“Nationwide, our high school seniors are not where they need to be in math and reading. It is hard to be excited about the small gains some students are making when we know that all students, in every state, in every school, need to be making gains for both their success in life and the future of this country,” said Miller.  “This report makes it very clear that we need real change in our schools, so we can finally see real results on a national level. The case for dramatic education reform is written in the pages of this report. It is simply unacceptable for only a small demographic of students to progress.”

“Reports like these, while limited in fully evaluating how we educate our children, are informative. Because of the NAEP reports we know that our students have only made small gains in math. While I’m encouraged that New Jersey students are doing better in math relative to the national average, neither the state nor national assessment should be satisfactory to anyone,” said Holt. “We still must act aggressively to improve the math and science education that is critical to developing the technically sophisticated workforce that is in increasingly high demand in the 21st century.”

More information on the NAEP report

“Since Democrats regained control of the House in 2006, the Democratic Congress has made historic investments to make college more affordable -- all at no new cost to taxpayers. This has been and continues to be a top priority because it is unacceptable for a student to be forced to mortgage their future to pay for college. In this session of Congress alone, we’ve made major strides: first, the Democratic Congress increased the maximum Pell Grant award in the Recovery Act, then we took action to finally stop wasting tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies paid to banks to make federal student loans, and instead invested those dollars directly in students and families working very hard to pay for college.

“Year after year, the College Board report shows us that the work we’re doing is making a difference for students and families, especially in this economy. With more and more students relying on the Pell Grant scholarship, it is clear from this report that we must continue our efforts. This report proves that despite Republican opposition, the accomplishments of this Democratic Congress on behalf of students and families are working.”


BACKGROUND INFROMATION:

Miller is the author of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, legislation that was passed as part of the historic health care reform bill. The law invested over $60 billion in college aid at no new cost to taxpayers by converting all new federal student lending to the stable, effective and cost-efficient Direct Loan program.

For the current academic year, the Pell Grant scholarship increased to $5,550, and beginning in 2013 the maximum scholarship will increase with the cost of inflation by linking the scholarship to the Consumer Price Index.

In the previous sessions of Congress, Miller authored several additional laws that made college more affordable. These laws lowered interest rates on need-based Federal student loans, made federal student loan repayment more manageable by establishing an Income-Based Repayment program that allows borrowers to cap their monthly loan payment amounts, strengthened consumer protections for borrowers of both federal and private student loans, and protected federal student loans from turmoil in the financial markets.

“Earlier this year, we made the decision to invest in students and American jobs and protect taxpayers,” said Miller, the author of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. “Today those critical dollars will go out to colleges and to organizations that are working hard to ensure our students are able to graduate college fully prepared to compete in a global economy.”

The College Access Challenge Grant Program bolsters college access and completion support for students. It supports unique programs at states and institutions that focus on increasing financial literacy and helping institutions retain and graduate students. It was originally passed as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in 2007.  In the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, enacted as part of  the historic Health Care and Education Reconciliation law earlier this year, the program received $150 million a year for the next five years. The total investment in this program was $750 million.

Additionally, $85 million will go out today to HBCUs and $30 million to TCUs. The investments will help renew, reform and expand programs at these institutions to ensure all students are able to succeed.  The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act invested a total of $2.55 billion in HBCUs and minority serving institutions over the next 10 years.

More information about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act

“When a student athlete suffers a concussion, he or she needs support on the field and support in the classroom to ensure a full recovery. Unfortunately, the pressure to play too often outweighs a student athlete’s safety concerns. Thankfully, there is a growing movement among players, coaches, parents and professional athletes to change this old way of thinking,” said Miller, co-sponsor of the concussions legislation. “The legislation we introduced this week recognizes that sports are deeply ingrained in our communities and our culture which is why the safety and well-being of student athletes have to be the top priority.”

“Concussions are an unfortunate reality of all sports at all levels of competition,” said Congressman Tim Bishop.  “Providing athletes, parents, coaches and teachers with the tools to properly diagnose and treat concussions will make sports safer and ensure student athletes are performing at their best in the classroom and on the field.”   

The legislation, the Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act, is modeled after recent state action in Washington, Oregon, and other states that have passed laws to help reduce the risk of concussions in youth sports.  It would, for the first time, make sports safer for student athletes by asking school districts to implement a concussion safety and management plan.
 
The plan that school districts develop must educate students, parents, and school personnel about concussion safety and how to support students recovering from concussions.
 
It would require schools to post information about concussions on school grounds and on school websites. It would also support “when in doubt, sit it out” policies for students suspected of sustaining a concussion during a school-sponsored athletic activity.
 
Witnesses discussed the importance of focusing on the student, as well as the student athlete.
 
“The consequences of a concussion, a type of mild traumatic brain injury, can be significant for the academic learning and performance of the student learning,” said Gerard Gioia, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology at the Children’s National Medical Center. “The Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act places the focus directly on the student side of the student athlete equation. This bill focuses on what schools can do to support the academic return of the injured/recovering student.”
 
Nearly 90 percent of students report significant worsening of post-concussion symptoms when they attempt school tasks, according to Dr. Gioia’s research.
 
Alison Conca-Cheng, a senior soccer player from Centennial High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, discussed how her recent concussion on August 20, has affected her academic performance.

“About 45 minutes into my hour-long class periods, my concentration would be completely gone and I would develop a splitting headache. This has been a big problem for me, as I am taking five Advanced  Placement classes,” said Conca-Cheng. “Reading textbooks and articles for homework was particularly difficult. It would take me twice as long, and it would be a constant battle with my concentration.”

Concussions cause a spectrum of symptoms, commonly including altered mental status, physical symptoms, cognitive problems and difficulty sleeping.  The number, type and duration of symptoms vary widely for each person. In comparison to older athletes, symptoms are intensified and recovery is prolonged for youth.

Without proper identification, multiple concussions can lead to chronic diseases.

In April of 2010, Owen Thomas, a 21-year-old lineman for the University of Pennsylvania who began playing football at age nine, committed suicide. Owen’s autopsy revealed early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease linked to depression and impulse control prevalent in National Football League (NFL) players who have also committed suicide over the last 10 years. Owen was never diagnosed with concussion, but the only cause of CTE is repetitive brain injury. Owen’s family was unaware of the dangers of concussion.  
 
“Owen was the funniest, most dynamic person you could ever want to meet. If he had not developed CTE, he would have grown up to be a wonderful contributing citizen,” said Rev. Katherine Brearley, Ph.D., Owen Thomas’ mother. “In speaking out about Owen’s brain disease, it is my hope that parents and coaches will unite to improve the safety of younger players, so football can continue to be a powerful and exciting sport that unites families and communities all across the United States.”

Research shows that youth athletes can fully recover within seven days, but overexertion from physical and cognitive activities exacerbates symptoms and protracts recovery time. Studies estimate that over 40 percent of high school athletes return to play too soon. The “when in doubt, sit it out” philosophy helps prevent further injury by asking players who may have suffered concussions to sit out.    
 
“Playing through a concussion is no longer a badge of honor, it’s reckless,” said Sean Morey, former NFL athlete and executive board member with the NFL Players Association. “Reporting our concussion is not a sign of weakness, it’s a responsibility we share to advocate for our own health and safety.”
 
In addition to recent state action, nationwide organizations are ramping up efforts to improve concussion safety. The NFL has taken steps to reduce the risk of concussions on the professional level and in youth sports.  
 
“The ‘Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act’ is a significant step forward in the campaign to protect our kids,” Stanley Herring, M.D., chairman of the Subcommittee on Education and Advocacy of the Head, Neck and Spine Committee of the NFL, and Team Physician for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners. “As more has become known about the dangers of head injuries, the NFL has become the leader on concussions not just for the safety of its own players, but for all athletes at all levels of football as well as all other sports.  I see them every day – boys and girls, soccer, basketball and lacrosse players – young athletes who have endured concussions.  Those children can recover and play again if they receive proper treatment.”

For more information on the bill, click here.

For the first time, the legislation would remove and replace the phrase “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” from federal education, health and labor laws.

“Pejorative and offensive phrases to persons with disabilities don’t belong in conversations and they certainly don’t belong in legislative language. This bill takes the right step forward toward equality and justice for all Americans”, said Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller. “Persons with disabilities have always fought an uphill battle to reduce the stigmas they face in daily life. I’m proud to support this legislation and I applaud my colleagues for passing this important legislation. I look forward to the President signing this bill into law very soon and I hope other committees will take action to make similar changes in their laws.”

The Senate passed the bill in August. The President is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days.

For more information about the bill, click here.

“Currently, educators across the United States are striving to ensure that all public school students are college and career ready to enable their success in this global economy,” Miller wrote. “However, students with disabilities often face academic, physical, social, and economic challenges when transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce. As a result, they are less likely than other students to make this transition successfully. 

“The federal government plays a significant role in supporting students with disabilities through a variety of programs. I remain concerned about whether federal efforts adequately provide a comprehensive, coordinated approach to transition services for youth with disabilities,” Miller said in the letter.

Below is the full text of the letter to GAO.

 
***
The Honorable Gene Dodaro
Acting Comptroller General
U.S. Government Accountability Office
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548

Dear Mr. Dodaro:
I write to ask that the Government Accountability Office  (GAO) to examine how students with disabilities transition from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce and how existing federal programs support that transition.
The demand for skilled workers has increased in today’s rapidly changing global economy. Currently, educators across the United States are striving to ensure that all public school students are college and career ready to enable their success in this global economy. However, students with disabilities often face academic, physical, social, and economic challenges when transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce. As a result, they are less likely than other students to make this transition successfully.
The federal government plays a significant role in supporting students with disabilities through a variety of programs. In the past, GAO has reported that a lack of coordination among programs assisting youth with disabilities, as well as differences in program structure and requirements, have affected the provision of services to this population. I remain concerned about whether federal efforts adequately provide a comprehensive, coordinated approach to transition services for youth with disabilities.
Specifically, I request that that GAO undertake the following review:   
• Identify the key federal programs that help support students with disabilities in their transition to postsecondary education or the workforce;

• Examine the challenges students with disabilities face in accessing existing federal programs designed to assist them in transitioning to postsecondary education or the workforce;

• Examine the degree to which federal agencies coordinate their efforts in this area and identify any barriers preventing the optimal level of coordination; and

• Examine how federal agencies use performance and program data to assess the effectiveness of coordination efforts in improving service provision to students with disabilities. 

I appreciate your prompt attention this request and GAO’s assistance to the Committee on these issues. Please direct your staff to coordinate GAO’s work with the Laura Schifter, the Committee’s Disability and Education Policy Advisor. She may be reached at 202-226-2068.

Sincerely,

George Miller
Chairman

“Concussions are an unfortunate reality of competitive athletics,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY). “But raising awareness of concussions among student athletes, coaches and teachers will make sports safer and improve classroom performance.”
 
High school athletes are more prone to sport-related concussions than their collegiate or professional counterparts. Surveys suggest that the prevalence of sports related concussions is much higher than reported and occurrence is highest at the high school level.
 
Witnesses discussed the need for comprehensive standards among all schools to ensure student health and protection.
 
“It is absolutely essential that there be a comprehensive concussion program established in all high schools, as well as youth sports,” said Dr. Hayley Queller, a primary care sports medicine physician. “Without such a program, we are putting our youth at risk of experiencing long-lasting emotional, physiological and academic deficits. To ensure that such programs are created, the first step is community-wide education. Injury prevention, early identification and appropriate management are the principal components to ensure the safe return of our high school athletes back to their sports activities.”
 
Studies estimate that over 40 percent of high school athletes return to play too soon.
 
“As an athletic trainer, it is my obligation to pay attention to every play of every game so I may be able to see an injury happen and know the severity,” said Craig LoNigro, the athletic trainer at Comsewogue High School. “It is my job to convince the athlete, his/her parents and the coaching staff that if action is not taken quickly, we could be dealing with a much bigger issue than losing a game.”
 
According to recent research, 400,000 concussions occurred in high school athletics in the 2008-2009 school year. Concussions account for ten percent of all injuries sustained by high school athletes, 60 percent of which occur in football. While the incident rate is highest among high school football players, girls seem more susceptible to concussions, according to the Journal of Athletic Training.
 
“I believe we need to do a better job advocating for the athlete and it starts with educating every party involved – parents, coaches, athletic trainers, teachers, school nurses and the athletes themselves,” said Caitlin Monaghan, a former high school student athlete from Garden City, New York, who suffered several concussions while playing for her high school’s soccer and basketball teams. “The symptoms, dangers and steps to take when a concussion occurs need to be clearly outlined including regulations concerning return to play.”
 
Witnesses also discussed concussion management among professional athletes. The National Football League (NFL) has recently taken steps to reduce the risk of concussions both in the professional league as well as in youth sports. 
 
“Participation in athletics teaches our children essential life lessons,” said Rich Caster, former football player for the New York Jets. “As we learn more about the dangers of head injuries, the NFL has chosen to become the leader on concussions not just for the safety of its own players, but for all athletes at all levels of football as well as other sports.”

In high school, communities have taken unique approaches to improve concussion management for their youth, including basic steps such as educating the students, parents and school personnel about concussions, removing the student from play when a concussion is suspected and providing students recovering from concussions an individualized plan for returning to school activities.

As part of their campaign, the NFL has started putting posters with information about concussion symptoms in every locker room. Witnesses testified that similar practices in schools would help spur education and communication, and support youth athletes.
 
“Football is truly an amazing sport,” said Courtney Hall, former football player for the San Diego Chargers.” But no sport should unduly endanger the lives of its participants. With more research into ways to protect players, all of us – players, coaches and fans – can continue to enjoy this game for years to come.”

More information, including witness testimony, on this hearing

“As soon as today, California will have access to more than $1.2 billion dollars in emergency aid to help save education jobs – keeping our teachers in their classrooms and our students learning. This is great news for California’s struggling economy, and it’s a critical win for California’s families, teachers and students. This investment ensures California’s students do not become victims of this economy.

“Congress took decisive action earlier this month by returning to Washington for this important vote; prioritizing our teachers and recognizing the urgent needs of our students. Our schools have made real progress under President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan’s leadership, progress that we cannot afford to lose in the wake of this economic crisis.

“This is a significant step forward for our economic recovery, one of many this Congress will take to continue our reform efforts for our children and the future of this country.”

Pelosi and Miller have fought for almost a year for additional emergency aid to keep teachers in the classroom.  Twice, the House passed funding to support teacher jobs, but Senate Republicans blocked the legislation from moving forward. Miller initially proposed a $23 billion dollar emergency “Education Jobs Fund” in late 2009.

Miller also authored the Local Jobs for America Act, introduced in March, which would help create and save public and private sector jobs and restore vital services in local communities. For more information about Miller’s work on jobs, click here.

“With our economic recovery and global competitiveness at stake, our children need a strong education foundation to be able to grow, thrive and succeed. The Race to the Top competition reignited a much-needed conversation in this country about the need for real education reform. The states who won deserve credit for their determination and commitment to our students, teachers and schools.  They have shown a willingness to think beyond traditional school reform. The other states which competed for these funds also showed the value they place on moving education reform forward in our country.

“While I am disappointed that California was not among the winners of Race to the Top, this competition has demonstrated there is a desire to leverage real change in school districts throughout California --  to end the status quo for our students and encourage innovation at the local level. I applaud the leaders and teachers in the districts that developed California’s Race to the Top application. These districts represent the future of our public education system in California and deserve recognition for everything they are doing to transform our schools and ensure our students are able to compete in a global economy.”

For more information about Race to the Top, click here.

###

“Failing schools affect not only students and teachers, but entire communities. Turning around low achieving and persistently failing schools requires critical attention, resources, flexibility and planning for success – and keeping a close eye on the needs of the students and the community. In recent hearings, we’ve heard from expert witnesses and high quality providers with the skills and expertise to help turn around schools.

"However, 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.”

The Education and Labor Committee has held several hearings looking at best practices for turning around low performing schools.

More information about school turnaround hearings

“These resources are vital to addressing the funding crisis we’re seeing in California schools and in schools across the nation. This funding helps ensure that California teachers are in the classroom where they belong, not on the unemployment line. A child only has one chance at an education, and continued Recovery Act funding ensures that their educations aren’t jeopardized by overcrowded classrooms.”

This funding comes on the heels of recent action by Congress to save jobs through the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.  This bill, signed into law by President Obama last week, will provide $10 billion to save and create teacher jobs, which will translate into 16,500 California teacher jobs. California was the first state to submit its application to the Department of Education for this critical funding.

Chairman Miller has been a key advocate in the House for additional aid to keep teachers in the classroom. He 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.

More information on the Recovery Act
More information on Chairman Miller’s efforts to save teacher jobs

“It was the right decision to come back to Washington to take this important vote,” Miller added. “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.”

The legislation includes $10 billion to save teacher jobs and $16.1 billion in health assistance to the states. The funding will also keep police officers and firefighters on the job, at no cost to taxpayers.

According to estimates from the Department of Education, the $10 billion in education funding will save 161,000 teacher jobs. And the Economic Policy Institute estimates the Medicaid funds will save and create 158,000 jobs, including preventing the layoff of police officers and firefighters.  More than half of these jobs will be in the private sector, including workers who contract for or supply services to state and local governments.  

Under the bill, California will receive an estimated $1.8 billion in Medi-Cal assistance and $1.2 billion in emergency education funding.  It is estimated that 16,500 California teacher jobs would be saved by this funding, including an estimated 249 education jobs in Miller’s 7th Congressional District, which includes portions of Solano and Contra Costa counties.

Miller said that he has indicated to the Department of Education that the education funds should be sent out to the states and distributed to local communities as quickly as possible.

The bill reduces the deficit by $1.4 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  The bill includes costs of $26.1 billion and offsets of $27.5 billion – including $17.7 billion in spending cuts and $9.8 billion by closing tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship American jobs overseas.  

The legislation uses the same formula to distribute the education funds to states as was used in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund under the Recovery Act .  The formula allocates funds based on each state’s relative population of individuals ages 5 to 24 and of each state’s share of the total population. Governors will distribute funds to districts using the state’s primary funding formulae for K-12 education or each district’s share of Title I.   Once the bill is enacted, Governors will be required to tell local school districts which formula they plan to use to allocate the funds to ensure districts can plan immediately to hire back staff.

Miller has been fighting for almost a year for additional emergency aid to keep teachers in the classroom.  He initially proposed a $23 billion dollar emergency “Education Jobs Fund” in late 2009. Twice, the House passed funding to support teacher jobs, but Senate Republicans blocked the legislation from moving forward. Miller also authored the Local Jobs for America Act, introduced in March, which would help create and save public and private sector jobs and restore vital services in local communities.

More information about the work Miller has done to save jobs

More information about the bill

“Our children need healthy meals to be able to grow, thrive and succeed in school and in life. Today, the Senate took an important step forward by passing their bipartisan legislation. I applaud Senator Lincoln and Senator Chambliss for their leadership to help get America’s families and children back on the road to healthy eating and healthier living. By changing the way our children eat in school, after school, in child care and community-based settings, we can make a real difference for our children and for our future.”

The Education and Labor Committee has held several hearings on child nutrition. In June, Miller introduced the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act, bipartisan legislation that would dramatically improve the federal child nutrition programs. The Education and Labor Committee passed the legislation in July.

“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.”

Miller has helped lead the charge in the House to protect teacher jobs. He introduced the Local Jobs for America Act in March to help create and save public and private sector jobs and restore vital services in local communities. The provision in the bill to support education jobs was initially included in the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010, which passed the House in December 2009.

More information about Miller’s work to save and protect jobs

“I look forward to returning to Washington next week to ensure our teachers, principals, librarians, guidance counselors and countless other school professionals keep their jobs and our students are able to grow, thrive and succeed. While this won't avert all teacher layoffs, it is a critical lifeline for education professionals across the country.”
 
The legislation would provide $10 billion to help local school districts save or hire teachers and other education professionals. Funds would be distributed through the state’s primary elementary and secondary funding formulae or each school district’s relative share of Title I. In Contra Costa and Solano counties in Miller’s district in California, nearly 600 school professionals have been laid off.

The legislation would also provide $16 billion in additional funding to states through the FMAP program. 

Miller introduced the Local Jobs for America Act in March to help create and save public and private sector jobs and restore vital services in local communities. The provision in the bill to support education jobs was initially included in the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010, which passed the House in December 2009. For more information about Miller’s work to save and protect jobs, click here.

###

“Independent living centers play a critical role for people with disabilities, providing key services like peer counseling and advocacy  and promoting access and participation. This law goes a long way toward ensuring independent living centers do not have to reduce services for people with disabilities. In many areas, independent living centers are the primary provider of services in a community for people with disabilities. Staff at these centers work to empower people with disabilities with choices and the opportunities to help themselves live more independent lives.

“In my home state of California, independent living centers create equal opportunities and run programs for thousands of people with disabilities. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we’re reminded of the plight and the continued fight for all Americans to achieve equal access. By signing this important bill in to law, President Obama has once again shown his commitment to helping all Americans reach their full potential.”

“We wrote the ADA to ensure America works for all Americans. The law broke down barriers, prohibited discrimination, promoted access and provided basic civil rights to people with disabilities. Over the past 20 years, people with disabilities have been able to access educational opportunities and employment.  They’ve been able to use buildings, transportation, and communities that once presented huge obstacles. We have all seen how successful the law has been in providing people with disabilities full participation in society.

“While these improvements occurred, we also saw several court decisions erode the intent of the bill. Fortunately two years ago, with Majority Leader Hoyer and Speaker Pelosi’s leadership, we were able to work together again, in a bipartisan manner, to pass the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. These amendments restored the original intent of the ADA to ensure that the tens of millions of Americans with disabilities who want to work, attend school, and fully participate in our communities will have the chance to do so.

“It’s time for us to look to the future, to honor the successes of the past and build upon them to continue to increase the options of people with disabilities. We still have a long way to go to improve educational outcomes for all students, especially students with disabilities and to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. I am committed to continuing this work, and I look forward to working with advocates, stakeholders, my colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to ensure all people can reach their full potential.”

“If we allow our children’s health to suffer, if we allow more children to go hungry by not taking swift action with this legislation, we fail our children, their families and the future of this country,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee and original co-sponsor of this legislation. “This legislation gives us 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.”

“Given the serious fiscal challenges facing our country, we must ensure that we devote our limited resources to our nation's most urgent priorities,” said Congressman Todd Platts (R-PA), original co-sponsor of the legislation. “Providing nutritious meals and improving health standards for our nation's children, especially those most in need, are such priorities. I am pleased to be working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to move this important legislation forward.”

“I am pleased that this legislation calls for common sense action, to protect the health of our children. This bill addresses the need to work with children of all ages, from infants to high school age, to help them form healthy habits” said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chair of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities and original co-sponsor of the legislation. “From provisions to encourage mothers to breast feed to infants, to addressing the need to begin working with preschoolers on forming healthy habits and promoting physical activity and quality recess time, this legislation takes a comprehensive approach to improving the health of our children. Simply, this bill emphasizes healthy food and healthy habits, which will make healthy children.”

In addition to other amendments offered by committee Members, the committee voted on a managers amendment, offered by Miller, that would bolster the legislation and help achieve President Obama’s goal of enhancing and improving the federal child nutrition programs. The amendment would expand the national afterschool meals program so more children in afterschool programs can have an additional snack or meal. Among other provisions, it would improve nutrition education and make further enhancements to food safety and food quality.

The managers amendment also strengthens the science-based foundation that ensures the WIC program best meets the nutrition needs of participants by enhancing the Secretary of Agriculture’s existing authority to conduct scientific reviews and ensures that the review considers the modern food environment, including innovations in the marketplace that may enhance WIC foods to better meet nutritional needs.

More information about the bill and amendments offered during the hearing

The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children bill will significantly expand access for millions of children to healthy meals year-round in schools, child care and community based settings. The bill would, for the first time, establish nutrition standards for foods sold outside of the cafeteria such as vending machines.

"This status quo increases our nation's health care bill, it affects our ability to recruit a for the military, and most importantly it will not let us produce the generation of well-educated, healthy kids who will be competitive in the global economy of the 21st century,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “For all of these reasons, we must take steps to streamline access, improve the quality of school meals, increase participation, and work to eliminate childhood hunger in this country.”

In 2008, 16.7 million children lived in food insecure households; over 22 percent of the nation’s children. Children that lack access to enough quality food are at increased risk for poor health, including infections from poor immune systems, poor oral health, and to be hospitalized for a condition that could have been prevented.   Additionally, children that lack access to enough quality food when they enter school are at a disadvantage to their peers and struggle to keep pace.  

Witnesses testified that the investments in the legislation will help children to achieve and succeed.

“There can be no better investment – no better stimulus to our economy – than feeding this nation’s children healthily and well. If we give the kids in this country delicious and nutritious food, we will instill in them a lifetime preference for healthy eating that will translate into vast savings in health care costs down the line,” said Tom Colicchio, chef and restaurateur. “Providing the building blocks for millions of kids to grow and develop as they should, will mean a population of robust and productive adults, and a more competitive America.”

According to a report developed by Mission: Readiness, during World War II, the military found that approximately 40 percent of rejected recruits were turned away for health reasons related to not having enough food and being underweight.  Now, being overweight is the leading medical reasons for rejecting a recruit.  

The Army estimates that over 27 percent of all Americans 17 to 24 years of age – over nine million men and women – are too heavy to join the military.  

“The grim reality is that we live in a dangerous world. As long as outside threats to our national security exist, we are well-served to maintain a high level of military readiness,” Major General Paul D. Monroe, U.S. Army (Ret.), Executive Advisory Council, Mission: Readiness. “[Enacting the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act] will help improve the health of our nation’s children and, ultimately, strengthen national security.”

The threats of unhealthy children also have a significant economic impact. There is a strong link between adult obesity rates and socioeconomic status.  Nine of the 10 states with the highest childhood obesity rates are in the South, correlating with the highest child poverty rates. The American Public Health Association estimates that at current obesity rates, obesity will add nearly $344 billion to the nation’s annual health care costs by 2018 and account for more than 21 percent of health care spending.

Higher rates of obesity translate into higher rates of obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.  The early development of health problems associated with obesity shortens the lifespan of affected children later in life, and it is associated with a lower lifetime earning potential.

“The health of America’s children depends on a prescription for healthy food and more physical activity,” said Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. “This bill can play a significant role in improving the health of America’s children, reversing the childhood obesity epidemic, reducing the burden of diabetes, heart and other chronic diseases and demand for expensive medical care, and finally, improving the readiness, willingness, and ability of our future civilian and military workforce – to compete and defend our nation.”

Jim Weill, President of the Food Research Action Center (FRAC) testified that his organization had analyzed a Gallup poll showing that in 2009, nearly a quarter of all households with children in this country reported “there have been times in the last twelve months when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their family needed.”

“Moving forward on a reauthorization bill that provides critical support for low-income children can’t wait,” said Weill. “This will ensure significant movement towards the goals we all have of ending child hunger and dramatically reducing childhood obesity.”

More information on the bill

View witness testimony

“With tonight’s vote, the House acted on behalf of American workers, teachers and students across the nation who have suffered in the recent economic downturn.

“The bill helps to close a multi-billion dollar shortfall in the Pell Grant program that could have deterred many low-income students from attending college, and allocates $10 billion in emergency spending to save hundreds of thousands of teachers from losing their jobs due to local budget shortfalls. This vote will ensure our teachers remain in the classrooms and our students don’t lose a year of learning.  We will not allow our children’s education to become a casualty of the state of the economy.

“Additionally, tonight’s vote represents a significant victory for America’s workers by providing additional funding for mine safety enforcement cases to help workers safe, and provides our communities’ first responders basic collective bargaining rights so they can keep our communities safe and strong.

“These are responsible, targeted investments that will create and secure jobs, and keep our promise to our nation’s children.

More information on provisions of H.R. 4899:

•    Education Jobs: The 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act creates a $10 billion Education Jobs fund to provide emergency support to school districts to prevent layoffs and keep 140,000 school employees on the job next year. The Department of Education will administer the fund and distribute the money to states through a formula based on total population and school age population. States will distribute the funds to school districts through their primary funding formula or through the Title I formula. The bill includes strict provisions that requires states to use this funding only to preserve, rehire or hire new employees in elementary and secondary education. The money can’t be used to supplant state education spending.

•    Pell Grants: The 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act invests $4.95 billion, fully offset, to address the current year shortfall in the Pell Grant Program. In the last academic year, more than 8 million students received Pell grants.

•    Miner Safety and Review Commission Backlog: The 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act would provide a $22 million down payment to reduce the backlog of mine safety enforcement cases and to ensure that there are sufficient resources for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to meet all of its legally mandated mine inspection requirements. In February, the committee found that a flood of mine owner appeals is undermining efforts to protect miners by delaying tougher sanctions. A dangerous mine cannot face tougher penalties or increased scrutiny by MSHA unless citations are fully adjudicated. Because of this backlog of appeals, cases now take several months or years to be resolved.

•    Public Safety Personnel Collective Bargaining: It will guarantee collective bargaining rights for first responders employed by states and localities. States would administer and enforce their own labor laws, while the Federal Labor Relations Authority would only step in where such laws do not exist or do not meet minimum standards. The language prohibits public safety officers from engaging in a lockout, sickout, work slowdown, strike, or any other organized job action that will disrupt the delivery of emergency services.

“Today, students and families working hard to pay for college get some much-needed relief,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee and author of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. “These new benefits build on the premise that in this country, no one should have to mortgage his or her future to get a good education.”

The reliable and cost-efficient federal Direct Loan program provides students with the same loans as banks – but at a cheaper price for taxpayers by removing unjustified subsidies. Private lenders and banks will still have a role in servicing all federal student loans, which will guarantee borrowers high-quality customer services, maintain jobs in the private sector, and even protect jobs from being shipped overseas. Direct student loans, unlike loans made by banks, must be serviced by U.S. workers.

For the upcoming academic year, the Pell Grant scholarship will increase to $5,550 and, beginning in 2013 the maximum scholarship will increase with the cost of inflation by linking the scholarship to the Consumer Price Index. Approximately 8 million U.S. students rely on the Pell Grant scholarship each year to help pay for college.

For student borrowers, interest rates on the subsidized federal student loans will decrease from 5.6 percent to 4.5 percent. This is a benefit passed as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

Read a detailed fact sheet

State by state numbers

 “The fact that our American Indian and Alaska Native students have not made any progress since 2005 is alarming and cause for major concern,” said Chairman Miller.  “This report offers further proof that we need to focus significantly more attention on our American Indian and Alaska Native students in the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.”

 “I am extremely disappointed that this NAEP report shows little to no improvement in reading and math achievement among American Indian and Alaska Native students. These results are unacceptable and further underscore the vital need to improve education in these communities. Thankfully, Congress has an important opportunity to address this issue with the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Miller, my other colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee, as well as Native American leaders and organizations to ensure that this reauthorization includes strong provisions to improve education for our American Indian and Alaska Native students,” said Congressman Kildee.

“In mines around the country and in other workplaces as well, worker safety has not been a priority.  Bad actors have put profits ahead of people.  As a consequence, workers have lost vital protections, suffered significant injuries and, in too many cases, lost their lives,” said Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.  “We are determined to put sharper teeth in our workplace safety laws and to step up federal enforcement.  We look forward to working with members on both sides of the aisle to find bipartisan solutions for workers.  These policy ideals start that dialogue.”

“The Upper Big Branch tragedy highlighted significant problems in our nation’s miner safety laws and need substantial reform. Mine operators who callously and repeatedly put their workers in danger must be held accountable,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. “It is clear that current law does not provide sufficient protections to miners who go underground every day. Today, we take the first step to ensure that the health and safety of workers are put ahead of production and profit.”

The House Education and Labor Committee, joined by Sen. Jay Rockefeller and the West Virginia congressional delegation, heard testimony in Beckley, West Virginia from miners and families of those who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine about serious shortcomings in miner protections, including threats and intimidation of miners who brought up safety concerns to their bosses.

“Too much hurt and tragedy has touched the lives and families of hard-working coal miners in West Virginia – we must pass laws that put a higher priority on safety day in and day out. In the aftermath of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, Senator Byrd and I worked together to develop new legislative actions to safeguard our miners and that effect will go on,” said Senator Rockefeller (D-WV). “Even as the investigation of the Upper Big Branch mine continues, we know there are problems we can solve today – and we have an obligation to do just that.  We must tackle the repeat ‘pattern of violations’ in our mines, give MSHA the authority it needs to implement reforms, and further empower our miners with the protections they deserve to speak out when they see a safety problem.”

“This legislation has been crafted, in large measure, to target and rein in the worst of the worst mine safety violators, while also providing for independent investigations of MSHA," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), who represents the District where Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine is located. "I fully intend to keep working with miners, their families, and coal industry members to fine tune this bill to ensure that coal miners have safer, healthier workplaces while they continue their vital work providing for America's energy needs."      

Members of the House and Senate worked closely with the Department of Labor to ensure that the reforms outlined contained all the tools the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says it needs to provide sufficient protections to miners and save lives.

“We have seen too many accidents over the last few months in workplaces across the country,” said Senator Patty Murray (D-WA).  “Between recent mine disasters and similar tragedies in other industries, it has become clear that Congress needs to act to strengthen protections provided by both MSHA and OSHA.  Some of the country’s workplace fatalities receive national attention – like the explosions at the Tesoro refinery in Washington or Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia – but the vast majority get little attention beyond the affected family and friends. Workers everywhere and in every industry deserve to be able to feel confident that while they are working hard and doing their jobs, their employers are doing everything possible to keep them safe.”

“In addition to strengthening enforcement provisions, this bill also has strong safeguards to protect workers, including improved whistleblower provisions and penalties for those employers who violate a miner’s right against retaliation,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chair of the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee. “In this tragic year for miners and other workers, the need for such reforms could not be more urgent. This bill will save lives.”

Among other provisions, the reforms outlined include:

•    Making Mines with Serious and Repeated Violations Safe – Criteria for ‘pattern of violations’ sanctions would be revamped to ensure that the nation’s most dangerous mine operations improve safety dramatically.
•    Ensuring Irresponsible Operators are Held Accountable – Maximum criminal and civil penalties would be increased and operators would be required to pay penalties in a timely manner.  
•    Giving MSHA Better Enforcement Tools – MSHA would be given the authority to subpoena documents and testimony. The agency could seek a court order to close a mine when there is a continuing threat to the health and safety of miners. MSHA could require more training of miners in unsafe mines. Increased rock dusting would be required to prevent coal dust explosions.  
•    Protecting Miners Who Speak out on Unsafe Conditions – Miners would be granted the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. Protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions would be strengthened, and miners would not lose pay for safety-related closures. In addition, miners would receive protections so they can speak freely during investigations.  
•    Increasing MSHA’s Accountability – The legislative outline provides for an independent investigation of the most serious accidents.  It would require that mine personnel are well-qualified, and ensure that inspections are comprehensive and well-targeted. Additionally, it requires pre-shift reviews of mine conditions and communication to ensure that appropriate safety information is transmitted.  
•    Guaranteeing Basic Protections in All Other Workplaces – To ensure that all  workplaces have basic protections, whistleblower protections would be strengthened, criminal and civil penalties would be increased, and hazard abatement would be sped up. In addition, victims of accidents and their family members would be provided greater rights during investigations and enforcement actions.

More information on these reforms

“Turning around our lowest-performing schools is crucial for our economy, our communities and our students,” Miller said. “Improving our schools in these tough economic times will help put students in Contra Costa County, Solano County and across the state back on a pathway to success.”

Today U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that California will receive nearly $416 million to turn around its persistently lowest achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. These funds are part of the $3.5 billion that will be made available to states this spring from money set aside in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The new funds for California schools are being distributed by formula to the state and will then be competed out by the state to school districts. In order for a school district to apply for these funds, it must have a state-identified "persistently lowest achieving" or a Tier III school.  Tier III schools are those that have failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress for two years but are not identified as persistently lowest achieving.

In Miller’s district, a number of school districts are eligible to apply for the new grant money:  John Swett Unified, Martinez Unified, Mount Diablo Unified, Pittsburgh Unified and West Contra Costa County in Contra Costa County, and Benicia Unified, Fairfield-Suisun Unified, Vacaville Unified, Travis Unified, and Vallejo Unified in Solano County.

Miller pointed out that this is just one more way in which the Recovery Act is helping local schools in his community and across the state. Last year,  the Recovery Act helped save tens of thousands of teacher jobs across the state, for example, and invested billions of dollars to help implement school data systems to track student progress.  

More information about SIG Grants

“All students, including students with disabilities, should be able to reap the benefits of physical activity and team sports in school and in life,” said Miller. “It is clear from this report that we need to work harder to remove the obstacles students with disabilities face in physical education and athletics.”

“While many schools have made great strides educating students with disabilities in mainstream academic classrooms, sports programs and physical education classes are the final frontier for full inclusion in schools,” said McCarthy. “The benefit of increased physical activity of all people, including those with disabilities, is well established, but understanding the barriers to participation specific to students with disabilities is critical to crafting appropriate responses. The GAO report is a step toward understanding and addressing these barriers. I look forward to working with Chairman Miller, the Department of Education, and interested students, parents, and groups to respond to the concerns raised and recommendations provided in the GAO report.”

“I thank the GAO for conducting this study. As we see from their conclusions, while many schools make good faith efforts to include students with disabilities, we can do more to provide guidance on best practices and the requirements of the federal law. I look forward to working with the Department of Education to disseminate this information on the local level,” said Van Hollen.
 
“The health and social benefits of physical activity and athletic participation are well established.  These benefits may be even more important for students with disabilities, who are at a greater risk for being sedentary and developing secondary conditions.  Students with disabilities should have an equal opportunity to participate in PE and in extracurricular athletics or adaptive sports if they so desire, and we need to do all we can to encourage such participation.” said Harkin.

GAO visited five states, California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey, and conducted phone interviews with officials from Georgia and Texas, to determine students with disabilities’ participation in physical education and athletics.  They found students with disabilities “generally attend PE class about the same amount of time as students without disabilities” but that a challenge to note was the lack of “sufficient training or experience for PE or classroom teachers.”

In all the states GAO spoke with, school officials said every student, including those with disabilities, are permitted to try out for interscholastic athletic teams. In some instances, schools provide accommodations depending on the students’ disabilities.

In New Jersey, for example, a high school provided an interpreter for a deaf student playing baseball. In California, a school adapted rules for students on the wrestling team who were deaf and blind.

While some schools took steps to provide extracurricular athletic opportunities to students with disabilities, on the whole, GAO reported that school districts cited budget constraints and a general lack of clarity regarding their schools’ responsibility to students with disabilities as barriers to participation.

In response to the report, lawmakers wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking him to heed the recommendations in the GAO report to “clarify and communicate schools’ responsibilities”  in providing opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in extracurricular sports.  They also asked the Department of Education to issue guidance on the best ways to better provide extracurricular athletic opportunities to students with disabilities

View the full report

Currently, for-profit colleges account for less than ten percent of total higher education enrollment but account for approximately 25 percent of all Federal student aid disbursements.

The study will focus on the rapid growth of this industry over the last few years, the reported aggressive recruitment of students, increased variety in the delivery methods used to provide education to students and the quality and value of education provided.  Many for-profit colleges play a valuable role in post-secondary education, but taxpayers and students must have confidence that these programs consistently provide high-quality education opportunities.

The letter comes on the heels of an Education and Labor Committee hearing where the U.S. Department of Education Inspector General  raised concerns about accrediting agencies’ oversight of the credit hour policies at institutions of higher education, including some for-profit institutions.  Credit hours are used to determine the amount of Federal aid for which a student is eligible.


The full text of the letter is below.


Gene L. Dodaro
Acting Comptroller General
U.S. Government Accountability Office

Dear Mr. Dodaro:

We write to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a review of the for-profit or “proprietary” postsecondary education sector and the sector’s share of revenue derived from Federal student aid funding. The federal investment in the proprietary sector is significant.  While this sector accounts for less than 10 percent of total enrollments, it accounts for roughly 25 percent of all Federal student aid disbursed. 

Recent press reports have raised questions about the quality of proprietary institutions.  These questions stem from the rapid growth of this industry over the last few years, reported aggressive recruitment of students by such institutions, increased variety in the delivery methods used to provide education to students, and the value of the education provided by such institutions. 

On March 30, 2010, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act into law.  That legislation expanded student aid opportunities for students, including an historic $36 billion investment in the Pell Grant program.  The increased availability of Federal student aid, coupled with the significant growth of the proprietary sector, raises the issue of whether current safeguards are sufficient to protect the best interests of students and ensure that the nation’s taxpayers are achieving the best possible return on their investment.

In conducting its review, we are particularly interested in GAO examining:

•    The growth and change in the postsecondary education sector over the last several years, including changes in the structure and governance of institutions, recruitment practices, and the type and delivery of educational programs provided;
•    What is known about the quality of educational programs offered by proprietary institutions and the outcomes for students attending such institutions, such as program completion rates, professional licensure rates, job placement rates, and student loan indebtedness;
•    Whether existing program integrity safeguards are sufficient to protect against waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal student aid programs; and
•    The extent to which proprietary institutions’ revenue is comprised of Federal student aid offered under Title IV of the Higher Education Act as well as other Federal funding sources.

Finally, based on your review, we request that you provide any recommendations you believe may be warranted.

“It is unacceptable that institutions are inflating credit hours to profit off of student aid, when taxpayers and students are footing the bill,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee. “This Congress has worked to make sure our student aid programs work in the best interest of students. Congress must ensure that the accreditation process works to ensure that institutions of higher education provide high quality education programs worthy of students’ and taxpayers’ investments.”

The Department of Education Inspector General has issued several reports looking into accrediting agencies' standards for program length. The most recent report, reviewing the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC), found HLC’s standards for accreditation do not establish the definition of a credit hour or set minimum program length and the assignment of credit hours.  

“This issue has become even more significant as on-line education has exploded in recent years, making credit hour assignment difficult, its comparison to traditional classroom delivery a challenge, and its value increasingly important in order to ensure that students and taxpayers get what they are paying for,” said Kathleen Tighe, Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Education.

Sylvia Manning, President of HLC testified that there is “room for improvement in accrediting agencies’ assessment and assurance of quality,”  but expressed doubt that defining a credit hour would contribute to the assurance or improvement of quality in American higher education.

Yesterday, the Department of Education proposed rules and definitions to strengthen federal student aid programs, including a definition of a credit hour. In addition, the Department is proposing that accrediting agencies develop procedures to determine whether institutions of higher education credit hour policies are acceptable.  

To view witness testimony, click here.

"Given the serious fiscal challenges facing our country, we must ensure that we devote our limited resources to our nation's most urgent priorities," said Platts. "Providing nutritious meals and improving health standards for our nation's children, especially those most in need, are such priorities. I am pleased to join with Chairman George Miller and Chairwoman Carolyn McCarthy in sponsoring this important legislation."

“This legislation addresses the need to work with children of all ages, from infants to children in high school on forming healthy habits.  Being overweight and obese increases the risk of developing chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and hypertension, among others,” said McCarthy (D-NY). “It is critically important for us to teach children the importance of healthy lifestyles at an early age, before they enter school when their behaviors are still beginning to form. This bill will encourage the types of activities that will contribute to students’ accumulated physical activity during the school day.”

“There isn't a community in America that's hunger-free,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said. “This year, with Chairman Miller's leadership, we can make great progress toward President Obama's goal of ending childhood hunger in America by 2015. I am hopeful that Congress -- in a bipartisan way -- will be up to the task.”

“This much-needed Child Nutrition Reauthorization will both increase access to food for hungry school kids and, just as important, improve the nutritional quality of the foods children eat at school. Even as adult obesity has doubled in recent years, we have seen child obesity triple. And given that kids consume roughly 35-50% of their daily calories during the school day, we have to work towards improving the nutritional quality of school food,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). “This bill takes important steps to address these problems, and will help to ensure all of our kids a healthier future.  I am glad to see this bill introduced today, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to help make it reality.”

The legislation mirrors key investments proposed by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in her “Let’s Move” initiative, including reducing childhood obesity and improving school wellness.  It will also provide new school food safety guidelines and encourage public and private partnerships to improve child nutrition.  

Building on the strong investments in child nutrition passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year, this legislation would use Medicaid and SCHIP data to automatically enroll eligible children in the federal school meals programs. It would also make it easier for high-poverty schools to serve meals at no cost to eligible children.

The legislation responds directly to a GAO investigation, conducted at Miller’s behest, regarding the safety of the meals in school. It would expand food safety requirements to extend to all areas where food is stored, prepared and served. It would also strengthen recall procedures to improve communication and speed notification between regulatory agencies and schools to ensure recalled food is not in served in the school meals programs.

Recognizing the need for significant reforms beyond the classroom, this legislation would also, for the first time, create minimum standards for food sold outside the cafeteria, such as through vending machines.

The legislation has the support of anti-hunger, nutrition and education organizations.  

For a fact sheet on the legislation, click here.

To view video excerpts of today’s news conference, click here.

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee and a lead advocate in Congress for education jobs, released the following statement.

“The financial industry collapse has trickled down to local communities in the form of decreased revenues, lost property taxes and, ultimately, harmful budget cuts to school districts across the country. Without immediate action, our students and teachers stand to suffer the consequences of a system breakdown in which they played no part. If we balk now and let our students lose a year of learning in our schools because of the of financial scandals, it will be a scandal on the Congress.”

“These budget cuts would punish teachers, devastate communities and set back the significant progress students have made since the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Keeping teachers in classrooms and educators in schools is part of a larger strategy of getting Americans back to work. By investing this emergency money to save jobs, we prevent further turmoil by keeping unemployment and COBRA costs from spiraling out of control and creating more burden on local communities.”

View the state by state estimates

View the White House fact sheet, “Keep Our Teachers Working”

“Providing all our children with a world-class education is critical to a sustainable economic recovery. Sadly, budget cuts across the country have threatened the jobs of hundreds of thousands of our teachers, guidance counselors, principals, cafeteria workers, librarians and more. These job losses are devastating for students and our communities. We can’t allow a child’s education to become a casualty of what is happening in our economy.

“I want to commend Chairman Obey for his vision and unwavering commitment to America’s students, teachers and families. Chairman Obey knows that with serious investments in education jobs, we can stave off a crisis in our nation’s schools by keeping teachers in the classrooms helping our children learn.

“This emergency spending will also build on our recent investments in the Pell Grant scholarship so every eligible student can continue to have access to an affordable college education. These investments place the scholarship on solid ground by paying for the accumulated shortfall, fulfilling our promise to students and families who rely on the scholarship by ensuring they will continue to receive benefits. We have a critical opportunity to make a real difference in the future of this country.”

Chairman Miller introduced the Local Jobs for America Act in March to help create and save public and private sector jobs and restore vital services in local communities.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, conducted at the behest of U.S. Rep. George Miller, chair of the Committee, and other bipartisan lawmakers, found that concussions in high school athletes are widely unreported and underappreciated.

Dr. Linda Kohn, Director of Health Care Issues at GAO testified that the available data “may be underestimates of the overall national occurrence of concussion in high school sports.”

“It is clear we need to put more focus on the ‘student’ part of the student athlete. The pressure to play is overriding medical concerns and students’ academic achievement,” said Miller. “A concussion doesn’t have to mean the end of a student’s athletic career, but without the appropriate management and treatment, it could have serious implications.  We need to do more to increase awareness for parents, teachers, coaches and students on the effect of concussions – to ensure success both in the classroom and on the field.”

Concussions account for 10 percent of all injuries sustained by high school athletes. Studies show girls are more susceptible to concussions. Incidence rates in girls’ soccer ranks second only to football. In basketball, girls appear to sustain concussions at three times the rate of male basketball players.

Witnesses testified about the effect concussions have on student achievement.

“There are significant threats to the child and adolescent as a result of an injury to the developing brain from concussion. The effects of a concussion are quite significant and potentially wide ranging, with an adverse impact on the student-athlete’s ability to think and learn and his or her social and emotional functioning,” said Dr. Gerard A. Gioia, Chief  of the Division of Pediatric Neuropsychology at the Children’s National Medical Center.

Gioia also reported that in a recent study, over 80 percent of  students who had suffered concussions reported  “a significant worsening of symptoms over the first four weeks as they attempted school learning activities.”

Michelle Pelton, a former student athlete from Fall River, Massachusetts, suffers from the cumulative effects of the concussions she sustained during her adolescence, five of which occurred while participating in softball and basketball at her school. Pelton retired from sports and sought treatment. She graduated from high school but lost a college scholarship.

“I cannot even begin to explain the daily struggle my life has become and everything I have lost because of my concussions. No one can see my injury but it’s there. I know I have learned to overcome and compensated for my injuries because I am so determined to keep as many of my dreams in my life as possible, but not without a tremendous price,” said Pelton. “Every day I endure memory loss, lack of concentration, depression, slow processing speed and cognitive effects that makes my everyday life a battle.”

Michael Monacelli, Director of Athletics at Caledonia-Mumford Central School in Caledonia, New York, implemented a successful concussion management program to help reduce injury risks after learning of the implications of concussions on student learning.

“We are in a comfort zone with concussion management in our district. We have full confidence in the system. Most assuredly as coaches, we do not want to see these injuries,” said Monacelli. “But we know that now the concussed student can be properly diagnosed and managed. The student-athlete will get better and will play again.”

Only four states, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Virginia, have laws or regulations regarding concussion management in high schools. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) introduced the Concussion Treatment and Care Tools Act (H.R. 1347) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish management guidelines for student athletes.

View witness testimony

Research outlined by witnesses shows that successful school turnaround must include flexibility, shared leadership, professional development, capacity building, extended school and learning time, community involvement and beyond.

The hearing was part of a series the committee is holding as it works in a bipartisan, open and transparent way to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In the hearing, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee, announced that he will include a new plan for school turnaround success as part of the ESEA legislation, focusing on the elements discussed in the hearing.

“Fixing our lowest performing schools requires flexibility, collaboration, and support at every step along the way,” said Miller. “It means proving, planning and preparing for real success in our schools. If the important elements aren’t in place, if communities aren’t on board, if teachers aren’t included, none of this will happen and our nation will suffer the consequences. In this reauthorization, we will focus on the research-based, proven, core elements of successful turnaround identified today by our witnesses. When coupled with a strong use of data and a rigorous planning process, we can help provide local communities the flexibility to succeed.”

Turning around chronically failing schools can have significant impact on local communities, both in improving academic achievement and economically.

“We have created a new model for turning around schools. In three years, eight schools in which our model was applied turned around their reading test scores and school culture. The taxpayers saved $24 million compared to other turnaround models,” said John Simmons, president of Strategic Learning Initiatives. “The reauthorization of ESEA should allow for a strategy like ours that emphasizes the importance of comprehensive school reform strategies that are grounded in rigorous research and shown to work, using existing staff.”

Think College Now, a public college-prep elementary school in a low-income area of Oakland, California, employs research-based models to help students succeed and to close the achievement gap. Before the school opened, only eight percent of students were considered proficient or advanced in English Language Arts and only 23 percent in math.

“Our entire community -- from teachers to staff to families to students – is united and working toward the same big goal – to go to college,” said David Silver, Principal and Founder of Think College Now Elementary. “If you ask any one of those people at TCN, why are you are here, the answer would be the same: ‘to go to college.’”

In Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, school officials used innovative reforms like a dual credit high school and early college high school to reduce dropouts by 75 percent in one school and to transform another school from one of the worst in the state to 11th in the country.

Witnesses noted that while research outlines best practices, ultimately flexibility and a comprehensive approach are paramount to successful school turnaround.

“There are elements in the research and our experience that tell us that efforts to improve poor performance work best when we work intensively with school leaders and teachers from a sense of shared accountability rather than demanding accountability on a narrow range of behaviors,” said Jessica Johnson, Chief Program Officer at Learning Point Associates. “We also know that meaningful change is more often sustained when a more comprehensive approach is taken and community and parents as well as educators are involved in the solution. The flexibility to orchestrate these variables is critical to success.”

View witness testimony

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which conducted the undercover investigation, testified about its findings today before the House Education and Labor Committee, at the request of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee.

“Head Start is a critical, successful program that provides vital services and a high-quality early education to a million children and their families, many of whom are vulnerable and at-risk,” said Miller. “It is unacceptable that some Head Start employees are betraying the integrity of the program. This fraudulent behavior is unacceptable and I am confident Secretary Sebelius will take the right steps to ensure this type of criminal activity never happens again.”

After learning about the GAO investigation, Chairman Miller wrote a letter to Secretary Sebelius asking her to review the claims of fraud.

More than one million low-income children are served by Head Start each year. One in five children under the age of five live in poverty in America, and less than 50 percent of the children who are eligible for Head Start are able to attend this the program.

In 2008 and 2009, GAO received two separate hotline tips from current and prior employees at Head Start programs in the Midwest and the state of Texas alleging fraudulent activities including misappropriation of furniture, qualification of ineligible families and enrollment of too many over-income families, among other allegations.  

After the initial investigation into the two hotline tips, GAO conducted an undercover investigation into Head Start enrollment processes.  Choosing only from centers with no waiting lists, GAO employees posed as fictitious families in 15 undercover tests at 13 different Head Start programs in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C.  In 13 tests, the fictitious families were over income, in one test they lived outside the service area and in another test they were enrolled in another Head Start center.

In seven of the 11 over-income tests, Head Start employees disregarded a portion of the “applicant’s” income, thereby making over-income families appear to be under-income.  In the test where the “applicant” was not in the service area, the Head Start employee told the “applicant” to lie and provide false documentation.  

Upon learning of the investigation, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius immediately referred the matter to the Department’s Inspector General.

In a letter to Chairman Miller, Secretary Sebelius acknowledged the Department’s “steadfast commitment to upholding the integrity of [Head Start]” and outlined the “Department’s concrete plans for reducing errors and fraud” in the future.

At the hearing, Carmen Nazario, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), testified that the findings of the report were “deeply disturbing.” She discussed the steps HHS is taking in response to the investigation.

“The Head Start program is designed to move our nation’s low-income children along the road of school success. Diverting funds to children who are less needy is quite literally stealing away that opportunity from children who need it most,” said Nazario.
 
HHS’ plans include: conducting unannounced monitoring visits to Head Start centers, creating a web-based hotline to allow tips or information about impropriety to be reported, developing new regulations that promote integrity in Head Start, increasing oversight, particularly in programs with higher risk factors and requiring grantees to re-compete for grants when they do not meet program expectations.

Read the full GAO report

Read HHS testimony

“It is clear from this report that when we invest in education jobs, we can make a difference in local communities and help restart local economies. This is what we need to keep our workforce competitive and regain our footing as a leader in the global marketplace.    

“Sadly, the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and school staff are still at risk, which would be devastating for our students and our nation’s economic future. We have to demand the best for our students, our teachers and our schools. We won’t be able to maintain the success of the Recovery Act if our students can’t continue to build on the progress they’ve made. Congress needs to act swiftly to help keep teachers in the classroom and students learning.”

In March, Chairman Miller introduced the Local Jobs for America Act to invest $23 billion to help states support education jobs.

More information about the legislation to help save local jobs

“I am encouraged by the Task Force’s meaningful recommended actions to end the childhood obesity crisis that is threatening the future of our country. As we work to rewrite our child nutrition laws this year, this report will inform the important decisions we will make to help ensure all children have access to the healthy meals they need. I commend the First Lady for lending  her leadership, her wisdom and her vision to forge partnerships across all levels of government and in our communities that will reshape children’s health in this country.  It is clear from this report that by working together to improve child nutrition, we can make a real difference in the lives of millions of children and families.”

“Today’s announcement is a devastating blow for workers and communities in New York City, but sadly they are not alone. All across the country, we are hearing from mayors and community leaders who are deeply worried about pending budget crises and their impacts on workers, their families and municipalities. A new study by the American Association of School Administrators predicts that over 80 percent of school districts will have to cut jobs for the coming year.

“Whether it’s the potential loss of teachers, school nurses, janitors, firefighters, law enforcement officers, or countless other critical services – it’s clear that these looming crises, if left unaddressed, stand to threaten the livelihoods of thousands of families, to cut off essential public services, and to undermine our broader economic recovery. In addition to laying off teachers, Mayor Bloomberg’s budget will close 16 daycare centers, 50 senior centers and 20 firehouses, and will shutter libraries, lay off child caseworkers, and close adult literacy programs.

“Instead of cutting services and adding to the unemployment crisis, we should be doing the opposite: Putting people to work providing services that are needed now more than ever. The Local Jobs for America Act has been steadily gaining momentum for months among local mayors and county officials – Democrats and Republicans. The bill will quickly create and save up to one million jobs in both the public and private sectors, and lets local communities decide where jobs are most needed.   These will be local jobs that we can count – and jobs that we can count on.

“The bill means that local governments won’t have to balance their budgets on the backs of students, working families, or homeowners. Local officials shouldn’t have to choose between raising taxes and eliminating key services.

“It will also help local businesses put people back to work by investing in private sector job training for workers – and by spurring hiring. Local businesses won’t be able to start hiring again until consumers start spending again. Investing in jobs for public sector workers who have been pink-slipped will put money back in their pockets – generating spending at their local grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail shops.

“Finally, it will protect our children from paying an unfair price. Teacher and education-related cuts ultimately hurt our students – and our future. This legislation includes a $23 billion education jobs fund that will support at least 250,000 jobs for teachers, principals, cafeteria workers and other key school personnel.

“For all of these reasons, Congress should act immediately. Americans shouldn’t have to wait for another announcement.”

The Local Jobs for America Act was introduced in March and currently has 158 co-sponsors. It has been endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, education groups, and over 300 organizations. Learn more about the Local Jobs for America Act.

Today, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran opinion pieces calling for Congress to act on Miller’s bill.

Earlier this week, Miller joined the nation’s leading teachers unions and teachers who have been pink-slipped at a press conference. View footage from the event.

The findings of fraudulent actions are part of a recent GAO investigation looking into admissions and eligibility practices at Head Start.

“I have learned of an undercover investigation and upcoming report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that has found reportedly unlawful actions by local Head Start grantees regarding their admissions and eligibility practices. These allegations raise significant concerns about the integrity of the admissions and family eligibility process administered by Head Start grantees,” Miller wrote. “I request that HHS immediately review the grantees identified by the GAO investigation to determine what action is needed to ensure that grantees operating Head Start Programs are complying with the law, including evaluating the appropriateness of the grantee continuing to receive Head Start funds, and determining whether the employees identified by the GAO investigation should be placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.”  

In the letter, Miller also announced that he plans to hold a hearing in May to fully explore GAO’s findings.

Head Start has served more than 25 million children since its inception in 1965. There are over one million children enrolled in Head Start programs across the country.

The full text of the letter to Secretary Sebelius is below.

***

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 615-F
Washington, DC  20201


Dear Secretary Sebelius:

I have learned of an undercover investigation and upcoming report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that has found reportedly unlawful actions by local Head Start grantees regarding their admissions and eligibility practices.
 
These allegations raise significant concerns about the integrity of the admissions and family eligibility process administered by Head Start grantees.  This issue requires your immediate attention and action.

As fiscal steward of the Head Start program, I know you take seriously the Department’s responsibility to administer and oversee the program with the highest degree of accountability.  This investigation appears to have identified a significant weakness in HHS’s oversight and program requirements.

Accordingly, I request that HHS immediately review the grantees identified by the GAO investigation to determine what action is needed to ensure that grantees operating Head Start Programs are complying with the law, including evaluating the appropriateness of the grantee continuing to receive Head Start funds, and determining whether the employees identified by the GAO investigation should be placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.  

It is my intention to hold a Committee hearing this month to fully explore GAO’s findings.  I ask that an official from HHS testify about the steps the Department has taken and the additional steps the Department expects to undertake to ensure the integrity of this vital program.  Please feel free to contact me or direct your staff to coordinate your response with Michael Zola, Chief Investigative Counsel and Ruth Friedman, Deputy Director of Education Policy, who can be reached at (202) 22X-XXXX.  I look forward to your prompt response.
 
Sincerely,


GEORGE MILLER
Chairman

The FIT Kids Act, H.R. 1585, which passed the House of Representatives yesterday, 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.  The legislation would engage parents and the public by requiring all school districts and states to report on students’ physical activity, including the amount of time spent in required physical education in relation to the recommended national standard.  In addition, the Act would fund research to examine the link between children’s health and their academic achievement and recommend effective and innovative ways to get physical education back into schools.

“This bill gets to the simple truth: in order to develop healthy minds, you need healthy bodies,” said Rep. Ron Kind, co-chair of the Congressional Fitness Caucus.  “Providing increased physical education in public schools will give every child an opportunity – regardless of their background – to learn healthy habits and get moving.  We will see the benefits in their math and reading test scores, get to the root of the obesity epidemic, and get kids on a healthy path early in life.”

“Physical Education has been squeezed out of our schools and it needs to be welcomed back in with open arms,” said Rep. Zach Wamp.  “Research shows that children who get a good healthy dose of cardiovascular exercise have better brain functions, test scores and sleep patterns, along with an increased quality of life. Children who are physically well do much better in schools and avoid the chronic health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension. The FIT Kids Act will help provide the research and information on what works best to incorporate P.E. into schools. This can be shared with parents, teachers and school directors so they can help our next generation lead an active lifestyle.”
“With one in three children in this country considered overweight or obese, childhood obesity has become a major threat to our nation’s physical and economic health,” said Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The First Lady has rightfully recognized the need to address this epidemic and this bill complements the work of Congress and represents a first step toward improving the health and well-being of our schoolchildren.  By empowering parents, schools and students to lead healthier lives and become more physically active, we can help our kids grow, thrive, and succeed in school and in life.”

"In my heart I knew this day would come,” said Richard Simmons.  “For the last three and a half years I have worked so hard with my team to make the FIT Kids Act a reality.  We will continue to work hard so it will also pass in the Senate, and on the day that President Obama signs the bill in to law, he'll give me one of the pens. I look forward to sharing with he and the First Lady all of my ideas on how we can get our kids more fit."

“House passage of FIT Kids Act reinforces the American Heart Association’s efforts to improve the health and wellness of children,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.  “With childhood obesity still a growing national health concern, this bill brings us one step closer to making daily, quality physical education a reality for all America’s kids.”

“The National Football League's youth health and fitness campaign, NFL PLAY 60, recognizes the importance of daily physical activity and encourages children to lead active lifestyles,” said Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner.  “The Fit Kids Act shares that goal and is an important step in strengthening physical education programs in our schools.

With the continued rise in childhood obesity, it is important that we make physical activity a bigger priority in schools,” said Bill Sells, Vice President of the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association.  “Active children are much more likely to be active adults.  The Fit Kids Act will be a key part of the solution to sedentary lifestyles by getting America’s young people moving to encourage lifelong activity and health.”

“The passage of the Fit Kids Act supports NASPE’s mission by disseminating crucial information to parents and the public about the quality and quantity of physical education being offered in our schools,” said Dr. Fran Cleland, NASPE Past President. “This information will lead to providing the nation’s students with highly qualified teachers who implement best practices and innovative programming and instilling students with the knowledge, skills and confidence to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.”

The FIT Kids Act has been endorsed by the following organizations: The American Heart Association, American Stroke Association, National Association for Sport and Physical Education, Afterschool Alliance, American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation, American School Health Association, Healthy Schools Campaign, National Association of Health Education Centers, National Association for County and City Health Officials, National Recreation and Park Association, Obesity Action Coalition, Researchers Against Inactivity-related Disorders, SPARK, Shaping America’s Health, Trust for America’s Health, American College of Sports Medicine, and the YMCA.

Childhood Obesity in America

Childhood obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions.  Recent studies indicate that 17 percent of 6 to 11 year olds and 17.6 percent of 12 to 19 year olds are considered obese. Furthermore, 33 percent of 6 to 11 year olds and 34 percent of 12 to 19 year olds are overweight; these rates have roughly doubled since 1980.

Overweight children and teens are much more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, and various forms of cancer.  This is a costly expense to our health care system; obesity related medical costs totaled $147 billion in 2008.  

Researchers suggest that the childhood obesity epidemic is largely due to a decline in regular physical activity and a diet high in empty and fat-laden calories.  A lack of regular physical activity not only hurts a child’s health, it can also affect his/her academic development, as research also shows that healthy children learn more effectively and are higher academic achievers.  

Increasing physical activity is the most important component of any initiative to combat childhood obesity and promote the health of students. Unfortunately, many schools are being forced to cut back on PE programs because of lack of resources and competing academic demands and testing. Between 1991 and 2003, enrollment of high school students in daily PE classes fell from 41.6% to 28.4%.

“Last month, Congress took a groundbreaking step to reform a federal student loan system that for too long worked in the best interests of big banks and corporate tycoons, instead of students and families. Sadly, our nation’s bankruptcy laws are another example of how lenders’ well-heeled lobbyists successfully gamed the system and won special treatment – at the expense of millions of Americans working hard to pay back their college debt.

“In 2008, the Democratic Congress took important steps to provide long overdue consumer protections for students when borrowing financially risky private student loans, but more needs to be done. Private student loans remain far more expensive for borrowers than federal student loans, and often carry tricky terms and conditions. Especially in this economy, private student loan borrowers deserve the same basic protections consumers receive when using their credit cards, buying a car, or paying their electric bills.

“As Congress continues working on reforms to end Wall Street shenanigans, this legislation is a clear, common sense step we can take to restore some financial fairness for millions of consumers. I want to thank Reps. Cohen and Davis for their unparalleled efforts to stand up for students and borrowers around the country and call on all of our colleagues to join us in ending this special giveaway to for-profit companies.”

BACKGROUND

Bankruptcy legislation enacted by President George W. Bush in 2005 included a provision – slipped quietly into the bill – that provided special treatment to for-profit lenders by severely limiting Americans in bankruptcy from discharging the private college loans they borrow.

Unlike federal student loans, which have a cap on interest rates and can have flexible repayment options for borrowers, including an Income Based Repayment program authored by Miller, private student loans have no interest rate cap and no cap on the total amount a student can borrow. Due to this 2005 change, bankruptcy law now treats private student loan borrowers the same as individuals trying to escape child support payments, alimony, overdue taxes and criminal fines.

H.R. 5043 is supported by a broad coalition of student groups, consumer advocates and higher education organizations, including Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, The Institute for College Access and Success and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

More information on H.R. 5043, the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2010

“By focusing early on to support youth with the right tools and resources, we can achieve the dual goal of both helping children at-risk become productive citizens and keeping our communities safe,”  said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee. “We can do this with by pursuing an evidence-based, comprehensive approach to juvenile justice that works to prevent juvenile delinquency as well as intervene with services and treatments when appropriate.”

The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Protection Act (JJDPA) was originally passed in 1974 to support state and local justice systems specifically focused on the unique needs of youth. The law was last reauthorized in 2002 and promotes the humane treatment of children in the juvenile justice system through four “core protections” and authorizes grants to states and communities for prevention and intervention initiatives.

The protections include a requirement that prohibits states from detaining status offenders --  juveniles charged with crimes that wouldn’t be prosecuted if not for their age; removing youth under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court from adult lock ups; sight and sound protections to ensure juveniles held in adult lock ups have no sight or sound contact with adults and requirements for states to address the disproportionate number of minority youth at all points in the juvenile justice system.

Witnesses discussed the need to fix loopholes in the core protections, especially in regards to status offenders and jail removal.

“The underlying causes of status offenses are typically linked to problems at home and school, and to unmet trauma and mental health needs of young people. Locked detention is not designed to treat or to resolve such causes,” said A. Hasan Davis, Deputy Commissioner for Operations for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. “More importantly, the negative outcomes that can arise from detention far outweigh any benefits of short-term confinement without access to critical services necessary to eliminate the reasons for the status offense.”

Tracy McClard of Jackson, Missouri urged the panel to consider completely removing youth from adult facilities. McClard’s son Jonathan hung himself after suffering abuse and torture at the hands of the adult inmates.

“Jonathan’s experience taught me that no child should be placed with adults no matter what, because when children are put in with adults they die - physically or mentally,”  said McClard. “[I]f the goal of the juvenile and criminal justice system is to keep our communities safe, how safe can our communities be if a kid in Jonathan’s position would have spent five, ten, fifteen or more years in the conditions Jonathan faced and with the role models he had.”

Every year, 200,000 youth in this country are held, sentenced or incarcerated as adults. Children in adult jails are eight times more likely to commit suicide than in juvenile facilities, and 50 percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon, and much more likely to be raped.

Witnesses testified that a comprehensive approach, focusing on evidence-based alternatives to detention, can better serve juveniles and the community. In Clayton County, Georgia, for example, juvenile delinquency decreased by over fifty percvent after officials within the juvenile hjystice system changed their approach and started making more collaborative and evidenced-based decisions that focused on community-based alternatives to detention.

“Too often, the juvenile justice system is viewed as a single agency that exists separate and apart from other state agencies that work with youth,” said Steven C. Teske, a Judge for the Clayton County Juvenile Court in Georgia. “However, in order to achieve the desired outcome of the juvenile justice system - preventing delinquency for youth not involved in the system and keeping youth already in the system from re-offending - we must understand why youth are getting into trouble in the first place. By using a collaborative approach, we can identify the root causes for youth coming.”

Minority youth are disproportionally represented within the juvenile justice system. Specifically, in 2006, data show black youth were five times more likely to be detained than white youth. Witnesses testified that youth of color receive more harsh responses than white youth and the committee should take efforts to reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in the system.

“The extent of disproportionate minority contact and racial and ethnic disparities has reached a level crisis that must be addressed, and it is a crisis that can be addressed with a strategic and intentional approach,” said Michael Belton,  Deputy Director of Juvenile Corrections in Ramsey County, MN.

Belton also discussed the need to properly use data to inform policies and practices, suggesting the committee’s reauthorization must include developing and implementing data systems that “identify where racial and ethnic disparities exist.”

Witness testimony and an archived webcast of the hearing are available here

“Secretary Duncan has taken an important step today for all students, recognizing every child in this country deserves the same opportunities, both in classroom and on the athletic field. Since its inception, Title IX has worked in schools across the country on behalf of all Americans, despite the Bush administration’s efforts to shamefully turn back the clock and weaken the protections in the law.  President Obama, Secretary Duncan and I all know we have a responsibility to strengthen and enforce Title IX to help all students, and bring new opportunities to the playing field in collegiate sports. Today’s decision is a win-win for student athletes, schools and sports enthusiasts. ”

The law makes health care even more affordable for the middle class, lowers prescription drug costs for seniors by closing the “donut hole” over time, reduces the deficit and strips out special deals that favored one state over another. The bill also makes the most sweeping changes to our federal student loan program in a generation.

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, and the co-author of both pieces of reform in the House, issued the following statement after attending the signing ceremony:

“Today marked the last leg of a long journey to bring historic health insurance and student loan reforms to the American people. With his signature today, President Obama has changed the way Washington works by ending the stranglehold banks and insurance companies have long held over policymaking. In doing so, he has handed America’s students, families and taxpayers two tremendous victories.

“Because of this law, the promise of quality, affordable health insurance is becoming real for every American. Strong accountability for insurance companies and vital protections for consumers will soon exist. The days of health insurance discrimination are nearly gone.

“Because of this law, college students will be able to graduate with less debt, less burdensome debt payments, and more opportunity. Students and families will finally have a federal college aid system that works in their best interests – not in the interest of banks or big corporations.

“This is a major step forward for America’s middle class. Thanks to the leadership and courage of President Obama, families and taxpayers have won two important victories that will help improve their lives, reduce our deficit, strengthen our middle class, and secure a stronger economic future.”

More information on the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

“Today the Senate listened to the American people by voting to improve our historic health reform law and stop sending wasteful subsidies to big banks, instead of students. These health reform improvements will start to benefit Americans immediately by making coverage more affordable, beginning to close the Medicare donut hole for seniors, and providing critical consumer protections for all Americans.

“These reforms will also end a sweetheart deal that banks have enjoyed for decades, at the expense of students and families. These savings will be used to help students and families pay for college and reduce our deficit. In fact, a new CNN poll shows a majority of Americans, on a bipartisan basis, support ending this handout for banks and reinvesting the savings directly in students. With one move, we will make college dramatically more affordable, prepare students for good jobs, help keep jobs in America, and reduce the deficit.

“I want to commend the Senate, and especially Senator Tom Harkin, for insisting on including reforms that will help families grappling with the crushing costs of both college and health care. In the coming hours the House will take the last leg of this historic journey by voting to send this measure to President Obama’s desk.”

More information on the health insurance reforms the House is voting on today

More information on the student loan reforms the House is voting on today

“Today marks a milestone in American history. This law takes a historic and dramatic first step to put families and small businesses back in control of their own health care, end insurance company abuses, and ensure all Americans have access to quality, affordable, secure health insurance.

“One last vital step remains in order to fully deliver on the changes for which Americans have waited nearly 100 years.  The Senate must now join the House in passing a companion measure that will significantly improve this new law by making coverage more affordable for families, strengthening immediate benefits and protections for consumers, and making the law fairer for all of the American people.

“The companion measure also includes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stop wasting $61 billion of taxpayers’ money subsidizing banks in our student loan programs, and instead use that money to directly help students pay for college and reduce the deficit. Insurance companies and banks are now waging a last-ditch effort to kill both reforms in the Senate. Senators cannot allow special interests and their lobbyists to drown out the voices of the students, workers and families who overwhelmingly support this last piece of reform. I urge them to pass and send this bill to President Obama as quickly as possible.”   

More information on these additional improvements to the health reform law.

More information on the student loan reform piece of this legislation.

“Sallie Mae has a history of using scare tactics to hold on to their excessive taxpayer subsidies, bloated CEO salaries and perks, and well paid cadre of Washington lobbyists. Judging by their statements today, it is clear that Sallie Mae will continue to do or say anything in a last-ditch effort to save their sweetheart deal – billions of dollars that we think would be better spent directly helping students pay for college.

“In truth, under this legislation Sallie Mae stands to gain millions of new borrowers to service as a vendor under the Direct Loan program, as long as they provide high-quality services to their customers. In fact, Sallie Mae recently brought 2,000 jobs they had shipped overseas back to America to compete for and win their current Direct Loan servicing contract. They know that Direct Loans, unlike loans originated by banks, can only be serviced by U.S. workers – and will help keep jobs in local communities.

“Sallie Mae’s efforts to use their own employees to lobby against these reforms were exposed in a recent news story. According to workers at an Indiana servicing center, Sallie Mae executives used the threat of job losses to pressure their employees to lobby against these reforms, while privately admitting their jobs were not in danger. It is shameful that company executives are playing politics with an issue as sensitive as job losses and trying to pit their own workers against middle class families seeking access to college.”

Sallie Mae’s mixed messages on jobs and lobbying efforts were revealed in an article by Campus Progress last week. To read the full story, click here:http://www.campusprogress.org/fieldreport/5216/indiana-sallie-mae-outlet-gets-mixed-messages-on-jobs.

BACKGROUND

For months, banks have been making false claims about the legislation’s impact on jobs. In reality, this legislation will help protect and keep jobs in America. Under the bill, 100 percent of Direct Loans will be serviced by private lenders, which will maintain demand for workers.
Unlike loans made by banks, Direct Loans can only be serviced by workers in the U.S. Last year, Sallie Mae was forced to bring 2,000 jobs back to U.S. soil to win a direct loan servicing contract. Sallie Mae is now one of four private banks servicing 4.4 million direct loans.

Because of this legislation, for the first time in America’s history, never again will Americans have to worry about losing their health insurance if they change or lose their job.
 
Insurance companies will not be able to jack up premiums or deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
 
They will not be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick – and need it most.
 
There is no other plan on the table today that offers Americans these vital assurances.

Our reforms will improve the lives of every single American – those with insurance today and those without it.
 
They will improve our economy by reducing the deficit, creating up to 4 million jobs over the next decade, and unshackling innovative business decisions from crippling health insurance costs. 
 
Our legislation offers families and employees of small businesses access to choices of affordable health plans; security and control over their health care; vital federal and state consumer protections; accountability for insurance companies; and coverage for 32 million Americans who don’t have insurance today.
 
Now, we’re pairing these truly historic health insurance reforms with another opportunity that cannot be missed: The chance to make the single largest investment in college affordability ever – and at no cost to taxpayers.

We are going to take tens of billions of dollars that for decades has gone to banks in the federal student loan program and instead give that money directly to students and to pay down the deficit.
 
For decades, these banks have had one of the sweetest deals in America: They receive taxpayer subsidies to make virtually risk-free loans to students.
 
As we speak, the federal government is now funding 88 percent of all federal student loan volume.
 
It has proven to be a more stable lender for students through shaky financial markets and a more cost-effective lender for taxpayers.
 
Ending these subsidies is not a radical idea.
 
President Clinton first identified these subsidies as wasteful in the 1990s.
 
President Bush eyed them in three of his budgets.
 
And President Obama has correctly proposed ending this boondoggle once and for all by originating all loans through the federal direct lending program – saving taxpayers $61 billion over 10 years. 
 
And that’s what our legislation accomplishes.
 
Our reforms are good for students, taxpayers and American jobs.
 
We will help low and middle-income students pay for college and invest in the support they need to graduate.
 
We will be more responsible with taxpayer dollars by using $10 billion of these savings for deficit reduction.
 
And we will end the practice of banks shipping lending jobs offshore.
 
Our reforms allow private lenders to service 100 percent of direct loans – preserving good jobs. But, unlike loans originated by banks, direct loans can only be serviced by workers in the United States.
 
That’s why last year, Sallie Mae brought 2,000 jobs they had shipped overseas back home.
 
It turns out they were competing for – and won – a direct loan servicing contract.
 
In fact, Sallie Mae has privately told workers at an Indiana servicing center that these reforms will not put their jobs at risk. 
 
They said a similar thing publicly to an Indiana newspaper.
 
Sallie Mae is now one of four companies that service 4.4 million direct loans.
 
With these savings, we invest $36 billion over 10 years to increase the Pell Grant to its highest level ever – including almost $14 billion to protect students from a Pell Grant shortfall.
 
If we don’t act immediately, eight million students could see their Pell Grants cut by 60 percent next year, and 600,000 students could lose their grants completely.
 
We will help new borrowers better manage their monthly payments.
 
We invest in community colleges, we invest in college access and completion programs, and we give vital support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Schools that play a unique role helping minority students graduate and succeed.
 
HBCUs graduate 40 percent of African-American students earning math, science, technology and engineering degrees, and 50 percent of African-American teachers.
 
And, this bill is fully paid for.
 
With this one move, we can make college more affordable, keep jobs in America, prepare young people for our global economy, and reduce our deficit by billions.
 
I’d like to thank Ruben Hinojosa, our higher education subcommittee chair, Tim Bishop, and all of our committee members for their tireless work on student loan reform.
 
And along with all the members of our committee, I’d like to especially thank Rob Andrews, our health subcommittee chair, for his backbreaking work over the last year on health reform.
 
We almost didn’t get here today.  You know that.
 
Opponents of health care reform have said anything and done everything to distort the facts, delay the process, and try to put off what Americans have asked for and needed for generations. They have tried to sow fear into the American people.
 
They cannot win on the merits. And they will continue to distort the facts and use scare tactics as we move forward.
 
But here we are today. We have made it to the final step in this process – despite all that noise.
 
And now we face a simple choice.
 
We can side with America’s families and college students and make health insurance and college more affordable and accessible – while creating millions of jobs and reducing the deficit.
 
Or, we can side with insurance companies and banks.
 
That’s it.
 
That’s the choice.
 
I’m siding with the American people. I urge each of my colleagues to join me.

“This legislation offers the most sweeping changes to the federal student loan program in a generation,” said Miller, who unveiled the details of the package this morning.  “This is really about making a simple choice. Congress can either continue the longstanding boondoggle that rewards banks with tens of billions of dollars in subsidies at the expense of families and taxpayers – or we can invest that money directly in students and America’s world economic leadership.

“Well, the Democratic leadership in Congress has made its decision -- we’re going to help students and their families,” Miller said.

“This is good for students, taxpayers, and American jobs,” Miller added. “With one move, Congress can make college more affordable, keep jobs in America, prepare young people for our global economy, and reduce our deficit by billions.”
 
Miller worked closely on this legislation with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who unveiled the provisions in the Senate today.  

“Education is the key to success in this country. It has the ability to transform a young person’s life and give them opportunities above and beyond the generations before them. But as millions of Americans struggle to afford the costs of higher education, multi-billion-dollar, taxpayer financed subsidies continue to flow to private banks,” said Harkin. “As Americans tighten their belts and make smart choices with their money, Congress should too.  Our bill redirects that funding to students and families, making college more affordable and ensuring that more Americans have access to higher education and the skills to succeed in the 21st Century economy.”

Consistent with what President Obama first proposed last year, this legislation would eliminate wasteful subsidies to banks in the federal student loan programs, and instead originate all federal student loans directly through the government.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this change would generate $61 billion in savings over 10 years that will be used to boost Pell Grant scholarships, make student loans more manageable for borrowers to repay, and strengthen community colleges.

Private lenders and banks would still have a role in servicing all federal student loans, which would guarantee borrowers high-quality customer services, maintain jobs in the private sector, and even protect jobs from being shipped overseas. Direct government loans, unlike loans made by banks, must be serviced by U.S. workers.

The federal government already funds 88 percent of all federal student loan volume, between loans that are already lent to students directly through the government and an emergency aid program student lenders have relied on since the credit crisis in 2008.

The budget resolution passed by the House and Senate budget committees last year instructed Congress to use reconciliation to enact both health insurance and student loan reforms that reduced the deficit by $1 billion over five years. The reconciliation measure today meets those requirements – it is fully paid for and reduces the deficit by at least $10 billion over 10 years.

Specifically these provisions will:

•    Make college more affordable for millions of students by investing a total of $36 billion into the Pell Grant program over 10 years, including $22.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to keep up with inflation.  The bill increases the maximum award from $5,550 next year to nearly $6,000 over the years ahead.  In the 2008-2009 year, 6.2 million Americans relied on Pell Grants to help pay for college and career training; eighty-nine percent of those students came from families making less than $40,000 per year.  

•    Protect students’ Pell Grant scholarships from the upcoming budget shortfall. The provisions will direct $13.5 billion of the $36 billion Pell Grant investment to address most of the gap needed to ensure there is not a dramatic cut in Pell grant funding in 2011. Because the Pell Grant program will be faced with increased costs due to higher demand, the maximum award could decrease to $2,150 from its current value of $5,350.  If this is not addressed, students could see a decrease in aid of almost 60 percent and nearly 600,000 students could lose the benefit entirely.  

•    Keeps jobs in America. Rather than force private industry out of the system, lenders will compete for contracts to service all federal student loans, which will guarantee borrowers high-quality customer service and preserve jobs. Unlike loans made by banks, Direct Loans can only be serviced by workers in the U.S. Last year, Sallie Mae brought 2,000 jobs back to U.S. soil to win a direct loan servicing contract. Sallie Mae is now one of four private banks servicing 4.4 million direct loans.

•    Invest $2.55 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. This bill recognizes the important role that minority-serving institutions play in educating our country’s low-income and minority students by continuing the funding provided in the 2007 education reconciliation bill for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities and other MSIs.

•    Make federal student loans more manageable to repay by strengthening an Income-Based Repayment program that currently allows borrowers to cap their monthly federal student loan payments at just 15 percent of their discretionary income. These new provisions would lower this monthly cap to just 10 percent for new borrowers after 2014.

•    Give students the support they need to stay in school and graduate.  The provisions invest $750 million in the College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) program. These formula grants to states help organizations provide services that increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in college and manage their student loans, such as financial literacy and debt management skills.

•    Prepare students and workers for competitive jobs by investing $2 billion in a competitive grant program for community colleges to develop and improve educational or career training programs.

Additional Information:

Myth/Fact document on student loan reform
Fact Sheet on student loan reform

***
Good afternoon.

Today Secretary Duncan joins us to discuss the Obama’s administration’s newly released blueprint for rewriting the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for meeting with us again.

Two weeks ago, you outlined President Obama’s vision for providing a world class education to every child in this country.  

You told us that the status quo is failing our students.

You told us that a strong education system is key to our long-term economic stability.

Members of this committee, on both sides of the aisle, agree.

Right now, even our best students are performing at a lower level in math than students in 22 other countries.

Nearly 80 percent of U.S. students are entering the ninth grade unable to read at grade level.

This has to change.

It’s time to overhaul and improve ESEA so that the law finally lives up to its promise: to provide an equal and excellent education for every child in America.

These improvements will require dramatic reforms to regain our role as a world leader in education.

But if we are successful, I believe we can build a solid economic foundation for our future generations.

What our students need to succeed isn’t a mystery.

They need a challenging and rigorous learning environment tied to college and career ready standards.

They need creative, effective teachers who hold them to high standards – and can adjust their teaching strategies when needed.

Innovative reformers across the country, at the local level, are making significant progress in these areas.

Now, at the federal level, we have to match their courage to disrupt the system and push the envelope.

I believe that the blueprint Secretary Duncan presents to us offers a strong roadmap for this kind of system-wide change.

Eight years ago, I helped write our current version of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act.

In many ways, the law was transformational.

It finally helped shine a bright light on what was really going on in our schools.

It told all of us – lawmakers, educators, parents, school boards – that it was no longer acceptable for any student to be invisible.

It showed us how all students and schools were faring, not just the richest districts or the highest-achieving students.
The results were difficult for many to swallow.

But it showed us the value of accountability for our students.

It provoked a conversation about education in this country that has gotten us where we are today.

But we know we didn’t get everything right.

The blueprint we’ll hear about today rightfully gives some control back to the states and districts to allow them to determine their own best strategies to turn around their lowest performing schools.

And it switches the conversation from one about proficiency to one about ensuring our students graduate ready for college and career.

We now have an incredible opportunity to help reshape the future of this country.

The Obama administration has already launched game-changing reforms for our schools.

Many states are taking unprecedented steps in the right direction.

In my home state of California, the state legislature removed the firewall that prevented student achievement data from being linked to teacher performance – a move that was a long time coming.

And in order to qualify for the second round of Race to the Top funding, California recently released its list of 187 persistently underperforming schools.

But California’s recent actions, and the actions of so many other states, have signaled they are ready to help fix the schools that are chronically failing our students.

As we take a close look at the administration’s blueprint today, I’d like to lay out some fundamental goals for what we must address in this rewrite.

We need to reset the bar for our students and the nation.

First, we need to ensure that every child can be taught by a great teacher, especially those who need them the most.

Teachers are the single most important factor in determining student achievement.

But 14 percent of new teachers stop teaching after their first year. More than a third leave teaching after three years. Almost 50 percent leave within five years.

We can’t expect teachers to stay in a system that doesn’t treat them with the same level of professionalism as other careers.

We can support great teaching in classrooms across this country by providing them with the right tools, like extended planning time, and more opportunities for career development.  

And by making sure that they have the data at their fingertips on how children are learning so we can understand how to better educate every child.  

Second, the quality of a child’s education should not be determined by their zip code. Every school, in every state needs to hold their students to rigorous, internationally benchmarked standards that prepares them for college and careers.

Third, there are districts and schools across the country seeing incredible success after years of stagnant results.

These schools were given the room to innovate. They’ve kept their focus on achieving at the highest levels and holding themselves accountable for all students.   

We must encourage states and districts to innovate, to think outside the box while maintaining high standards for all.

Lastly, we have to ensure we’re reaching every student with the right resources in every classroom.

Secretary Duncan, you have said repeatedly that our students get one chance at an education.

One chance.

I think the President’s blueprint lays the important markers as we begin this rewrite.

It will help build the kind of world class school system our economy needs and our children deserve,

Secretary Duncan, thank you again for being here.

Thank you for your leadership and your vision.

I look forward to hearing your testimony.

 “For millions of children, the meals they eat at school, in afterschool programs or child care are their nutritional safety net. Senator Lincoln and I both know we need to do everything we can to help all eligible children have access to healthy, safe and nutritious meals. Senator Lincoln's focus on improving access and nutrition quality rightfully address many of the concerns I often hear from parents, stakeholders and school leaders. I look forward to working with her as we continue our efforts to strengthen and improve child nutrition for kids across the country.”

The Education and Labor Committee recently held a hearing about improving the federal child nutrition programs.

“President Obama has outlined a bold vision for reform that puts our efforts to rewrite our education laws on strong footing. Congress now has an incredible opportunity to help reshape the future of this country by overhauling No Child Left Behind and finally ensuring a world-class education for every single child in this country. This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation.”

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will appear before the committee to discuss the President’s blueprint. It is the third in a series of hearings the committee is holding as it works to reauthorize the ESEA.

More information on the ESEA Blueprint for Reform

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House education committee and the author of the student loan reform bill that passed in the House in September, today said he was encouraged by today’s development and that this decision, if finalized, would boost overall support for passing health insurance reform:

“I am encouraged by indications this afternoon that the Senate appears to agree with us that we should join the health and student loan reform bills in one reconciliation package.  Supporting students and their families rather than banks is a win-win for our country, is a much better use of taxpayer dollars, and is helpful to passing the overall health reform bill.

“Sen. Harkin and I and many of our colleagues have been making the case that joining these two bills presents a remarkable opportunity for our country.  I am encouraged by reports today and I look forward to a final decision on this matter.

“Congress has a history of enacting student loan reforms through the reconciliation process, under both Democratic and Republican Congresses. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush recommended reducing the wasteful subsidies that banks get paid at the expense of students and taxpayers and President Obama made it a priority at the outset of his administration.

“We must not waste this opportunity to fix America’s broken health insurance system and make college much more affordable, at no cost to taxpayers.”

Miller held a press conference with Harkin and other lawmakers earlier today; to watch clips click here.

BACKGROUND

At his press conference earlier today, Miller cleared up several key points of confusion surrounding the student loan reform bill:

•    First, any student loan bill that would be included under reconciliation would have to be deficit neutral and return $1 billion in savings to pay down the deficit.  Contrary to media reports that the bill could increase the deficit, any investments included under the bill would be entirely paid for.
•    Second, the legislation will preserve jobs. For months banks have claimed that switching to Direct Loans would eliminate jobs. They are wrong. The student aid bill would maintain a servicing role for lenders, which will preserve jobs and, unlike in the current system, keep banks from shipping these jobs overseas. Last year, Sallie Mae, one of four private companies that currently services Direct Loans, had to bring 2,000 jobs home from overseas in order to be eligible for the servicing contract.
•    Third, it has always been known that student loan reform would move as part of a reconciliation measure. Last year’s House Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2010 included instructions for the House Education and Labor Committee to enact student loan reforms that produce $1 billion in savings to help reduce the deficit over the next five years. In order to meet these reconciliation requirements, any student loan reform will have to help reduce the deficit.
•    Fourth, these subsidies to lenders have been identified as wasteful by both Democratic and Republican presidents. In addition to President Clinton and President Obama, who both identified these subsidies as wasteful, President George W. Bush’s 2005, 2006 and 2008 budget proposals called for reducing these federal subsidies to private banks.
•    Finally, this is the only opportunity to enact these reforms. As the lawmakers said today, student loan reform must move under these reconciliation instructions – or it won’t happen.

More information on student loan reform

The 2009 budget resolution provided reconciliation instructions for Congress to use for both health insurance  reform and student loan reform. To comply with the reconciliation instructions, the student loan reforms have to be budget neutral and reduce the deficit by $1 billion over five years. Budget rules require that both bills would move together as one reconciliation measure – they cannot be moved separately.

The House passed the legislation, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, in September with bipartisan support. The bill, which was first proposed by President Obama, would eliminate wasteful taxpayer subsidies to banks in the federal student loan programs and invest the savings in students, families and taxpayers. The reliable and cost-efficient federal Direct Loan program, which many schools already use, would provide students with the same loans as banks – but at a cheaper price for taxpayers.

At the press conference today, Miller cleared up several key points of confusion:

• First, any student loan bill that would be included under reconciliation would have to be deficit neutral and return $1 billion in savings to pay down the deficit.  Contrary to media reports that the bill could increase the deficit, any investments included under the bill would be entirely paid for.
• Second, the legislation will preserve jobs. For months banks have claimed that switching to Direct Loans would eliminate jobs. They are wrong. The student aid bill would maintain a servicing role for lenders, which will preserve jobs and, unlike in the current system, keep banks from shipping these jobs overseas. Last year, Sallie Mae, one of four private companies that currently services Direct Loans, had to bring 2,000 outsourced jobs back to the U.S. in order to be eligible for the servicing contract.
• Third, it has always been known that student loan reform would move as part of a reconciliation measure. Last year’s House Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2010 included instructions for the House Education and Labor Committee to enact student loan reforms that produce $1 billion in savings to help reduce the deficit over the next five years. In order to meet these reconciliation requirements, any student loan reform will have to help reduce the deficit. 
• Fourth, these subsidies to lenders have been identified as wasteful by both Democratic and Republican presidents. In addition to President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama, who both identified these subsidies as wasteful, President George W. Bush’s 2005, 2006 and 2008 budget proposals called for reducing these federal subsidies to private banks.
• Finally, this is the only opportunity to enact these reforms. As the lawmakers said today, student loan reform must move under these reconciliation instructions – or it won’t happen.
  

To read Miller’s remarks at today’s press conference, click here.

To watch the question and answer portion of the press conference, click here.

More information on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Senate Democrats have a very simple choice to make in the next few weeks.

This choice speaks to the true character of our country and of our Congress.

It speaks to what America’s priorities will be for the next generation.

It speaks to fiscal responsibility and fairness.

Here’s the choice. We can continue a student loan program that the Congressional Budget office has documented will waste tens of billions of dollars over the next 10 years on a titanic boondoggle in excess subsidies to some of the nation’s rich and most powerful banks.

Or we can do what President Obama suggested in his budget, and what the Congress voted last year to do in its budget resolution.  We can reform the student loan program by taking these wasteful subsides to banks, and redeem the savings for millions of families and students who want a shot at attending college, go to a community college, and attend a school that is crumbling around them. 

It is that simple.

Just consider what this bill would do for students, families – and our economic future.

It would invest tens of billions of dollars in the Pell Grant scholarship.

For millions of Americans, Pell Grants are the pathway to prosperity.

They have become America’s great equalizer – allowing anyone with talent and gumption to get an education and a good job.

There are few greater job creators than a highly skilled workforce.

Our bill would invest billions in school modernization, give urgent help to historically black colleges and Hispanic serving institutions, and boost support for the nation’s bedrock local community colleges.

It would make our community colleges part of the solution to our competitive challenges by giving them the tools they need to prepare students for good jobs with local employers.

Who in good conscience can trade any of this away for billions in excess subsidies for banks?

Now, this is not a radical idea.

In his 2005, 2006 and 2008 budget requests, President George W. Bush recommended reducing these wasteful subsidies by tens of billions of dollars.

President Obama has shown the courage to take this on by insisting we re-deploy all of these subsidies to help students and families.

The 2009 budget resolutions passed by the House and Senate required both chambers to use reconciliation to enact student loan reforms that save taxpayers billions of dollars.

In order to comply with these reconciliation instructions, we would be required to save $1 billion for taxpayers over 5 years.

This legislation would be fully paid for.

But now this promise is at risk.

Critics of this bill, fueled by the banks’ well heeled lobbyists, have been hard at work fighting to kill it.

They have been busy spreading lots of falsehoods about how this bill might impact the budget, or jobs, or students.

Let me set the record straight, right now.

This bill will not add a penny to the deficit – it will help reduce it. The budget reconciliation instructions require that any student loan reforms return at least $1 billion to the Treasury over 5 years.

It will meet PAY-GO. We are committed to that, and it will be done.

The bill creates and retains jobs.  It maintains a robust and appropriate role for private banks and lenders in servicing loans. Servicing loans through the Direct Loan program will not only preserve most jobs, it will bring jobs back home that can currently be shipped overseas by lenders.

Moving to Direct Loans is a much better use of taxpayer dollars. Consider that right now, between schools that have switched to Direct Loans and emergency federal aid banks are relying on – the federal government is already funding 8.8 of every 10 dollars lent in federal student lending.

The current FFEL system can’t continue.  We saw this two years ago when the markets seized up, students would have been left high and dry if we had not stepped in to provide liquidity. 

It’s also wrong to suggest this is being talked about at the 11th hour.

We have known since last April that reconciliation would be used for this bill.

So this is really what is comes down to now.

The Senate has a choice to do something that is fair and right for American families.

They have a choice to end this system of corporate welfare for banks – a system that has stayed alive because of well-entrenched lobbyists and cozy Washington relationships.

They can either continue to send tens of billions of dollars to banks and a broken system – or they can send those dollars directly to students, at no costs to taxpayers.

This is a moment in history where Senators can either look back and say – we did the right thing for the American people, or they can say we did the bidding of banks.

###

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last spring exposed hundreds of alleged cases of schoolchildren being abused as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion, often involving untrained staff. The victims were children as young as three and four, students with disabilities and without disabilities, who attended both public and private schools. In a number of cases, children died. In some of the cases GAO investigated, ropes, duct tape, and chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

“It’s time to end this nightmare of abuse that has hurt too many students, classmates, families and school communities,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “This bill simply says that every child, in every school, in every state deserves the same basic level of protections that they currently receive in hospitals.”

“I am genuinely pleased by the House’s bipartisan support for H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe in Schools Act,” said U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), original sponsor of the legislation. “This critical piece of legislation confronts the unimaginable situation in schools across the country whereby some of our nation’s most vulnerable children are treated in an inhumane and degrading manner. The thousands of incidents reported by GAO and others together with the piecemeal approach taken by the states demonstrates the need for federal guidance. I’ve been proud to work with many organizations and this is a victory for them. I thank Chairman Miller for his leadership and my colleagues for their support. Together, we will work to ensure this bill is passed by the Senate.”

Unlike in hospitals and other community-based facilities that receive federal taxpayer dollars, there are currently no federal laws that address how and when restraint and seclusion can be used on children in public and private schools. GAO also found that improperly trained teachers were too often using these practices as frequent discipline.

Seclusion, as the term is used in this context, means the act of involuntarily confining a student in an area by himself. Restraint is used to restrict an individual’s freedom of movement.

According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education, state laws on restraint and seclusion vary widely. Nineteen states have no laws at all. Of the 31 states that do have laws in place, many are not comprehensive enough to protect all students, in every kind of school.

The Keeping All Students Safe Act would establish, for the first time, minimum federal standards to provide equal protections to all students, in every state across the country. It would make clear that physical restraint or locked seclusion should be used only when there is imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff. It would prohibit mechanical restraints, such as strapping children to chairs, misusing therapeutic equipment to punish students or duct-taping parts of their bodies and any restraint that restricts breathing.

It would also prohibit chemical restraint, which are medications used to control behavior that are not consistent with a doctor’s prescription.

The bill would prohibit school staff from including restraint or seclusion as planned interventions in student’s education plans, known as Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). It would also require schools to notify parents immediately after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used.

In many of the cases GAO examined, parents only learned that their child was being restrained or secluded from a whistle-blowing teacher – or when their child came home bruised.

The legislation would also allow states the flexibility to tailor their individual laws based on their needs: It would ask states to have their own laws in place, within two years, that either meet or exceed these basic federal standards.

Full list of supporters

Read the GAO’s investigation

Learn more about the bill

“Under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary Duncan, the U.S. Department of Education has made tremendous strides to build a stronger economy by providing our students with the knowledge and skills they need to compete globally,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee. “If we’re serious about reaching President Obama’s goal of producing the most college graduates in the world by 2020, we will need to make sure that our students are prepared for college – and that they can afford to go once they get there.”

“We have made extraordinary progress in meeting the needs of our schools and communities in the midst of financial crisis and recession, making long-needed reforms in our Federal postsecondary student aid programs, and reawakening the spirit of innovation in our education system from early learning through college,” Duncan said. “The next step to cement and build on this progress is to complete a fundamental restructuring of ESEA.”

As Duncan explained today, over the past year the administration focused on making sure that education was not another casualty of the economic crisis. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included $100 billion in funding to help stave off layoffs of teachers and other school staff. To date, the Department of Education has awarded more than $69 billion of that funding, supporting 400,000 jobs overall -- including 300,000 jobs for principals, teachers, librarians and counselors.  

ARRA also created a $4.35 billion competitive grant program called Race to the Top, which incentivized states to make reforms in four key areas: strengthening the quality of teachers, assessments, standards and helping turn around struggling schools. To date 40 states and the District of Columbia have made changes to apply for these grants.

In his statement, Duncan said the President’s 2011 budget seeks to build on that progress by meeting several goals: “supporting reform of struggling schools, improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, implementation of comprehensive statewide data systems, and simplifying student aid.”

Duncan told lawmakers that the budget not only lays out core goals for rewriting ESEA, but also seeks to further change how education funding is awarded – so that investments are used to leverage effective reforms.

“We also propose to increase the role of competition in awarding ESEA funds to support a greater emphasis on programs that are achieving successful results,” Duncan continued.

Last month, bipartisan lawmakers on the committee announced plans to work together to overhaul ESEA. The committee has already begun to hold hearings and has asked stakeholders for their suggestions for how to improve the law.

Duncan also renewed his call for Congress to enact the historic Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, legislation authored by Miller and passed by the House in September. The legislation would save $87 billion over 10 years by eliminating subsidies to banks in the federal student loan programs and would reinvest those savings directly in students, families and taxpayers.

The bill reflects the administration’s goals of investing in students from “cradle-to-career.”It invests $8 billion over eight years to transform early learning programs that would help our earliest learners arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed. It creates a more competitive community college system by investing $10 billion to help these colleges prepare students for local jobs in growing fields. And it makes unprecedented investments to make college more affordable and accessible for students, including a $40 billion increase in funding for Pell Grants over 10 years and simplifying the federal student aid application.

The president’s FY 2011 budget also calls on Congress to help make student loans more manageable for borrowers to repay by strengthening an Income-Based Repayment program enacted by Congress in 2007.

“Just as essential to preparing students for college is ensuring that students and families have the financial support they need to pay for college,” Duncan said. “No one should go broke because of student loan debt.”

For more on the committee’s efforts to rewrite ESEA, click here.

For more on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, click here.

“Children who are served healthy and balanced meals are better poised for success in school and in life,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “Making sure children have access to the foods they need well before they enter kindergarten will be critical as we work to improve our federal child nutrition laws this year.”

Improving the federal school meal and child nutrition programs is one of four key strategies of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.

Witnesses today echoed the First Lady’s goal and urged Congress to consider strengthening several policy areas to improve child nutrition.

The school meal programs have the greatest reach of all the child nutrition programs.  In over 100,000 schools across the country, more than 31 million children rely on the federal school meal programs each day.

“It will not be easy to reconcile the needs of our children with the massive public debt we face as a country,” said Dora R. Rivas, President of the School Nutrition Association and Executive Director of Food and Child Nutrition Services at the Dallas Independent School District. “Investing in our children and preparing them to learn and compete in a global economy must remain one of the country’s highest priorities.”

Rivas specifically asked Congress to help improve children’s access to the school meal programs and to support high quality nutrition. 

Studies have shown that early access to good nutrition can have a positive effect on children’s development and achievement.  The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimburses program participants, such as child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start, after school programs and shelters for food and meal preparation costs, ongoing nutrition training and more.  Each day, about three million children receive meals and snacks under the CACFP while in child care.

“CACFP is a vital source of support for family child care providers, centers and Head Start Programs,” said Carolyn L. Morrison, President of the National Child and Adult Care Food Program Forum. “CACFP sponsoring organizations play a critical role in ensuring child care providers can participate in this program and serve healthful meals to children under their care.
 
Another key program, WIC, provides supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and infants and children up to age five who are at a nutritional risk. Studies show breastfeeding is the best source of nutrition for infants, but low-income women are significantly less likely to breastfeed. As witnesses explained today, low-income women who participate in WIC are more likely to breastfeed – setting their children on a path to lead healthier lives.

“Appreciating the external challenge we face in the WIC Program, Congress has recognized the importance of WIC breastfeeding promotion and support and has steadily increased the funding available to support this effort,” said Kiran Saluja, Deputy Director of Public Health Foundation Enterprises, Inc. “WIC staff has not only embraced, but championed breastfeeding personally and professionally. Within WIC we have clearly established breastfeeding as the expectation and the norm.”

More information about recent investments in child nutrition

More information about the First Lady’s effort to end childhood obesity

###

While charter schools are not the silver bullet for fixing struggling schools, high performing charter schools offer many low-income and minority students the opportunity to receive a high quality education.

“High performing charter schools can be laboratories for innovative reforms,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “As we work  to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we need to be open to bold ideas that will help fix our schools, get us closer to our goal of delivering a world-class education to every student in America and ensure all students have access to these innovative opportunities.”

“As we begin to rewrite No Child Left Behind, we renew our commitment to closing the achievement gap and ensuring that each and every child, regardless of disability, economic or ethnic background, receives a quality education and the opportunity to succeed,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO).  “I introduced the All Students Achieving through Reform (All-STAR) Act, which enables successful public charter schools that get the job done to expand and replicate.  By building on what we know works, All-STAR allows more at-risk students to attend a great school and realize their full potential.”

A charter school is a public school that operates with public funds but less regulation than traditional public schools. Charter schools must be open to all students, use a lottery to determine admission if applicants exceed capacity and assess students annually in the same manner as public schools.

Specifically, today’s hearing examined legislation introduced by Polis, the All Students Achieving Through Reform Act, that would help expand access to and improve the quality of charter schools. The bill would allow states and school districts to compete for funds to help replicate and grow successful charter schools.

As witnesses explained, autonomy is one factor that helps quality charter schools succeed.

“We have the freedom to get it right,” said Eva Moskowitz, CEO and Founder, of the Harlem Success Academy. “The freedom to correct in real time when we get stuff wrong.  The freedom to innovate.  The freedom to work longer and harder. The freedom to organize our schools around children and teaching rather than the economic interests of grownups.  Without this freedom, you would get the same results district schools get.”

Today more than 1.5 million students, three percent of all schoolchildren, attend nearly 5,000 charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Growth has continued steadily, but is concentrated in urban districts and a few states.

“The presence of even one charter school that is sending all of its poor and minority students to college can be a game changer for an urban superintendent,” said Robin Lake, Associate Director at the Center for Reinventing Public Education. “It can take away excuses that district schools can’t do better and it can inspire people to want to make politically difficult decisions.”

While charter schools have grown steadily in some districts, 89 percent of districts nationwide do not have a charter school.

Charter schools are accountable to the families and communities they serve, as well as the authorizing agency that oversees them. But research shows that 40 percent of charter school authorizers report that they do not have sufficient resources to help perform their responsibilities to support students, teachers and schools.

According to Greg Richmond, President, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, “without strong authorizer practices in place, a school drifting off course quickly becomes a disaster for its students, parents and the public.”

In addition, while high performing charter schools have helped increase student achievement, special populations of students, including students with disabilities, are often under-represented.

“Students with disabilities, English language learners and homeless students have rights as American citizens both granted to them by the Constitution and within various federal education laws. Anecdotal information suggests that some parents are discouraged from applying to charter schools and that some charter schools ‘send back’ students with complicated needs to traditional public schools,” said Dr. Thomas Hehir, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “America has opened doors to previously excluded groups through the Civil Rights Act, the IDEA and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The federal government needs to assure that discrimination is not occurring within the charter sector.”

The hearing was one of a series of hearings the committee will hold as it prepares to overhaul ESEA. Last week, Miller, along with other leaders from the committee, announced they are moving forward with a bipartisan, open and transparent effort to ensure every child, in every state, receives a top-notch education. For more information, click here.

To view witness testimony, click here.

“Today, we’re announcing 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. With a real commitment to innovation, we invite all stakeholders who share our serious interest in building a world-class education system to email us their suggestions.”
 
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 First Lady has set the stage for dramatic improvements in children’s health by lending her leadership, credibility and great ideas to help end the U.S. childhood obesity crisis. Making sure that our school cafeterias serve healthy and nutritious foods and that children and their families have access to these foods will be critical as we work to improve our federal child nutrition laws. Access to affordable, safe and healthier meals should be the rule – not the exception – for children and families across our nation.”

The “Let’s Move” initiative will focus on reaching the goal of ending childhood obesity in four ways: getting parents more involved and informed about nutrition and exercise; making healthy foods more accessible and affordable; increasing attention to physical activity; and improving the quality of food in the school meal programs. The federal school meal programs serve 31 million students each day.

“Making sure the foods we serve our schoolchildren are safe must be a top priority for USDA, especially since several rounds of recalled beef have made their way into school cafeterias in recent years.  This announcement is a meaningful step toward putting effective systems in place for ensuring the safety, quality and integrity of the foods we serve our students.”
 
While schools generally have a strong record on providing safe school meals, Miller has become increasingly concerned by the numerous ground beef recalls from the commercial market and has worked to fully examine the integrity of the system responsible for ensuring that contaminated products are not being served to children.
                                                                                                      
More than 31 million children participate in the school meal programs each day.  Schools are responsible for providing high-quality and safe meals, which includes foods obtained through the USDA commodity program and from the commercial market. In order for schools to fully meet their responsibilities, however, every other supplier in the food chain system – from farm to fork – must also do their part to keep food safe.

Miller has been closely monitoring President Obama’s work to increase coordination and improve communication among the numerous federal agencies with responsibility for ensuring food safety.  In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in January, he urged the USDA to fully meet its responsibility to keep adulterated ground beef out of commerce and out of schools.   Specifically, he asked the Department to identify strategies to reduce the complexity and increase the transparency of the food safety system in a manner that will assure the public that the foods they consume at school are safe. 

To see a copy of Miller’s letter, click here.
 
The Education and Labor Committee has jurisdiction over the federal school meal and child nutrition programs.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last spring exposed hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being abused as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion, often involving untrained staff. In some cases, children died. A disproportionate number of these victims were students with disabilities. In some of the cases GAO investigated, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

“This bill makes clear that there is no place in our schools for abuse and torture,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The egregious abuse of a child should not be considered less criminal because it happens in a classroom -- it should be the opposite. I’m proud that this bill has bipartisan support and I hope the full House will vote on it soon.”

“I’m pleased that H.R. 4247, the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act, was reported out of Committee today. This is a victory for students, parents, families, educators, and advocates who have worked tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of children in schools,” said U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and vice chair of the House Republican Conference. “When I send my son Cole to school, I send him with the expectation that he is safe from danger.  Yet, there have been hundreds of cases in which schoolchildren were harmed as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion.  Our bill is a long stride forward in ensuring that our tax dollars are not used to abuse children.  I look forward to working with Chairman Miller and my colleagues to pass this bill through Congress this year, and have it signed into law.”

Unlike in hospitals and other medical and community-based facilities that receive federal health funding, there are currently no federal laws addressing restraint and seclusion in schools. While the Children’s Health Act of 2000 regulates how and when restraint and seclusion can be used on children in these other settings, this bill would cover schools for the first time.  State regulation and oversight varies greatly; many states provide no guidance or assistance regarding these behavioral interventions.

The Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act will, for the first time, put in place minimum safety standards to prevent abusive restraint and seclusion in schools across the country, similar to protections already in place in medical and community based facilities. After two years, states will need to have their own policies in place to meet these minimum standards. It would apply to public schools, private schools and preschools receiving federal education support. Specifically the legislation would:
• Limit physical restraint and locked seclusion, allowing these interventions only when there is imminent danger of injury, and only when imposed by trained staff;
• Outlaw mechanical restraints, such as strapping kids to chairs, and prohibit restraints that restrict breathing;
• Require schools to notify parents after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used;
• Encourage states to provide support and training to better protect students and prevent the need for emergency behavioral interventions; and
• Increase transparency, oversight and enforcement tools to prevent future abuse.
The legislation embodies principles outlined by the Obama administration in December. It has the support of nearly 100 organizations, including the National School Boards Association, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers. See a full list of supporters here: http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2010/01/supporters-of-the-preventing-h.shtml

Miller first requested the GAO investigation in January 2009, after the National Disability Rights Network released a report highlighting these abuses.

For more information about the bill, click here.

To learn more about definitions in the bill, click here.

To learn more about the myths/facts in regards to this bill, click here.

“Nothing is more important than our children’s health, but for too many families, healthy meals fall to the wayside as they struggle to make ends meet.  Our nation’s school meal and child nutrition programs provide millions of children with nutritious meals and help them develop healthy life habits – and will be critically important in the fight against childhood obesity. As we work to rewrite our child nutrition laws this year, we must focus on eliminating any barriers to these programs, so that all eligible children have access to healthier foods and nutrition education whether in school, child care, or at home.

“Improving child nutrition and tackling childhood obesity will be a challenge, but no one is better equipped to take it on than our First Lady. She has already done wonders to raise public awareness of the benefits of gardening and healthy eating and I applaud her for choosing this as her first key policy initiative. I look forward to working with the First Lady on this initiative and am committed to working with my colleagues in Congress on a bipartisan, comprehensive reauthorization of our child nutrition laws.”

The Education and Labor Committee has jurisdiction over federal school meal and afterschool meal programs, the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and community-based programs such as the summer meals program and the child and adult care food program.

GOOD JOBS FOR WORKERS
“Right now, we are focused on the twin goals of creating jobs and making sure those are good jobs – with fair pay, benefits and safe working conditions. The President’s budget makes critical investments to improve worker safety and health and prevent employers from misclassifying their employees, which can deny workers their earned benefits.

COMPETITIVE WORKFORCE
“Especially in light of the challenges workers and businesses faced dealing with H1N1, I am very pleased this budget launches a new partnership with states to offer more workers paid sick leave. It will also help us build a more competitive workforce by investing in effective worker training programs and summer jobs and other innovative work opportunities for young Americans.

RETIREMENT SECURITY
“This budget rightly recognizes that workers’ retirement savings were one of the greatest casualties of the financial crisis. Their proposals will help workers restore their savings while protecting them from ulterior motives of Wall Street middle men. This represents a major step forward.

IMPROVING EDUCATION
“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.

STUDENT LOAN REFORM
“The President’s budget also reinforced his support for the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, a key component of his education agenda that starts with our earliest learners. This should send a clear message to the Senate: Join the House in voting to send over $80 billion in federal taxpayer subsidies to children and students – instead of to banks.”

“The Obama administration inherited not only the worst financial crisis in a generation, but a middle class severely weakened by eight years of failed trickle-down economic policies. Economists across the board agree the administration’s early efforts saved our economy from catastrophe. But, as the President pointed out tonight, middle class families are still reeling from a “lost decade” of declining wages, benefits and retirement savings.

“Tonight President Obama made clear he will continue to put the needs of middle class families and taxpayers first. He has put forth solid proposals to help borrowers struggling with high monthly student loan bills and families grappling with child care expenses. He is focused on helping rebuild Americans’ retirement security by expanding access to retirement accounts, providing tax credits, and improving transparency on all fees taken out of workers’ savings.

“He redoubled his commitment to continue saving and creating jobs by calling on Congress to invest in small businesses, in green jobs, and in our roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. The House has already passed a second jobs bill and we will continue to look for every possible way we can put Americans back to work quickly.

“The President was also right to renew his call for Congress to pass health insurance reform. Opinion polls don’t measure the workers who continue to lose their jobs and their health insurance, the small businesses getting crushed by health care costs, or the people getting denied the treatment they need because of a pre-existing condition. The economic case for fixing our broken health insurance system remains just as strong as the moral one: Studies show reforms will create up to four million jobs over the next decade. We will continue to fight for reforms that will create new jobs in health fields and make consumers the central focus of our health insurance system – not insurance companies.

 “As we focus on creating jobs, we also have to focus on preparing our current and future workers for those jobs. We won’t be able to sustain a long-term economic recovery if we don’t have a world-class education system to match it. From their first years of life through college, our students must learn the knowledge and skills needed to compete in our global economy. President Obama’s historic budget commitment to investing in our children at every age shows he’s serious about regaining the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

“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.

“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.

“For the last three years, House Democrats have been fighting on behalf of middle class families. I hope all lawmakers realize that this mission is more important than politics and join us in working to rebuild our economy and address the needs of our children, students, workers and taxpayers.”

BACKGROUND

STUDENT LOANS: The administration’s proposal to cap borrower’s monthly federal student loan payments at just 10 percent of their income builds directly on a new program, called Income Based Repayment (IBR), which took effect in July 2009 as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, a law Miller co-authored. IBR currently allows students to cap their monthly loan payments at 15 percent of their discretionary monthly income and forgives their remaining loan debt after 25 years of repayment. Learn more about Income Based Repayment.

RETIREMENT SAVINGS: Miller has also been a lead champion of protecting workers from hidden fees that could be eating deeply into their retirement savings and from conflicts of interest from their investment advisors. He is the co-author of the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act, which will provide workers with clear and complete information about the fees they are paying to help them make the best investment decisions for their future retirement security. The bill was approved by the Education and Labor Committee in June. Learn more about the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act.

“It's exciting that the Obama administration plans to commit additional resources to empower both states and districts to significantly improve our schools. As states and districts lead the way, the federal government can be a strong partner in reform by upholding the integrity of the program and ensuring these resources are used as intended to help leverage real change."

Race to the Top was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and provides grants to states that commit to four key areas of reform: Designing rigorous standards linked to high-quality assessments, recruiting and retaining great teachers, implementing data systems and using effective approaches to turn-around low-performing schools.

To learn more about Race to the Top, click here.

“It is critical that schools have access to the equipment they need to ensure the foods they serve are safe and healthy to eat, especially since more and more children rely on the school meal programs as a nutritional safety net. In the wake of dwindling state and local budgets, these grants will help many schools overcome significant barriers to buying quality food service equipment.  I applaud Secretary Vilsack for getting this money out the door quickly and I hope states and school districts are able to spend this money effectively and in the same speedy manner.”

For more information about the other investments Congress has made in school meals, click here.

For more information about the equipment grants, click here.

“No other factor matters as much to students’ success in school than the effectiveness of their teachers. If we are serious about regaining our global competitiveness, we need a seismic shift in the way we think about teachers, treat teachers, and partner with teachers. President Weingarten is right: We have to demand excellence in our classrooms, which begins with a teacher evaluation and development system based on multiple measures, including good data, student achievement and stronger support for educators. And we must encourage school leaders and unions to work together, so that teachers’ voices are heard. I’m glad to see AFT is prepared to set the bar high and I look forward to working with them and other key stakeholders as we continue the critical work of improving our schools – and improving opportunities for all of America’s children.”

Miller has been a longtime champion of legislation to help elevate and strengthen the teaching profession. He is the lead author of several bills to help improve teacher training, recruitment and support programs. Most recently, he helped craft the education provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides $200 million in funding for school districts to reward educators for outstanding performance or for taking on additional responsibilities and leadership roles and invests $100 million to address teacher shortages and modernize the teaching workforce.

He is also the author of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which provides up-front tuition assistance of $4,000 each year – for a maximum of $16,000 – for college students who commit to teaching in high need public schools or high need subject areas.

“Our nation’s economy has made significant progress since earlier this year when more than 600,000 Americans were losing their jobs every month. While we may have stemmed the tide of steep job losses and the Recovery Act is making an undeniable impact, millions of Americans are still looking for a job,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and one of the lead authors of the bill. “The Jobs for Main Street Act is the right thing to do to continue rebuilding our economy and the just thing to do for the millions of families who urgently need work.”

The legislation uses existing available funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to pay for targeted investments in infrastructure and emergency aid to state and local governments to hire teachers, police officers and other vital personnel.

Among other provisions, the Jobs for Main Street Act provides:

• $23 billion to save an estimated 250,000 education jobs over the next two years;
• $41 billion to extend for six months expanded unemployment benefits, including increased payouts and longer duration of benefits;
• $12.3 billion to extend from nine to 15 months the 65 percent COBRA premium support for individuals who have lost their jobs. In addition, the bill extends eligibility through June 30, 2010;
• $200 million for AmeriCorps programs and the National Service Trust, to support an additional 25,000 AmeriCorps Members;
• $500 million for summer youth employment programs;
• $300 million to support the College Work Study program, which supports low- and moderate-income undergraduate and graduate students who work while attending college; and
• $750 million for competitive grants to support job training for approximately 150,000 individuals in high growth and emerging industry sectors, particularly in the health care and green industries that are adding jobs despite difficult economic conditions.

For more information on the Jobs for Main Street Act, click here.

Earlier in the day, the House also approved the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill, which included a separate two-month extension of COBRA premium benefits and unemployment insurance.

“This legislation wisely targets our resources in the workers and families who need the most help weathering this economy.

“It makes key investments to help dislocated workers get the training and skills they need for good jobs in high growth industries and increases worker protections against wage theft and exploitation so that employees who work hard and play by the rules get their fair shake.

“It takes important steps to strengthen our health care workforce and meet the health care needs of families as Congress continues working to fulfill our promises to reform our broken health insurance system.

“It enhances our future competitiveness by boosting teacher effectiveness and addressing our high school dropout crisis -- two approaches that will help more students graduate from high school with a quality education. It continues our commitment to the Pell Grant scholarship so Americans have access to an affordable college education and further invests in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. And it supports early education opportunities to put our youngest learners on the path to success.

“Altogether, these investments will help us build on the progress our economy is beginning to make and lay the groundwork for a sustainable recovery. I want to commend Chairman Obey and the Appropriations Committee for crafting a package that does right by students, workers and families and upholds our commitment to fiscal responsibility. I look forward to continuing to work with them to make further progress in rebuilding and strengthening our nation’s middle class.”

For more information on the Labor, Health and Education provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, click here.

###

Among other things, the recommendations encourage companies to partner with colleges, school districts and community colleges to better align student learning with employers’ needs.

“The Business Roundtable hit the nail on the head: education has to play a key role in revitalizing our economy,” said Miller. “As our economy continues to change shape and new industries continue to emerge and grow, we have to ensure we are preparing our next generation of workers with the skills they will need to compete. Developing strong partnerships between the business community and our classrooms and campuses is smart policy. This report reinforces the need for Congress to enact the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act as we work on short-term and long-term strategies for building a lasting economic recovery.”

Miller is the author of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which makes unprecedented investments to make college affordable and accessible and boost the number of U.S. college graduates. One of the bill’s key provisions is President Obama’s community college initiative, which will help build a 21st century workforce by incentivizing partnerships between community colleges, businesses, job training and adult education programs. The House passed the bill in September, the Senate is expected to consider the legislation soon. For more information, click here.

###

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last spring exposed hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being abused as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion, often involving untrained staff. In some cases, children died. A disproportionate number of these victims were students with disabilities.

“Something is very wrong when our children are at risk in their own classrooms,” said Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee who requested the GAO’s investigation. “In some cases, the abuses these kids are suffering are nothing short of torture inflicted at the hands of the very staff we entrust with their safety. Today is a critical first step toward finally ending this nightmare of abuse and ensuring that all classrooms are safe for students, their teachers, and the entire school communities.”

“As a parent, when I send my son Cole to school, my husband Brian and I send him with the expectation that he is safe from danger. We entrust him to teachers, principals, and aides. And we know those school personnel have done an outstanding job to help him and keep him safe. Yet, we know this has not been the case for other children, particularly children with disabilities who are the most vulnerable and need the most protection,” said McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and vice chair of the House Republican Conference. “I’ve looked into this and have come to the conclusion that there is a lack of training. As difficult situations arise, teachers or principals just don’t know what to do. The legislation that we are introducing today gives states the needed guidance and resources to enable teachers and school personnel to handle difficult situations in the most positive manner possible.”

“The tragedies associated with the inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint are not only unacceptable, they are unconscionable,” said Dodd.  “There is no place in our schools for what amounts to torture, and we need clear standards for the use of tactics that lead to the physical and psychological abuse of children.  This legislation will set clear guidelines so that children and educators alike can be sure of a safe learning environment.”

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Restraint is used to restrict an individual’s freedom of movement. Seclusion is used to involuntarily confine a student in an area alone. Both practices are meant to be used only in situations of imminent danger. Among other things, the GAO found that restraint can become fatal when it restricts breathing, that many of the school staff who used these interventions in abusive ways had not been properly trained, and that these practices are often being used as a routine disciplinary tactic, rather than in response to an emergency.

In some of the cases GAO investigated, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

Unlike in hospitals and other medical and community-based facilities that receive federal health funding, there are currently no federal laws addressing restraint and seclusion in schools. While the Children’s Health Act of 2000 regulates how and when restraint and seclusion can be used on children in these other settings, schools are not covered. State regulation and oversight varies greatly; many states provide no guidance or assistance regarding these behavioral interventions.

The Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247) would establish the first federal standards to protect students from misuse of restraint and seclusion and ensure the safety of everyone in the classroom. It would apply to public schools, private schools and preschools receiving federal education support. Specifically the legislation would:

 

• Establish important minimum federal safety standards in schools, similar to the protections already in place in hospitals and other non-medical community based facilities
• Limit physical restraint and locked seclusion, allowing these interventions only when there is imminent danger of injury, and only when imposed by trained staff;
• Outlaw mechanical restraints, such as strapping kids to chairs, and prohibit restraints that restrict breathing;
• Require schools to notify parents after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used;
• Call on states, within two years of enactment, to establish their own policies, procedures, monitoring and enforcement systems to meet these minimum standards;
• Encourage states to provide support and training to better protect students and prevent the need for emergency behavioral interventions; and
• Increase transparency, oversight and enforcement tools to prevent future abuse.

The Education and Labor Committee plans to mark up the bill early next year.

Miller first requested the GAO investigation in January 2009, after the National Disability Rights Network released a report highlighting these abuses. The GAO unveiled its findings at an Education and Labor Committee hearing in May.

To view a fact sheet on the legislation, click here.

For more information on May’s hearing, click here.

###

Nationwide, about 7,000 high school students drop out every day. Only about 70 percent of students now graduate from high school with a regular diploma. There are 2,000 “dropout factories” across the country, which produce more than 50 percent of the nation’s dropouts, and a recent study suggests that in the 50 largest U.S. cities, only 53 percent of students graduate on time.  Poor and minority children disproportionately attend these dropout factories, and graduation rates for African American, Hispanic, and Native American students are significantly lower than those of their white peers. In addition, only 56 percent of all students with disabilities earn diplomas each year.

The Graduation for All Act would help end this crisis by providing eligible school districts with competitive grants to help turn around their lowest-performing high schools, often deemed “dropout factories,” as well as struggling, feeder middle schools. In order to be eligible to receive a grant, a district must first identify schools most in need of comprehensive reform, determine a strategy for turning around each school, and form a team of experts and community leaders, called a Graduation Improvement Team, to help carry out these turnaround strategies. Districts receiving grants would be required to implement data systems to help better detect early warning signs of dropout behavior (such as frequent absences or failing a course), use appropriate interventions targeted to student needs and monitor the impact of interventions so that they can be refined as necessary. Research shows identifying and addressing these patterns early on can help keep at-risk students in school. 

“We are failing our students, failing our communities and failing our nation if we allow this dropout crisis to continue,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “Ending this epidemic is a civil rights imperative, a moral issue and an economic necessity. This bill says that it is no longer acceptable to let an at-risk student fall through the cracks and empowers schools to make the changes needed to help at-risk students thrive in school, earn a diploma and go on to college or a good job.”

“We must stop the everyday dropout rate of thousands of students from our middle schools and high schools. In particular we must address the problems encountered by so many minority students who are at a higher risk of dropping out of school. “The Graduation for All Act of 2009 builds on ‘The Graduation Promise Act’ which directly addresses our nation’s dropout crisis,” said U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), Chairman of Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness. “I continue to work with Chairman George Miller and other Members of Congress on the Education and Labor Committee on legislation to address our nation’s dropout problem. The only way for the United States to be a world class contender in the global market is to ensure that all of our children stay in school and graduate not only high school, but college as well. We are working together to make that happen.”

 “I am extremely proud to join with my colleagues to introduce the Graduation for All Act. This legislation includes provisions from my legislation, the Fast Track to College Act, which makes important investments in early college high school partnerships and dual enrollment programs,” said U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. “These programs enable students, especially those underrepresented in postsecondary education, to earn an associate’s degree or up to two years of transferrable college credits at no cost to their families, while still in high school.  These programs have a proven track record of reducing dropout rates, keeping students engaged, and providing a seamless transition to college.” 

“The dropout rate has reached epic proportions in minority communities,” said U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL).  “Only 48% of African American males and 58% of Latino males graduate from high school.  The social, economic and human costs are horrific.  This bill will meaningfully advance efforts to identify and help individual youth at risk for dropping out early on and we know that early identification and intervention significantly reduces the dropout rate and significantly increases the graduation rate.”

“One of the most important aspects of this legislation is that it provides students in high-need schools with rigorous curricula and the teacher support to master college-ready courses.”  said U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), architect of the nationally acclaimed college access program GEAR UP. “Students will be given information about the college admission process and financial aid opportunities keys to encouraging students to keep their focus on a college education.  We have learned through GEAR UP that increasing academic rigor, demystifying the college and financial aid application processes, and focusing on post-secondary education dramatically increases high school graduation rates.  This bill builds on that experience and I am proud to have contributed to its development.”

“This bill not only makes a strong financial commitment to ending our nation’s school dropout crisis, it puts the right programs in place to encourage greater college enrollment and improve educational opportunity at many age levels,” said U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ). “No cause could be more important than educating American students, and this bill gives timely and needed support to struggling middle schools and high schools around the country to make that goal achievable.”

“I applaud Chairman Miller and my colleagues for moving forward on this vital issue, ” said U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA). “This is a significant step forward in our fight to address the drop out dilemma.  Recent research has shown that nearly 600,000 students dropped out of the high school class of 2008 in the nation's fifty largest cities and the surrounding areas.  We must do more to stem this tide and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to bring support to Iowa and states across America.”

“This legislation will make a strong investment in education, intervention services and resources that are critical to addressing the dropout crisis and turning low performing schools into high achieving schools,” said U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA). “We must address these shortcomings that are persistent in our schools in order compete in today’s global economy with a highly skilled and educated workforce.  I am pleased that this is one more step we are taking to improve the quality of education for all our children.”

The legislation also will help prepare students for college and careers by requiring schools to provide them with their financial aid options and other college-related information. This bill includes $150 million for Early College and dual enrollment programs to allow students to earn up to two years of college credit at no cost to the student, which would help decrease the overall cost of college for these students.

For more information on the Graduation for All Act, click here.

 "This report shows us the haunting realities facing far too many Americans who can’t meet their families’ basic needs. More than one in five households in this country struggled to put food on their table last year – the highest number in more than a decade. As we work to reauthorize child nutrition laws, we need to keep our focus squarely on ensuring more eligible children are participating and have access to healthy meals through the federal child nutrition programs.  These programs serve as a nutrition safety net for millions of children and can have a central role in reducing hunger among children."

To read the full study, click here.

###

A recently issued GAO report identified standards and procedures to help reduce the risk of school children consuming recalled food purchased as commodities to use in school meals. The report specifically focused on eliminating contaminated food provided to schools through the commodity food program for use in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) school meal programs. In his letter today, Miller asked GAO to also examine what protocols exist to ensure foods, specifically processed meat, that schools purchase on the commercial market, outside of USDA’s commodity program, is safe. 

“I write because I remain concerned about the safety of our nation’s food supply and whether there is an undue risk for food contaminated with dangerous pathogens to be unknowingly purchased by schools for use in the school meal programs,” wrote Miller, whose committee has jurisdiction over school nutrition programs. “Recent media reports have drawn our attention yet again to significant recalls of contaminated ground beef that was available in the commercial marketplace. Although there are no reports of schools being implicated in any of the food safety illnesses related to this latest wave of recalls, I am concerned that the systems in place do not adequately minimize schools’ risk for procuring and providing contaminated products purchased through commercial channels for use in the school meal programs.”

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that beef contaminated with E. coli, produced at a New York meat processing plant, killed two people and sent 16 others to the hospital. That outbreak led to the recall of over 500,000 pounds of ground beef from retailers, including Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper’s and Giant Foods.  While the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that all ground beef made available to schools through the commodity program be tested for E.coli, ground beef processed and sold to schools on the commercial market is not subject to the same minimum standards.  It is currently up to local school districts to decide whether to require ground beef products purchased from the commercial market to undergo similar quality and safety testing as USDA commodity products.
                           
The full text of the letter is below. 

Mr. Gene L. Dodaro
Acting Comptroller General
U.S. Government Accountability Office

Dear Mr. Dodaro:

I write because I remain concerned about the safety of our nation’s food supply and whether there is an undue risk for food contaminated with dangerous pathogens to be unknowingly purchased by schools for use in the school meal programs.  In light of this concern, I ask that GAO investigate the food safety standards and procedures within the complex partnership of federal, state, and local entities responsible for ensuring the safety of food procured through commercial channels for use in the school meal programs.
 
In response to a request several fellow lawmakers and I made in the wake of highly publicized food recalls early last year, GAO issued a report in September focused upon food purchased for use in schools through the federal commodities program.  While this report provides important information to help ensure the safety of the school meal programs, I am especially concerned about beef purchased on the commercial market and not through the federal commodity program that GAO focused upon in its September report.  Recent media reports have drawn our attention yet again to significant recalls of contaminated ground beef that was available in the commercial marketplace.  Although there are no reports of schools being implicated in any of the food safety illnesses related to this latest wave of recalls, I am concerned that the systems in place do not adequately minimize schools’ risk for procuring and providing contaminated product purchased through commercial channels for use in the school meal programs.
                                                 
Accordingly, I respectfully request that GAO investigate whether sufficient protocols and standards exist at the federal, state, and local levels to ensure the safety of meat and other food procured by schools through commercial channels.  Specifically, I ask that GAO compare the protocols and standards for ensuring the safety of foods made available to schools purchased through the federal commodity program to the protocols and standards for similar foods purchased from the commercial market.  I also ask that GAO investigate whether there is any deficiency in the safety and quality of ground beef sold or made available to schools in the commercial marketplace compared to the safety and quality standards demanded by other buyers of the same product in the marketplace. 

Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Sincerely,

 

GEORGE MILLER                                                
Chairman                                                                    
Committee on Education and Labor   

Cc:     Richard Durbin
          Senator

          John Kline
          Ranking Member, Committee on Education and Labor

Carolyn McCarthy
Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Healthy Families

          Rosa DeLauro
          Chairwoman, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture

               
               
###

 

The report, Direct Certification in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP): State Implementation Progress, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), examined the effectiveness of states and school districts in helping to eliminate barriers to direct enrollment in the NSLP. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts to create systems to automatically enroll children for free school meals whose families receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called Food Stamps.

“There are millions of children who rely on school meals as a nutritional safety net and millions more who are eligible but are not receiving their due benefits. This report shows us the important progress schools are making to use direct certification systems to increase children’s access to school meals, but there is more work to be done to continue to improve these systems  and provide critical nutrition support to working families and their children,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.  “The school meal programs ensure that families don’t have to choose between paying their bills and feeding their children. Direct certification helps ease that burden even more.”

“Last month, Congress made important investments to help more schools to directly certify their eligible students, which will be a big step forward toward reducing this hunger risk – and in a fiscally responsible way,” Miller continued. “President Obama, Secretary Vilsack and I know that one of the most important things we can do to help our most vulnerable children succeed is to ensure they have access to healthy, safe, nutritious – and affordable – meals.”

"This report highlights what we heard last month from witnesses before our subcommittee that if we are to ensure all eligible kids have access to these important meal programs, we need to improve our direct certification capabilities," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities.

For more information about the investments in child nutrition, click here. 

###

The study, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, placed all state academic standards for proficiency in reading and math scores on a common scale to compare results across states and compare with/to proficiency standards set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Among other things, the report found that most states are below or only meet basic standards set by NAEP. As a result, the rigor of a child’s education can depend entirely on the state where they live.

“The quality of a child’s education should not be determined by their zip code. It is unacceptable that many states have chosen to lower the bar rather than strive for excellence. This means that many students aren’t even expected to rise to meet rigorous standards – they are allowed to linger in a system that doesn’t challenge them to do better and doesn’t help them develop the complex skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the jobs of the future,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “If we are serious about rebuilding our economy and restoring our competitiveness, then its time for states  to adopt a common core of internationally-benchmarked standards that can prepare all children in this country to achieve  and succeed in this global economy.”

To read the full report, Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Scales: 2005-2007, click here.

###

“This report shows us the first steps we need to take to raise the overall quality of the foods in schools for the millions of families who rely on the federal child nutrition programs as a nutritional safety net for their kids. It is clear the meals children eat at school play an important role in improving overall child nutrition and promoting healthy eating habits," said Miller. "These recommendations will help guide future conversations about how to ensure states, schools and food service directors have the resources and support they need to provide the healthy, nutritious and affordable meals our students need to thrive in school and in life.”

"The IOM's report points out that today there are more overweight children in our nation than undernourished children," said McCarthy. "While there is no silver bullet to solving the obesity crisis, the recommendations in this report - such as maximum calorie levels and nutritious diet- will go a long way to support our fight against childhood obesity."

To learn more about the recent investments in child nutrition to improve access to healthy and nutritious school meals, click here.

###

“Like many of the last few NAEP reports, there is reason for praise and reason for pause. It is encouraging that eighth grade students are making strides, which we should try and replicate but it is alarming and unacceptable that for the first time in 19 years, our fourth graders have not made any yearly gains in math.  Math helps students develop both basic and more complex problem solving and critical thinking skills -- skills that students need to compete with their international peers and to succeed today and in the jobs of the future,” said Miller. “This report also underscores the need to ensure that all students -- especially poor and minority students -- have access to excellent teachers who are well-trained in the fields they are teaching. Many math classes in schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students are taught by teachers who did not major in math or a math-related field. If we are serious about creating a strong workforce and lasting economic growth, we have to make sure our students have a solid foundation in math. This report should serve as a wakeup call to how much work lies ahead.”

 “We have all the reports we need to know that our nation’s students significantly lag behind others in math and science education. Rather than analyze another report, we need an ‘all hands on deck mentality’ to provide students with a first-rate math and science education,” said Holt, who worked with Chairman Miller to establish the TEACH grants program, which provides up to $16,000 over four years in college aid to students who commit to teaching science, math, and foreign language education.

The Education and Labor Committee recently held the first in a series of hearings to examine how to ensure equal access to effective teachers for all students. To learn more about the hearing, click here.

Congress enacted the TEACH grants program in 2007, as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The grants provide up-front tuition assistance of $4,000 a year to college students who commit to teaching in high-need schools, in high-need subject areas, like math, after graduation. For more information, click here.

###

“With unemployment and health care costs on the rise, millions of families are relying on the federal child nutrition programs as the nutritional safety net for their children.” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “Giving our most vulnerable children access to healthy, safe, nutritious and affordable meals is one of the most important things we can do to help them thrive in school and in life.”

 “I am pleased the bill included onetime spending initiatives that will provide an outstanding opportunity for children of all ages to have better access to healthier food,” said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. “Although there is no silver bullet to fighting obesity, I am proud that our bill provides support to outstanding WIC breastfeeding programs.  Breastfeeding is associated with lower rates of obesity as well as respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, and type 2 diabetes and I believe we must do everything we can to support mothers who are breastfeeding.”
The investments in this legislation, which are fully paid for, will strengthen the child nutrition programs by building program capacity and expanding children’s access to benefits and services. Over 32 million children receive healthful meals and snacks through the federal child nutrition programs. This extension provides $85 million for pilot summer food service program projects that will help expand nutrition benefits for low-income children during the summer. It also provides support to states to help increase the number of children who are automatically enrolled for free school meals and to help reduce administrative errors in the program.

Additionally, the legislation includes funding for school food service equipment grants, building on investments included as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide schools with the necessary equipment to help store, prepare and serve healthy foods. It also promotes healthy and nutritious meals in child care settings and rewards states that are making strides in encouraging more low-income women to breast feed. Studies show that breast feeding can lead to increased immunity and reduce risks for obesity.

Every day, 13 million U.S. children are at risk of food insecurity. Research shows children who are hungry have a harder time paying attention in school. President Obama has outlined eliminating hunger and improving nutrition for all children as top priorities for his administration. The Education and Labor Committee is continuing to work toward a comprehensive reauthorization of the child nutrition programs before the end of this Congress. 

For more information about the investments in the child nutrition program, click here.

Tomorrow, the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on child nutrition. To learn more, click here.
 

"Secretary Duncan and I have both spent a great deal of time listening and learning from parents, students, teachers, and school leaders about No Child Left Behind.  We know the law is in need of a major overhaul -- and how much is at stake in getting it right. Education is the civil rights issue of our generation, but current law has major flaws that have allowed states to lower the bar for children and allowed achievement gaps to persist.

“We have to improve the law in reasonable and commonsense ways that reflect what we’ve learned since the last reauthorization and that build on the important reforms outlined in the Race to the Top Fund. A world-class education system must incentivize and reward teachers for excellence, must ensure that all students are held to rigorous standards that prepare them for a 21st century economy, must measure student achievement more accurately and fairly, and must help turn around our lowest-performing schools, among other things. I look forward to working with President Obama, Secretary Duncan and Senator Harkin, and all key stakeholders to rewrite the law in a comprehensive and meaningful way that finally fulfills the promise of an excellent education for every child in America.”

###

The investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), the government agency which oversees the federal school meals program, “did not always ensure that states and schools receives timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodity program.” In some cases, it took states and schools several days to a week or more to fully determine which products were recalled. During that time, the recalled products may have been served in the school meals.  The investigation was requested by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), and U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).

“This report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of our food safety structures,” said Durbin. “The 30 million students in the national school lunch program, their parents, and the country at large, deserve to know that the food they eat is safe and free of contaminants.”

“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,” said Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Child Nutrition Act. “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.”

“It is absolutely essential that food recalls affecting schools are carried out quickly and effectively because children are most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill from food-borne illness outbreaks,” said DeLauro. “This report demonstrates that much work needs to be done to ensure that adequate monitoring and notification procedures are in place to remove recalled food products from school cafeterias.  I will work with USDA and FNS to ensure that our school children our protected from unsafe foods.”     

“This report shows us that school safety doesn’t just mean stopping violence and bullying. It also means ensuring our students have access to healthy, and safe school meals,” said McCarthy. “It is clear there is no silver bullet solution but I hope the administration will take the appropriate action to keep the school meal program safe for all our children.”

Foods from the commodity market account for 15 to 20 percent of school meal products.  The process in place to notify schools of contaminated or recalled products starts first with FNS, who contacts state agencies; state agencies then notify school districts. FNS must notify states within 24 hours of learning of a recall, and then states are expected to notify school districts within 24 hours of receiving the notice. When states or school districts purchase food commercially, which accounts for the remaining 80 to 85 percent of products in school meals, the school district is typically notified directly by a distributor, wholesaler, or whoever sold the school district the food.

The report highlights the lack of communication among the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and FNS. The gaps in communication among these agencies ultimately leads to delays in schools and school districts receiving the information they needed to take timely action. Gaps also meant school districts did not receive appropriate guidance on how to dispose of recalled products, which could increase the risk for those products to be “inadvertently consumed.”

In some instances, school districts initiated the hold on potentially contaminated products themselves while they waited for confirmation from USDA.

The lawmakers requested the probe initially in February 2008, after an undercover video by the Humane Society of the United States revealed egregious abuses of cattle at a California meatpacking plant, which led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history. A significant portion of the recalled meat had been supplied to school and other federal nutrition programs.

The report also looked into contaminated peanut products, after information was revealed about the unsanitary conditions at the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia that led to a salmonella outbreak. According to new reports, the plant’s outbreak was linked with sickness in more than 500 people; including eight deaths.

To view the full GAO report, click here.

###

“Investing in our earliest learners is an investment in our future; it’s a smart and strategic investment that will help us regain our global competitiveness and our economy recover,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The first five years of life are critical to laying the foundation for a lifetime of success and achievement which means we need to start giving these children the attention and resources they deserve well before they enter the doors of kindergarten.”

By age 4, children from low-income families are already 18 months behind their more advantaged peers. Economists, business leaders, and experts agree that smart investments in early education are vital to closing the achievement gap and preparing children to thrive in school and in life. Studies show that every $1 dollar invested in early education can yield anywhere from $1.25 to $17 in returns down the line.

The legislation will invest $1 billion each year over eight years to build comprehensive, high quality early learning systems for children birth to age five. In order to qualify for the grant, states demonstrate progress in improving:

• Early learning standards reform.
• Evidence-based program quality standards.
• Enhanced program review and monitoring of program quality.
• Comprehensive professional development.
• Coordinated system for facilitating screenings for disability, health, and mental health needs.
• Improved support to parents.
• Process for assessing children’s school readiness.
• Improved data systems to improve child outcomes.

For more information on the bill, click here.

“No student in America should have to mortgage their future to get a good education. This legislation provides students and families with the single largest investment in federal student aid ever and makes landmark investments to improve education for students of all ages – and all without costing taxpayers a dime,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and the author of the bill. “Today the House made a clear choice to stop funneling vital taxpayer dollars through board rooms and start sending them directly to dorm rooms. This vote was a historic triumph for America’s students, families and taxpayers – and will ensure that their interests never again take a backseat to lenders and big banks.”

“I am proud to support H.R. 3221, a bill that brings much needed relief to our students in a fiscally-responsible way.  It represents an historic investment in our education system, from our youngest students to our adult learners,” said U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness. “I am especially proud that this bill strengthens our nation’s Minority-Serving Institutions, particularly in the STEM areas, so that students can stay in school, graduate and succeed in our global economy.  It does this by investing $2.55 billion dollars in our nation’s Minority-Serving Institutions over a ten year period. We estimate that this funding will reach at least 500 institutions of higher learning.  These investments will create a new generation of workers in STEM fields—professionals that our country desperately needs to remain competitive in the world.”

Similar to what President Obama proposed in his FY 2010 budget, H.R. 3221 will originate all new federal student loans through the Direct Loan program starting in 2010, instead of through lenders subsidized by taxpayers in the federally-guaranteed student loan program. Unlike the lender-based program, the Direct Loan program is entirely insulated from market swings and can therefore guarantee students access to affordable college loans, at the same low interest rates, terms and conditions, no matter what happens in the economy.

The legislation will ensure that all federal student loan borrowers receive the best possible customer service when repaying their loans by forging a new public-private partnership that allows private lenders to compete for contracts to service loans. Additionally, it will ensure that non-profit lenders have the opportunity to continue servicing loans – preserving a role for lenders and maintaining jobs in communities throughout the country.

This simple change will generate $87 billion in savings over the next 10 years, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The legislation will invest those savings directly in students and families by:

• Investing $40 billion to increase the maximum annual Pell Grant scholarship to $5,550 in 2010 and to $6,900 by 2019. Starting in 2010, the scholarship will be linked to match rising costs-of-living by indexing it to the Consumer Price Index plus 1 percentage point;
• Investing $3 billion to bolster college access and completion support programs for students;
• Strengthening the Perkins Loan program, a campus-based program that provides low-cost federal loans to students;
• Keeping interest rates low on need-based – or subsidized – federal student loans by making the interest rates on these loans variable beginning in 2012. These interest rates are currently set to jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent in 2012;
• Making it easier for families to apply for financial aid by simplifying the FAFSA form;
• Providing loan forgiveness for members of the military who are called up to duty in the middle of the academic year.
• Investing $2.55 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions to provide students with the support they need to stay in school and graduate; and
• Investing $10 billion to build a world-class community college system that prepares students and workers for the jobs of the future – and jobs in high demand by local employers – by incentivizing community colleges to partner with businesses, job training and adult education programs.

In addition, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act will direct $10 billion of these savings back to the U.S. Treasury to help cut entitlement spending.

It will invest over $4 billion for school modernization, renovation and repair projects that will help improve school buildings across the country and help the nation transition to a clean energy economy.

And it will also invest $1 billion per year over eight years to help ensure that the next generation of children can enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed in school.

Building on proposals included in President Obama’s 2010 budget, the bill establishes the Early Learning Challenge Fund, a competitive grant program that challenges states to build a comprehensive, high-quality early learning system for children from birth through age five.

To view a summary of the legislation, click here.

For more details on:

• How this legislation will help students and families.
• For more details on converting to Direct Loans.
  
• For more details on how this bill will strengthen community colleges.
• For more details on investments in early education.

A diverse coalition of organizations, including student groups, early education advocates, and business organizations, support the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. To view their letters of support, click here. To view a statement by President Obama in support of the bill, click here.

To view a myth-fact sheet on this bill, click here.
 

First, it will help us reach President Obama’s goal of once again leading the world in college graduates by making college more affordable.

We’ve seen what happens when we have an economy built on credit.

For the past few decades, Americans have gone into severe debt to meet rising costs – especially to pay for college.

Over the last year, escalating tuition prices and college loan payments have become even more burdensome in light of lost jobs, incomes and benefits.

Today we have the chance to make the single largest investment in grant aid and other benefits to help more students graduate with less debt, all within the PAYGO rule, while also cutting entitlement spending by $10 billion over 10 years.

These are smart, strategic investments done in a fiscally responsible way.

H.R. 3221 invests $40 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant scholarship award to $5,500 in 2010 and to $6,900 by 2019, linking it to match cost of living increases.

It simplifies the FAFSA form to make it easier to apply for federal student aid.

It builds on our previous work to make interest rates on need-based federal loans affordable by making these rates variable beginning in 2012 – when they are set to jump from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.

It expands students’ access to low-cost Perkins loans.

But ensuring access and affordability is only one part of the equation.
Students need both the means to attend college – and the support to complete it.

For example, this bill invests $2.55 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions, to provide students with these supportive services.

It also invests $3 billion in the College Access and Completion Challenge Fund, to help colleges develop or enhance innovative programs that improve financial literacy and college completion rates.

I’d like to thank Mr. Bishop, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Petri, and many other members of our committee for their hard work on these provisions.

Second, this legislation makes an unprecedented $10 billion investment to make community colleges part of our economy’s recovery.

For years, business leaders have told us there weren’t enough workers with the knowledge and the expertise for their specific industries.

Community colleges can play a significant role in addressing this shortage.

This bill will help us build a 21st century workforce by strengthening partnerships among community colleges, businesses and job training programs that will align community college curricula with the needs of high-wage, high-demand industries.

It will provide community colleges with the tools to replicate programs that are successfully educating and training students and workers for these skilled jobs.

And it will fulfill an important priority for the business community who has continually understood the value community colleges have in training a highly-skilled workforce and helping meet local employment needs.  

That’s why this historic initiative has strong support from the business community, including the Business Roundtable.

H.R. 3221 also recognizes that creating better educational opportunities demands that we invest in our students long before they reach college. Ms. Hirono has provided a lot of leadership in this area – and I’d like to thank her for helping us craft this part of the bill.

Today, almost 12 million children under 5 regularly spend time in child care.

Yet, despite the fact that children’s early experiences have lasting effects on brain development, learning, and success, our nation hasn’t adequately invested in early learning opportunities.

Federal and state policies leave families with a patchwork system of children care with mediocre quality.

And by age 4, children from low-income families are already 18 months behind their more advantaged peers.

Economists, business leaders, and experts agree that smart investments in early education are vital to closing the achievement gap and preparing children to thrive in school and in life.

This bill heeds that advice. It invests $8 billion over 8 years in competitive grants to challenge states to transform early learning practices and build comprehensive high-quality early learning systems for children from birth to age 5.

To qualify, states will have to demonstrate progress on major reforms by:
 

• Building an effective and well-compensated early childhood workforce;
• Integrating key quality standards;
• Improving instructional practices, and
• Better supporting parents in the early education of their children.

Finally, this legislation ensures that every student can learn in a safe, healthy, energy-efficient and modern classroom by renovating and repairing our nation’s schools – provisions that have long been championed by Mr. Chandler, Kildee and Loebsack.

This is a measure that the House has already voted to support, but not to fund.

Not only will this improve the quality of education for our children, it will bolster our economy by supporting new jobs in the construction industry.

All of these reforms are paid for – at no cost to taxpayers – by making common-sense changes to our student loan programs that will achieve two crucial goals at once.

By converting all new federal student loans to the Direct Loan program starting in July 2010, we will finally end wasteful taxpayer subsidies that are keeping a broken system afloat.
We will also insulate all federal college loans from future turmoil in the financial markets.

Students will have access to the low-cost loans they need, in any economy.

Our bill also upgrades the customer service borrowers receive when repaying their loans.

Rather than force private industry out of the system, we maintain jobs and a role for lenders and non-profits by allowing them to compete for contracts to service these loans.  

This simple change will save $87 billion over ten years.

And, as part of our efforts to invest in a brighter future for our children, we will direct $10 billion of these savings to reduce entitlement spending.

The choice before us is clear. We can either keep sending these subsidies to banks – or we can start sending them directly to students.  
                                                                                
No child in America should have to mortgage their future to pursue their dreams.

This legislation will help us rebuild an economy where every child can enjoy the promise of equal opportunity, become part of our middle-class and fulfill their own American Dream.

I urge all my colleagues to support it.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act will allow us to invest $87 billion to make college more affordable, to build a world-class community college system, to improve opportunities to help our youngest students succeed, and to pay down our deficit.

For the many college students paying close attention to this bill, let me be specific about what our reforms mean for you:

More help covering your tuition and expenses, including historic investments in the Pell Grant scholarship; Better opportunities to prepare for good, 21st jobs; and Financial aid programs that are simpler, reliable, and operate in your best interest.

Now we’ll be able to do this at absolutely no cost to taxpayers, by undertaking long overdue student loan reforms.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act is a win-win.

It will guarantee students dependable access federal college aid, and make these programs more effective and efficient for families and taxpayers.

It will save $87 billion over 10 years that we will invest toward rebuilding an economy that is cutting edge, innovative, and will help regain our global leadership.

All of these investments are key priorities of President Obama’s. And I’d like to thank him and Secretary Duncan for recognizing this can’t-miss opportunity to do the right thing for students, for taxpayers, and our country.

No student in this great country of ours should have to mortgage their future to pursue their dreams. Many of the students with us today – like so many other millions of Americans – have.

Let’s remember whose voices really matter here. It’s time to listen to our students and vote to stand on the right side of history.

For more information about the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, click here.

“It makes progress toward our goal of putting more excellent teachers in our nation’s classrooms – one of the most important things we can do for our students – by rewarding effective teachers. It will give more students the opportunity to learn in outstanding charter schools, and it will help more students graduate from high school by turning around the “dropout factories” that allow too many talented students fall through the cracks. And it builds on our efforts to help make college more affordable by increasing the Pell Grant scholarship to $5,350 – more than a $600 increase above last year’s award.

“This legislation will also help us strengthen our workforce and transition to a clean energy economy. It provides a much-needed infusion of funds to reinvigorate the Department of Labor’s ability to protect workers’ wages, benefits, safety and health and enforce the laws on the books – protections that had seriously eroded after years of neglect by the previous administration and Congresses.

“It will help the millions of workers who have lost their jobs in this recession get back on their feet by providing training and support for Americans affected by mass layoffs and plant closures. It will help our veterans transition into and thrive in our workforce when they return home. And, to prepare more workers for green jobs of the future, it will give workers the skills and experience they need for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Overall, this represents an enormous step in the right direction for our workers, our economy, and our role in a 21st century global marketplace.

“Finally, this bill delivers on President Obama’s goal of launching a new era of American service. It will provide new service opportunities for tens of thousands of volunteers of all ages by tapping into the talent of Americans and their desire to give back.

“I’d like to congratulate Chairman Obey and all the members of the Appropriations Committee for their hard work on this bill. This is one of many steps we must take to regain our economic stride, strengthen our middle class and put the American Dream back within reach of all families. To truly bring the transformational change Americans want and deserve, we must also make a landmark education investment that will help every American get an affordable college education, we must continue to restore workers’ rights, and we must fix our broken health care system so that everyone has access to quality, affordable care. In a country as great as America, that put the first man on the moon, these goals are achievable. And this bill points us in the right direction.”

Specifically, the Race to the Top Fund is available to states that raise the bar on improving teaching effectiveness and distribute excellent teachers equitably, support struggling schools, establish rigorous standards linked to better assessments, and improve the collection and use of data in order to strengthen the quality of instruction.