Today, the Democratic Caucus officially re-elected Rep. George Miller to chair the House Education and Labor Committee for the 111th Congress.
It is an honor and a privilege to continue to chair the Education and Labor Committee in the next Congress, and I thank my colleagues for their support.
If anything, this historic election reminded us that Americans from all regions, backgrounds and political stripes are united in our shared hopes and aspirations: A quality, affordable education for our children; a good-paying job with decent benefits; and a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work. In a nation as great as ours, these dreams can – and must – be achieved.
I look forward to working with all members of this committee, the next Congress, and the new administration on a Main Street recovery plan that will revitalize our economy, and toward our larger goal of rebuilding and strengthening America’s middle class. Like President-Elect Obama, I’m confident we can reach this goal by working in a bipartisan way that transcends the politics of the past, and by making sure that our government is open, accountable and engages the public. Moving forward, our committee will also build on our efforts to use innovative strategies to make sure that the voices of Americans around the country are heard here in Washington.
I also know that no one is more excited about the opportunities before us than Senator Ted Kennedy. No one has fought harder for our children, workers and families than Ted, and no one could ask for a better partner in these challenging times. I am thrilled that he has returned to the Senate, and look forward to continuing to work closely with him on the important tasks that lie ahead.
Yesterday's historic election of Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden as our next President and Vice President was a true victory for every child, student, worker and family in America. I congratulate Senators Obama and Biden, and I look forward to working closely with them to change the direction of our country and get our economy moving forward again.
During the past two years, the Education and Labor Committee has focused on strengthening our nation's middle class – a priority that Senators Obama and Biden clearly share, as demonstrated by their careers and the focus of their historic campaign.
With our country facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and our global leadership at risk, this mission is more important than ever.
In the next Congress, this committee will be dedicated to working with the new Obama-Biden administration and members of both parties of Congress to rescue our economy by rebuilding and strengthening America's middle class. We must get started right away by passing a Main Street recovery plan that will get Americans back to work and provide immediate relief to families and workers struggling with long-term unemployment and depleted state budgets.
We will dedicate ourselves to improving our nation's schools and continue our efforts to make college more affordable and accessible, so that every student has the opportunity to succeed. We are committed to rebuilding our country's roads, bridges and schools, and to green retrofitting and other modern energy programs that will create millions of good-paying jobs and reestablish America's technological leadership.
We will fight to restore workers' rights, so that every American can benefit from economic opportunity. And we will make the preservation and strengthening of retirement savings a priority, so that all Americans can enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work.
Today marks a new beginning. Together, we can rescue our economy, restore the promise of the American Dream, and ensure that, in a nation as great as ours, the interests of students, workers, families and retirees are at the heart of our nation's priorities.
In December 2006, Rep. George Miller, the new Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced that the Committee would be dedicated to the mission of strengthening America’s middle class. And over the past two years, the Committee has delivered on its promise. America's students, workers, and families need help more than ever during the current financial crisis, and the Committee will continue its work to strengthen the middle class. Below is an overview of the Committee’s legislative milestones in the 110th Congress.
Affordable colleges » The Committee has enacted three laws that together will make college more affordable and accessible for middle class students, create a more efficient, consumer-friendly, and fair American higher education system, and protect federal student loans from turmoil in the economy.
High quality education » The Committee enacted legislation to strengthen the nation’s premiere early childhood program, giving more young children the skills they need to succeed in school and in life. The Committee also helped enact emergency aid to help Gulf Coast schools and colleges still working to recover from Katrina and Rita. In addition, the Committee took a key step toward improving learning conditions for schoolchildren by passing legislation to help schools modernize their facilities and become more energy-efficient.
A competitive workforce » The Committee has enacted legislation that builds on the principles Democrats first laid out in their “Innovation Agenda – A Commitment to Competitiveness to Keep America Number One.” These new laws will help prepare more Americans for jobs in emerging, high-tech industries that will keep our nation more competitive and create more good-paying jobs here at home.
Fairness in the workplace » During the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress, the House passed the first increase in the minimum wage in ten years. Since then, Committee has passed a series of key measures to strengthen workers’ rights, improve workplace safety, end discriminatory practices that have unfairly eroded workers’ pay and other benefits, and help workers balance demands of work and family.
Retirement security » While roughly 50 million American workers now have 401(k) style retirement plans, studies show that the vast majority of these workers don’t know how much they are paying in fees to the companies that service their 401(k) plans – fees that could be eating away at their retirement savings. The Committee passed legislation to help workers better understand these hidden fees and strengthen their retirement security.
Safe children and youth » The Committee enacted laws to protect America's children and youth, including runaway, homeless and missing children, and to increase penalties when employers violate child labor laws. The House also passed legislation to protect teens in public and private residential programs.
Accountability and responsibility » The Committee conducted oversight over government agencies in its jurisdiction, shining a light on the Bush administration’s failures to safeguard taxpayer dollars used to fund education programs and its efforts to weaken protections for workers. In some cases, the Committee’s investigations paved the way for legislation and spurred the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue a criminal investigation.
By the numbers...» The Committee has held 113 hearings and heard from 683 witnesses in its efforts to grow and strengthen the nation’s middle class. In the next Congress, the Committee will continue to build on this record by working to improve the lives of children, students, workers and families.
Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert testifies on September 9, 2008.
The administration should do more to improve academic standards for schoolchildren who attend Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools, witnesses told the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education at a hearing on Tuesday. Specifically, they said the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Education must work more closely with tribal organizations to develop accountability systems under the No Child Left Behind Act. The federal government provides elementary and secondary education and educational assistance to Indian children directly through federally-funded schools or through assistance to public schools. Ninety percent of Indian students attend public schools operated by local school districts. However, 10 percent attend BIE schools, which are schools funded by the Department of the Interior. BIE schools are subject to NCLB with limited exceptions.
"Our success in the 21st century economy is directly tied to our ability to produce a high quality labor force. And that ability is, of course, directly tied to our ability to meet the challenge of providing every child – including every Indian child – with a world-class education. We must ensure that Indian tribes – which are sovereign entities who best understand their children’s needs – are full partners in that process." -- Subcommittee Chairman Dale Kildee.
"Recognizing and validating the cultural, social and linguistic needs of American Indians is critical to guaranteeing the continuity of their communities... We believe with good faith collaboration that we can provide our children with an education that honors their Native identities while simultaneously preparing them for successful futures by providing them with opportunities to incorporate into the curriculum their rich cultural heritages, languages, and traditions." -- Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, President of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), who testified that the BIE should expand upon the culturally based instruction currently taking place in Indian schools by promoting stronger integration of Native culture and languages into the curriculum.
"The frustration with this situation is NCLB provides opportunities for tribes to have a significant voice on assessing the quality of education for their children and making changes to their educational programs based on those assessments... The manner in which the BIE has chosen to implement NCLB has left tribes with no voice in educating their own children." -- Ted Hamilton, Executive Director of the Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium, who testified about the need to develop strong accountability systems tailored to BIE schools under NCLB.
Witnesses told the Committee at today's hearing on physical education in America's schools that expanding and improving physical education in the nation’s schools is key to fighting child obesity. Studies show that more than a third of U.S. schoolchildren are now obese, that the physical activity of American children is dramatically decreasing as they move into their teenage years, and that overweight children are now more vulnerable to serious diseases that were once a rarity among young kids, including cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, and certain types of cancer.
U.S. schools have drastically reduced their physical education programs in recent years; fewer than ten percent of all public schools now offer daily physical education classes. Although the National Association for Sport and Physical Activity recommends at least 150 minutes of exercise a week for elementary students and 225 minutes a week for middle and high school students, most schools offer far less.
Improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in U.S. schools is vital to maintaining America’s global leadership, witnesses told the Committee in yesterday's hearing. A report released in March by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel found that the nation’s system teaching math is “broken and must be fixed” if the U.S. wants to maintain its competitive edge. Among other things, the panel called for a comprehensive, systemic effort to strengthen math education, including improving teacher training and professional development. The panel of experts, which included business leaders, a teacher, and the first American woman to travel in space, recommended expanding partnerships between the business and education communities that focus on bolstering STEM education, and increasing training and support programs for teachers. The witnesses also urged lawmakers to fully fund the America COMPETES Act, a law enacted by the Democratic Congress last year to provide education and job training for students and workers in math, science, technology, and engineering fields. Last year, Congress approved $193 million in funding for math and science education in the COMPETES Act, but President Bush vetoed that legislation.
“America won’t be able to maintain our great legacy of innovation and discovery, let alone compete in today’s global economy, unless we make investing in math and science education a top priority,” said Chairman George Miller. “Last year, Congress took a critical first step by enacting legislation to provide workers with the training and skills needed to compete in 21st century jobs. Now we must build on that down payment by working with business leaders and key stakeholders to help arm students with an excellent foundation in math, science, and other cutting-edge fields.” More »
Setting high standards, ensuring that all children have access to outstanding teachers, holding educators accountable for their schools’ progress, and restructuring chronically struggling schools, are vital to creating a world-class public education system, mayors and superintendents of major U.S. cities told the Committee at yesterday's hearing.
Each of the four cities represented at the hearing -– New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Atlanta -– have made impressive gains in recent years in boosting student proficiency in reading and math and narrowing the achievement gap between groups of students. As the witnesses explained, many of these gains are the result of the innovative reforms being pursued through mayor-superintendent partnerships, including performance pay initiatives for teachers and principals, increased accountability, and community-wide partnerships that can help strengthen schools and provide better support for teachers. More »
On May 7, the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 was signed into law. This measure provides new protections to ensure that families can continue to access the loans they need to pay for college. Chairman Miller said: "Today we have taken another big step in the right direction for students and families working hard to pay for college in a very tough economy."
On June 3, the "Protecting Our Children Comes First Act" was signed into law, reauthorizing and funding federal missing and exploited children programs, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Chairman Miller and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy said in a joint statement: "Nothing matters more than keeping our children out of harm’s way, and this law is a fundamental part of our efforts to do just that."
The House passed the bipartisan Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 on June 25 by a vote of 318-103. The bill would stop child abuse in teen residential programs attended by tens of thousands of U.S. teenagers, including therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness camps, boot camps, and behavior modification facilities. Depending on the state where they are located, some of these programs are regulated; some are not. As a result of this loose patchwork of regulations, reports of child abuse at the programs have frequently gone unchecked. The Government Accountability Office found thousands of allegations of child abuse and neglect at residential programs for teens between 1994 and 2007. Tragically, in a number of cases, this abuse and neglect led to the death of a child.
Public school buildings around the country would receive much-needed renovations and modernization under the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, passed by the House on June 4 by a vote of 250 to 164. The measure would provide funding to states and school districts to help ensure that school facilities and learning environments are safe, healthy, energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and technologically up-to-date. The bill would also provide additional support for Gulf Coast schools still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
On June 26, the Committee passed the Providing Resources Early for Kids Act, by a vote of 31-11, to improve the quality of state pre-school programs, which collectively serve more than 1 million young children. Research increasingly demonstrates that the first years of children’s lives have a much greater and more lasting impact on their future growth and learning than was previously understood. H.R. 3289 establishes a federal-state partnership to expand high-quality early childhood educational opportunities to more children. It provides incentives to states to ensure that their pre-k programs meet children’s developmental and educational needs.
On June 18, the Committee passed the No Child Left Inside Act by a vote of 37-8. This measure would improve environmental education for schoolchildren both inside and outside of the classroom.
Also on June 18, the Committee passed the Education Begins at Home Act, a bill to provide critical support services to families, reduce child abuse, and help more children arrive at school ready to succeed by expanding access to early childhood home visitation programs for parents and children.
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