the significant progress out students are making in school. ”
Yesterday, the White House released state-by-state estimates of the number of jobs that will be saved or created through the $23 billion Education Jobs Fund.
View the state-by-state job estimates.
View the White House fact sheet, “Keep Our Teachers Working”
This is a continuation of hearings the committee is holding as part of a bipartisan, transparent effort to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind.
President Obama said:
And it’s why, through our recovery efforts, we’ve provided emergency aid that saved the jobs of more than 400,000 teachers and other education jobs -– and why I believe these efforts must continue. I believe these efforts must continue as states face severe budget shortfalls that put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. We need and our children need our teachers in the classroom. We need your passion and your patience, your skill and experience, your determination to reach every single child.The White House says, "Now we need swift, bold action from Congress to respond to state and local budget cuts that are placing public education at risk and endangering teacher jobs. Thanks to the leadership of Senator Harkin and Congressmen Miller and Obey, we have legislation to avert this crisis."
Chairman Miller has been making the case that that additional funding for states is vital to our continued economic expansion. He was a co-sponsor of the Jobs for Main Street Act that passed the House in December and waits on Senate action.
Chairman Miller along with House Democrats and a bipartisan group of mayors are behind the Local Jobs for America Act, authored by Rep. George Miller, that will save and create jobs quickly in both the public and private sectors and help restore vital services that families and local communities rely on.
See the Obama Administration’s letter of strong support to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid on this legislation.
WHAT:
Hearing on “The Impact of Concussions on High School Athletes”
WHO:
Gerard A. Gioia, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Pediatric Neuropsychology, Director, Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program, Children’s National Medical Center, Rockville, MD
Linda Kohn, Ph.D., Director, Health Care Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office, Washington D.C.
Michael Monacelli, Athletic Director and Head Football Coach, Caledonia-Mumford Central High School, Caledonia, New York
Michelle Pelton, Former High School Athlete, Swansea, MA
WHEN:
Thursday, May 20, 2010
9:00 a.m. EDT (updated May 14)
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website.
Take a peek behind the scenes at their meeting:
In the New York Times editorial, Saving the Teachers, they say:
Last year’s $100 billion education stimulus plan insulated the public schools from the worst of the recession and saved an estimated 300,000 jobs. With the economy still lagging and states forced to slash their budgets, Congress must act again to prevent a wave of teacher layoffs that could damage the fragile recovery and hobble the school reform effort for years to come.(emphasis added)
In March, Representative George Miller, a Democrat of California, introduced a jobs bill that included a $23 billion school rescue plan. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, has since introduced a similar plan fashioned as an emergency spending bill. The House version is the better of the two.
The need for a second school stimulus plan was underscored on Monday by a new analysis from the American Association of School Administrators, which reported that cash-strapped districts were prepared to cut as many 275,000 jobs in the 2010-2011 school year.
The loss of that many paychecks — and the resulting decline in consumer spending — could kill off still more jobs in the communities where teachers and other school employees live.
Harold Meyerson wrote about the school recession in the Washington Post:
The worst recession since the 1930s is clobbering the nation's schools.The Local Jobs for America Act allocates $23 billion this year to help states support 250,000 education jobs. And it does a lot more for local communities like funding for firefighters and police.
In Indiana and Arizona, the legislatures have eliminated free all-day kindergarten. In Kansas, some school districts have gone to four-day weeks. In New Jersey, 60 percent of school districts are reducing their course offerings. In Albuquerque, the number of school district employees is down 10 percent. In the D.C. suburbs, Maryland's Prince George's and Virginia's Prince William counties have increased their class sizes.
This is part of a continued series of hearings the committee is holding as part of a bipartisan, transparent effort to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind.
This is part of a continued series of hearings the committee is holding as part of a bipartisan, transparent effort to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind.
WHAT:
Hearing on “Supporting America’s Educators: The Importance of Quality Teachers and Leaders”
WHO:
Panel I:
Deborah Ball, Ph.D, Dean, School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Pamela S. Salazar, Ed.D Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation Teachers, Washington, DC
Marcus A. Winters, Senior Fellow, The Manhattan Institute, New York, NY
Panel II:
Jeanne Burns, Associate Commissioner of Teacher Education Initiatives, Office of the Governor, Louisiana Board of Regents,
Baton Rouge, LA
Tony Bennett, Superintendent, Indiana Office of Public Instruction, Indianapolis, IN
Monique Burns Thompson, President, Teach Plus in Boston, Boston, MA
John Kaplan, President, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Marie Parker-McElroy, Instructional Coach, Fairfax County Public Schools, Falls Church, VA
Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach, CA
WHEN:
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
2:00 p.m. EST
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website.
CNN has video of some of Richard Simmon's comments.
The FIT Kids Act, which passed the House of Representatives on April 21, 2010, renews the emphasis on physical education in schools. The Act would work to ensure kids are active during the school day and are taught to be personally responsible for their health. As a leading advocate for passage of the FIT Kids Act, Simmons spoke about his findings from the 200 days he spends on the road each year, visiting schools and communities across the country.
There will also be three hearings this week on the Protecting America's Workers Act, the administration's ESEA reauthorization blueprint, and addressing the needs of diverse students.
WHAT:
Hearing on “Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization: Addressing the Needs of Diverse Students”
WHO:
Dr. Daniel Curry, Superintendent, Lake Forest School District, Felton, DE
Dr. Jack Dale, Superintendent, Fairfax County Public Schools, Falls Church, VA
Arelis Diaz, Assistant Superintendent, Godwin Heights Public Schools, Wyoming, MI
Jacqui Farmer Kearns, Ed.D., Principal Investigator, National Alternate Assessment Center, Lexington, KY
Marcus Levings, Chairman, Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, New Town, ND
Michael T. S. Wotorson, Executive Director, Campaign for High School Equity, Washington, DC
WHEN:
Thursday, March 18, 2010
10:00 a.m. EST
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website.
WHAT:
“The Obama Administration’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization Blueprint”
WHO:
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
WHEN:
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
2:30 pm. EST
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website.
It says:
The Keeping All Students Safe Act in the House would implement minimum federal safety standards for public schools similar to those that exist for hospitals and other community facilities. There is no current federal regulation on how seclusion and restraint can be used in schools, both private and public.We encourage you to watch the debate on the House floor today, read the entire ABC News article and learn more about H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
The bipartisan effort is led by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and was prompted by a report last year that said two decades of torture-like tactics, mostly on special needs kids, went unregulated on the federal level.
The legislation will – for the first time – protect children from abusive uses of restraint and seclusion in U.S. schools. This legislation is a direct response to recent U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation that found that at least hundreds of kids were being abused in school by misuses of restraint or seclusion. The victims were children as young as three and four, with disabilities and without disabilities, in public and private schools. In some cases, children died.
GAO found that teachers are too often using these practices as frequent discipline. They’re using it when children fidget in their chairs, are unwilling to follow directions or leave a room.
In some cases, these abuses are nothing short of torture: teachers tying children to chairs, taping their mouths shut, using handcuffs, denying them food, fracturing bones, locking them in small dark spaces, and sitting on them until they turn blue.
GAO also found that there are no federal laws on the books to keep this from happening in schools, where kids spend most of their time. Hospitals and other facilities that receive federal taxpayer dollars do have laws in place to protect kids from these practices. Without a federal standard, state laws are all over the map. Nineteen states have no laws whatsoever – meaning kids have no protections.
The bill has bipartisan support – it was introduced by U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who both serve on the House Education and Labor Committee and are members of their respective party leaderships.
Learn more about the GAO’s shocking investigation into the use of seclusion and restraint in schools around the country.
Read more about H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
Earlier today, the committee announced plans for a bipartisan, transparent effort to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind. For more information, click here.
The Washington Post said:
President Obama will seek to raise academic standards across the country by requiring states to certify that their benchmarks for reading and mathematics put students on track for college or a career, administration officials said Sunday.That matches the testimony that the Committee heard in December and what Chairman Miller said last June:
The proposal, part of Obama's evolving blueprint for a revision of the No Child Left Behind law, was expected to be released Monday as the president meets with governors in Washington. It will give a further boost to a state-led movement toward common standards, a groundbreaking development for a public education system in which current expectations for students vary widely from coast to coast.
We won’t be able to build the world-class education system our economy needs and our children deserve unless all students are taught to internationally-benchmarked standards that prepare them for college and good jobs and to compete in a 21st century global economy.However, this is just one aspect of the larger goal of an open and transparent effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind. It will start with a series of hearings in the coming weeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead as we work to ensure an excellent education is available to every student in America.
The committee’s first hearing will focus on charter schools and will be held on February 24, 2010.
In a joint statement, Chairman George Miller and Ranking Member John Kline as well as Rep. Dale E. Kildee and Rep. Michael N. Castle pledged "a bipartisan, open and transparent effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind -- a law that we all agree is in need of major reform. It will start with a series of hearings in the coming weeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead as we work to ensure an excellent education is available to every student in America."
"This is the best opportunity we have had to have really substantial change in how we meet the educational needs of our kids," Miller said in an interview. "Congress would love to go home and say, 'We fixed No Child Left Behind.' "
The committee’s first hearing will focus on charter schools and will be held on February 24, 2010.
Beginning today, groups and stakeholders can send the committee their input and suggestions at eseacomments@mail.house.gov. The deadline for comments is March 26, 2010.
The President’s proposed budget includes a request for $49.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, a $3.5 billion increase from last year’s request. It streamlines programs through consolidation and program elimination with an eye on program effectiveness. Specifically, the President’s budget will:
Toppo reports:
The proposal would rework the way the federal government judges public schools, scrapping a requirement that states increase the percentage of students meeting standards each year, though it allows states to set their own standards.And the Administration has put their money where their mouth is. In the budget, they requested nearly $3 billion dollars in increased resources to help schools meet this higher standards.
In its place, President Obama wants lawmakers to consider rewarding states that show progress toward internationally benchmarked, nationally developed standards.
...
Obama and Arne Duncan, his Education secretary, have long said No Child Left Behind doesn't hold states to high enough standards. On a conference call Monday, Duncan told reporters the law "often does little to reward progress" of schools that help students achieve — and lets states set standards that are too low to allow U.S. children to get into college or compete internationally.
"In too many states, those standards are too low, and the existing law doesn't provide states with incentives to raise their standards," Duncan said. "In fact, quite the opposite is true."
About the budget request, Chairman Miller said:
Learn more about the Elementary and Secondary Act and the President's educational budget proposals.
I applaud the President’s continued funding commitment to early education and our K-12 schools. His budget sends the right message about balancing incentives with resources – spurring major school improvements and providing the resources needed to make them. I agree with his focus on rigorous standards, effective teachers and turning around our lowest performing schools. We will examine these and other key areas as we begin working on a bipartisan rewrite of our federal education laws.
The president’s fiscal year 2011 budget, slated to be released Monday, will seek a 6.2 percent increase to the U.S. Department of Education’s budget, including up to $4 billion more for K-12 education. The department’s discretionary budget for fiscal 2010 is roughly $63.7 billion.Chairman Miller said after the speech:
A large piece of the increase, $1.35 billion, would be aimed at extending beyond this year the $4 billion in economic-stimulus program Race to the Top grants and opening up the competition—now limited to states—to school districts. The president highlighted the Race to the Top saying it had “broken through the stalemate between left and right,” and pledged to expand the reform priorities of that competition—among them turning around failing schools and increasing the supply of effective teachers—to all 50 states.
“The idea here is simple,” he said. “Instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success. Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform—reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner cities.”
...
President Obama also called on Congress to pass legislation that would make sweeping changes to the student loan program and redirect money from the projected savings to building new school facilities and bolstering community colleges, early-childhood-education programs, and Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
“I am especially pleased that President Obama called on Congress to rewrite our nation’s federal education laws. The key to getting this done will be bipartisanship. I plan to begin working on this immediately with this administration, Congressman Kline, our colleagues on the House Education and Labor Committee and all parties that have ideas about how to improve our schools.We encourage you to read the entire Education Week article. Click on the links to learn more about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Race to the Top, and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“Throughout his speech, President Obama talked about changing the way Washington works. One way we can do just that is by enacting legislation already passed by the House that would invest billions of dollars to help families pay for college – at no cost to taxpayers – by eliminating taxpayer subsidies for student loan middle men. Ending these subsidies will save $87 billion that we can invest directly in our college students and in improving early education and community colleges. It’s a much better use of taxpayer dollars.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the House passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes critical investments in education, worker training, job creation, and other priorities that will help the U.S. economy move toward recovery. U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, released the following statement:
WHAT:
Full Committee Hearing on “Improving Our Competitiveness: Common Core Education Standards”
WHO:
The Honorable Bill Ritter, Jr., Governor of Colorado
Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director, Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, D.C.
Doug Kubach, President and CEO, Pearson Assessment and Information, San Antonio, TX
Cathy Allen, Vice Chair for the Board of Education at St. Mary’s County Public Schools, Leonardtown, MD
WHEN:
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
10:00 a.m. EST
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website. Access the webcast when the hearing begins »
The high school dropout crisis poses one of the greatest threats to our nation’s economic growth and competitiveness. Each day 7,000 U.S. students drop out of high school. More than half of all students who drop out are from the so-called “dropout factories” – the 2,000 high schools with dropout rates above 40 percent. Many of these students come from a struggling middle school. President Obama has challenged Congress and the American people to take action by asking every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or training. This will require addressing our nation’s dropout crisis and dramatically improving graduation rates.
The Graduation for All Act (H.R. 4122) will make a down-payment on our future competitiveness by helping our lowest-performing middle and high schools improve student achievement, increase graduation rates, and promote college enrollment. Specifically, the legislation would:
Ensuring More Children Have Access to Healthy and Nutritious Meals
ENSURING IMPROVED ACCESS AND QUALITY OF MEALS FOR ALL CHILDREN
Children should not have to go hungry – and they should have access to nutritious foods that will help them thrive physically and academically. In this difficult economic climate, the federal child nutrition programs have an increasingly important role to play in providing children with healthy meals while at school, childcare, or during the summer months. Over 32 million children each year are served by these programs. For many children, these meals may be the only healthy foods they receive during the day.
Research shows that children who are hungry have a harder time paying attention and learning in the classroom. Low-income children are also at greater risk of going hungry or becoming overweight, during the summer months. Providing children with access to healthier, nutritious foods at school, child care, summer programs, or other educational settings is vital to our efforts to help all children learn, succeed and grow.
To ensure that children can continue to benefit from these programs and services, Congress will temporarily extend expiring provisions of the Child Nutrition Act until a more comprehensive reauthorization of the law occurs next year. This one-year temporary extension will generate a savings of $150 million, which will be reinvested to meet critical child nutrition needs across the country. These new investments will address President Obama’s and Congress’ priorities to end hunger and improve child nutrition, increase access to quality school meals, and build program capacity.
Visit the hearing page for the full list of witnesses.
“There’s no question that a great teacher is the key ingredient in a child’s education. It is no longer acceptable to allow our poorest children, who need effective teachers the most, to suffer in a system that is not helping them to achieve,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. “A young person entering the teaching workplace today wants it to look like their friends’ workplace, but don’t receive the same level of structure, support, or professional development opportunities offered in other industries. This is about being on the right side of history, about changing the teaching workplace to help every student and every teacher excel.”
The Obama administration has already taken steps toward improving teacher equity. In order to be eligible for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states are required to take steps to place effective teachers in the classrooms that need them most.
The Obama administration has already taken steps toward improving teacher equity. In order to be eligible for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states are required to take steps to place effective teachers in the classrooms that need them most.
The hearing page has a complete list of all witnesses.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, today issued the following statement after U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan convened a meeting of stakeholders and education advocates to discuss education reform and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Duncan has visited schools in over 30 states as part of his “Listening and Learning” Tour, which Secretary Duncan launched in May to seek input from stakeholders, teacher and parents on President Obama’s education agenda.
The USA Today says:
Federal agencies that supply food for 31 million schoolchildren fail to ensure that tainted products are pulled quickly from cafeterias, a federal audit obtained by USA TODAY finds.Chairman Miller said, “Ensuring that all children have access to healthy and nutritious meals during the school day is vital to our efforts to help all children learn and succeed. Every possible effort must be made to make sure that the foods served to our schoolchildren are safe to eat. As we work toward reauthorizing the school meal programs, it is clear that further actions must be taken to strengthen the communications, planning and procedures needed to prevent recalled or contaminated foods from entering our cafeterias.”
The delays raise the risk of children being sickened by contaminated food, according to the audit by Congress' Government Accountability Office.
In recent recalls, including one this year in which salmonella-infected peanut butter sickened almost 700 people, the government failed to disseminate "timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodities program," the audit says.
Such alerts sometimes took more than a week to reach schools, "during which time (schools) unknowingly served affected products."
We recommend you read the entire USA Today article, Democratic lawmakers' statements, and the GAO report.
- Invests the bill’s savings in making college affordable and helping more Americans graduate
- Provides reliable, affordable, high-quality Federal student loans for all families
- Prepares students and workers for 21st century jobs by providing all Americans with the skills and resources they need to compete
- Promotes early learning standards reform to ensure the next generation of children enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed in school
- Meets Pay-As-You-Go fiscally responsible principles and reduces the deficit
Let us stop here and recall how the current loan system works:
1) Federal government provides private banks with capital.
2) Federal government pays private banks a subsidy to lend that capital to students.
3) Federal government guarantees said loans so the banks don’t have any risk.
And now, the proposed reform:
1) The federal government makes the loans.
....
If it all works out, Congress will have come a way toward fixing this problem, at least when it comes to federally financed student loans. There’s already a new law that forgives part or all of the debt for graduates who go into careers in public service. Terms will be easier for low-income debtors.
The House will vote on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act today. Stay tuned to our Twitter feed for updates on the debate and the vote.
"This is an important step forward to push for real reform for every child in California and, if done correctly, to provide more transparency that will end the educational inequities and improve classrooms all across the state. It's time to ensure that all of California's students have access to the world-class education they need to grow, thrive and succeed.”
For more information on ‘Race to the Top’ funding, click here.
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office, conducted at the request of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, uncovered hundreds of allegations of abusive uses of seclusion and restraint practices on schoolchildren over the past two decades. In several of those cases, this abuse resulted in the death of a child.
Across the country each year, thousands of schoolchildren—especially disabled ones—are restrained or isolated for misbehaving. The Government Accountability Office reported more than 33,000 incidents of restraint or seclusion last year at schools in Texas and California, two of only six states that track such data. Nineteen states have no regulations at all regarding the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.The Committee held a hearing in May on the findings of the GAO report and to hear testimony from parents of children that had been abused through the use of restraint techniques. The hearing generated considerable press coverage and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, pledged to asking all state school chiefs to submit their plans for using seclusion, restraint and other practices for physical intervention in their schools.
“Children’s safety has to be our number one concern before we begin to think about educating them and doing other things,” said Duncan. “And as we go into the summer and prepare for next school year I want to make sure that as we go into next school year that every state has a real clear plan as to how to do this in a way that makes sense. And doesn’t jeopardize, doesn’t endanger children.”
And again Parade says:
George Miller (D., Calif.) is working on a new set of rules that could limit the use of restraint and seclusion, provide funding to train school staff, and require communication with parents if extreme disciplinary measures are used. Says Miller: “We’re meeting with the Obama Administration and education experts about a federal action to keep kids safe and stop horrific abuses from going unchecked.”We encourage you to read the entire Parade article and watch Chairman Miller 's recent interview on CNN about this topic.
The legislation, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, will generate almost $100 billion in savings over the next ten years that will be used to boost Pell Grant scholarships, keep interest rates on federal loans affordable, create a more reliable and effective financial aid system for families, and enact President Obama’s key education priorities.
In Washington, the effort to limit the use of such techniques is being championed by Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. In January, the California Democrat called for the GAO review, and last month his committee held hearings. What was discovered, he said in an interview, is a system "in which children are unnecessarily dying and being harmed."
In testimony before Congress in May, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called such findings "disturbing" and said he is instructing chief school officers in all 50 states to detail their plans for keeping students safe.
...
The scope of any possible federal law is still uncertain. Mr. Miller and others involved in the discussions say they would like it to be crafted so that states are primarily responsible for developing and enforcing policies.
We encourage you to watch the video testimony and to read the entire Wall Street Journal article.
WHAT:
Subcommittee Hearing on “Strengthening School Safety through Prevention of Bullying”
WHO:
Witnesses TBA
WHEN:
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
10:00 a.m. EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Under current laws, there are no requirements for schools to have safety plans in place when students attend off-campus, overnight trips. The legislation, Phylicia’s Law (H.R. 729), authored by U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ), would rectify this. It would require school districts receiving federal funds through the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to develop a school safety policy for off-campus, overnight field trips and make those policies publicly available. The bill is named after Phylicia Moore, an 18-year-old high school student from New Jersey who tragically died while on a school field trip to Ghana.
Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high, federal data show, and many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals' rising costs.This increased demand and other issues related to child nutrition were raised at the hearing regarding improving child nutrition programs to reduce childhood obesity on May 14, 2009.
Through February, nationwide enrollment in free school lunch programs was up 6.3% over the same time last year, to 16.5 million students, based on data from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which subsidizes the programs. Participation in reduced-price lunch programs rose to 3.2 million students, the data show.
...
Preliminary school lunch data for March suggest that February's record demand may be dipping slightly. Still, Congress should give "serious consideration" to boosting the federal subsidy during the reauthorization this fall of the Child Nutrition Act, says Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. "For millions of children, this is the nutritional safety net."
WHAT:
Hearing on “The Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools”
WHO:
Witnesses TBA
WHEN:
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
10:00 a.m., EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Access the webcast when the hearing begins at 10:00 am EDT »
Some of the most promising and influential public school reform strategies in recent years have been pioneered by the charter movement, including extending learning time, principal autonomy over staff and budget decisions, high expectations for all students, using data-driven research and focusing relentlessly on results.
President Obama has repeatedly called on states to lift restrictions that limit the growth of successful charter schools and encourage rigorous accountability of them.
President Obama has repeatedly called on states to lift restrictions that limit the growth of successful charter schools and encourage rigorous accountability of them.
WHAT:
Hearing on "Building on What Works at Charter Schools”
WHO:
Steve Barr, founder and chairman of the board, Green Dot Public Schools, Los Angeles, CA
David Dunn, director, Texas Charter School Association, Austin, TX
Jim Goenner, board chair, National Association of Charter School Authorizers and lead authorizer at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
John King, managing director, Excellence Preparatory Network, Uncommon Schools, New York, NY
Barbara O’Brien, Lt. Governor, Colorado
Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education
WHEN:
Thursday, June 4, 2009
10:00 a.m, EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
“Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a historic step to help prepare California’s high school students to compete in a global, 21st century economy. Research shows that technology-friendly classrooms help teachers teach more effectively and boost student learning. By requiring these digital textbooks to be aligned with California’s high standards, he is raising the bar for students. I hope other states will follow California’s lead and incorporate digital textbooks into their schools, so that all students in this country can benefit from innovative and effective learning tools. As California grapples with this budget crisis, I hope Governor Schwarzenegger will make the education of our students a top priority.”
For more information on the Governor’s initiative, click here.
This is outrageous. Federal law allows workers in hospitals and treatment centers to restrain children only in emergencies, but the law leaves it up to the states to set policies regarding schools. State laws differ greatly. Many states allow teachers to severely restrain disabled children for little reason. To its credit, Nevada does not. The state outlaws the use of restraints on disabled children except where absolutely necessary and requires that school employees who work with disabled students receive training on “positive behavioral intervention.”
The disparity between states and the harshness of some of the restraint techniques has caught the attention of Congress. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said the result is that many students “are abused under the guise of punishment.”
Miller has called for legislation to outlaw schools from restraining or secluding students except in emergencies. Congress should act on that before any more students are hurt.
Michigan News also ran a similar editorial today. In it, they mentioned the Secretary Duncan's commitment to evaluate state guidelines, ensuring sensible policies are in place next school year. The Michigan News said:
Confining and restraining a student should be the last resort in every classroom. Training must be a critical part of any state policy. School should be a safe place for students and faculty.We encourage you to read the Las Vegas Sun and the Michigan News editorials in their entirety.
His case is one of 10 to be highlighted today during a hearing on Capitol Hill over the use of restraint and seclusion in the USA's public and private schools — techniques often used to control children with disabilities.Today the committee will have a hearing examining the abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint in schools at 10 am ET.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, also out today, finds "widespread" allegations of abuse involving the practices in schools — even when students aren't physically aggressive or dangerous to themselves or others.
Investigators say they uncovered hundreds of allegations of abuse involving restraint or seclusion at public and private schools nationwide between 1990 and 2009.
Additional stories about this subject can be found at NPR, CBS, and CNN. All are worth your time.
The 21st Century Green High Performing Public School Facilities Act, (H.R. 2187), invests billions of dollars in school repair and renovation projects that would create safer, healthier, and more energy-efficient learning environments for students. The legislation makes schools part of the effort to revive the U.S. economy and fight global warming by creating clean energy jobs that will help put workers in hard-hit industries back to work. The bill also makes investments in Gulf Coast schools as they continue to rebuild following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and schools in other areas recovering from natural disasters.
Nationally, only 70 percent of students graduate from high school with a regular high school diploma. Approximately 10 percent of high schools in this country produce close to half of these dropouts. In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama called on lawmakers to address the dropout crisis.
The soaring dropout rate is causing the United States to lose ground educationally to rivals abroad and is trapping millions of young Americans at the very margins of the economy.Nationally, only 70 percent of students graduate from high school with a regular high school diploma. Approximately 10 percent of high schools in this country produce close to half of these dropouts. As the NY Times continues:
Many of this country’s large urban high schools are rightly called “dropout factories” because more students leave school than graduate....The dropout crisis presents a clear danger to national prosperity.There will be a full committee hearing tomorrow at 3pm Eastern to examine how policies for addressing the high school dropout crisis and improving graduation rates can strengthen America’s economic competitiveness.
Nationally, only 70 percent of students graduate from high school with a regular high school diploma. Approximately 10 percent of high schools in this country produce close to half of these dropouts. In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama called on lawmakers to address the dropout crisis.
By a vote of 31 to 14, the Committee passed H.R. 2187, the 21st Century Green High Performing Public School Facilities Act, which would make critical investments to provide more students with modern, healthier, more environmentally-friendly classrooms. It would also support hundreds of thousands of new construction jobs and invest more than half a billion dollars for school facility improvements in the Gulf Coast, where many schools still face considerable damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act could create as many as 136,000 new construction jobs nationwide, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute, while boosting student achievement by creating healthier, safer, and energy-efficient learning environments. Studies show there is a correlation between facility quality and student achievement. The legislation also would provide significant aid for Gulf Coast Schools still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
WHAT:
Full Committee Mark-Up of H.R. 2187 “21st Century Green High-Performing Public School”
WHEN:
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
10:00 a.m. ET
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
School buildings should be safe and healthy learning environments for children. But according to recent estimates, America’s schools are hundreds of billions of dollars short of the funding needed to bring them up to good condition. Research shows a correlation between school facility quality and student achievement. Modernizing school buildings would help revive our economy by creating jobs and preparing workers for the clean energy jobs of the future. And by upgrading school buildings to make them more energy efficient and more reliant on renewable sources of energy, modernized school buildings can also help reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming. Congress already has endorsed these principles by making green school modernization, renovation and repair part an allowable use of funds under the state fiscal stabilization fund in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Click here to download estimates of the amount of funding that each state and school district would receive under H.R. 2187 if it were to be enacted »
The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public Schools Facilities Act (H.R. 2187), passed by the House on May 14, 2009 by a vote of 275-155, would:
The bill, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, (H.R. 2187), reintroduced by U.S. Reps. Ben Chandler (D-KY), George Miller (D-CA), Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) and David Loebsack (D-IA) would provide billions of dollars in funding to schools for much-needed modernization, repair, and renovation projects. It would also provide additional support for Gulf Coast schools still recovering from damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The House passed similar legislation last June.
WHAT:
Full Committee Hearing on “Strengthening America’s Competitiveness through Common Academic Standards”
WHO:
The Honorable James B. Hunt, Jr., Former Governor of North Carolina and Foundation Chair, James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, Durham, North Carolina
Ken James, Commissioner of Education, Arkansas Department of Education, Little Rock, Arkansas
Greg Jones, Chair, California Business for Excellence in Education (CBEE), Sacramento, California
Dave Levin, Co-Founder, KIPP: Knowledge Is Power Program, New York, New York
Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, New York, New York
WHEN:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
10:00 a.m. EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
WHERE:
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Some of these regulations are steps in the right direction; but others will do little to change the criticism facing NCLB . It is troubling that the Bush administration has waited until the last possible minute to address some of the serious concerns with No Child Left Behind, in particular the lack of uniformity across the states when calculating their high school graduation rates. No Child Left Behind law is in need of significant and fundamental improvements -- so that every child has the opportunity to get a world class public education. I look forward to working with the next administration to make the law more fair, more flexible and better funded.
Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert testifies
on September 9, 2008.
“The Benefits of Physical and Health Education for Our Nation’s Children”
A report released by the National Math Panel in March found that the nation’s system for teaching math is “broken and must be fixed” if the U.S. wants to maintain its competitive edge. In May, the Committee first examined the report’s findings and recommendations; this hearing follows up on that hearing.