Chairman Miller Statement at Committee Mark-Up of H.R. 3036, the “No Child Left Inside Act”

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC -- Below are the prepared remarks of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, for a committee mark-up of H.R. 3036, the “No Child Left Inside Act.”

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The Committee will now consider H.R. 3036, the No Child Left Inside Act, sponsored by Congressman Sarbanes.

Environmental education has been with us for a long time. Outdoor education, such as field trips to local nature reserves, has provided countless children with their first exposure to the splendor and fragility of nature, and the impact people have on it. 

Now we need to make environmental education an even more important part of students’ school years.

In addition to getting kids outdoors, we must teach them about the environment as if our society and our local communities depended on it – because the fact is, they do depend on it. 

When we teach students about critical environmental issues like climate change, energy conservation, air pollution, and habitat conservation, we are clearly preparing them to be better stewards of the earth.

And as more and more businesses ‘go green,’ environmental education will prepare new generations of students to be environmental innovators – developing products and processes that are crucial to the future health of the environment and the economy.

Just as importantly, studies in the last several years from the National Environmental Education Foundation and other organizations offer encouraging evidence that environmental education improves teaching and learning in a number of other ways.

For example, according to the foundation, environmental education can help improve students’ motivation to learn, reduce disciplinary problems in the classroom, build students’ critical thinking and social skills, and boost student achievement in other areas of the curriculum, including math and science.

I’m proud to say that California has been a leader in environmental education.  The state is in the process of developing an Environmental Education Initiative to integrate the subject into the classroom. 

H.R. 3036 will help states across the country make environmental education an integrated part of their schools’ curricula.

The bill and the substitute that will be offered later extend the National Environmental Education Act. 

The bill and the substitute create opportunities for enhanced and ongoing professional development in environmental education. They bring teachers into contact with working professionals in environmental fields and encourage mid-career environmental professionals to pursue careers in environmental education.

The bill and the substitute also add a new program to help develop capacity for environmental education.  They authorize funds to expand environmental education, develop state environmental literacy plans, and disseminate information on proven environmental education programs. 

I’d like to thank Congressman Sarbanes for his leadership on this issue.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Thank you.

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