"No child should have to learn on an empty stomach.  Nearly 65 years ago, America made protecting the health of our children a national priority by developing the National School Lunch Program.  This groundbreaking program has prevented hunger and promoted education by enabling our young people to have access to safe, balanced, and affordable meals at school.  It has also supported their development, encouraged their learning capacity, and instilled life-long healthy habits.  This year, during National School Lunch Week, we recognize the vital importance of this historic program, and we recommit to serving meals that will contribute to the health and well-being of a new generation."

...

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of October 10 through October 16, 2010, as National School Lunch Week.  I call upon all Americans to join the dedicated individuals who administer the National School Lunch Program in appropriate activities that support the health and well-being of our Nation's children."

“A national campaign aimed at curtailing the number of brain injuries suffered by student athletes was introduced Monday at Pinole Valley High School, where a concussion awareness poster was unveiled at a news conference held by federal officials and representatives of the National Football League.

“‘There was a time when athletes who left the field because of a concussion were told to suck it up and go back out and play,’ said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. Instead, he said, athletes should be told, ‘When in doubt, sit it out.’

“The poster being distributed by the federal Centers for Disease Control is similar to one now found in NFL locker rooms and describes possible symptoms on brain injuries that could be worsened if not diagnosed.”

“Miller has introduced legislation that would set safety standards for public schools in dealing with concussions. This after hearing horror stories from student athletes during a Congressional hearing.

“‘In one case, a student is fully disabled because of an injury in a softball game with multiple concussions [which were] improperly diagnosed,’ says Miller.

“The stories were enough to move Miller to carry the ball on the danger of concussions.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“The family of a pre-schooler filed a lawsuit against the Mona Shores School District for restraining the disabled child in a chair for the entire school day for one semester, according to the suit.

“Ethan Holden was a special ed student at Ross Park Elementary School, documents say. His mother came to a class Christmas party in December 2008 and saw her son strapped in a chair, his feet lifted off the ground.

“She later learned this is how Ethan spent his days, the lawsuit says. Alan and Nichole Holden claim they were never informed of their son's restraint. Ethan has a speech problem and couldn't communicate easily with his teachers and other staff.

“The child had fallen over while strapped in the chair as he tried to escape, according to the suit, filed in July in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.”

“The House Education and Labor Committee's hearing came after news last week about the first active college football player known to have a debilitating condition usually seen in retired or aging athletes who've suffered repeated head injuries.

“Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy revealed that a 21-year-old defensive lineman, Owen Thomas, had mild stages of a type of brain damage called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

“Thomas, a captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team and a student at the Wharton School of Business, hung himself in his room in April.

 “Owen Thomas, 21, was found to have mild stages of a type of brain damage called chronic traumatic encephalopathyCTE, which is a type of brain damage, has been more typically seen in older former athletes and can cause neurobehavioral disorders and bizarre behavior, including suicide. It is impossible to determine whether Thomas' brain condition and suicide were linked.

“‘The only possible explanation we can see for the presence of CTE is that Owen started to play football at the age of 9,’ his mother, Rev. Katherine Brearley of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said in her testimony at the hearing.”

“That point was brought home by Alison Conca-Cheng, a 17-year-old high school soccer player and honors student from Ellicott City, Md., who suffered a concussion when she collided with a teammate's head in a practice game.

“‘I had tunnel vision,’ she told the committee. ‘Then I had severe balance problems and lingering headaches. I was dazed and confused.’

“Conca-Cheng had taken a pre-season computerized baseline concussion test, which she was required to repeat after the injury. In two attempts, she failed to match her pre-injury scores on tests of short-term memory and reading and was kept out of practice for two weeks.”

• Provide student athletes with information about how to prevent and manage concussions by requiring school districts to develop and implement a standard, community-based plan for concussion safety and management, as well as conduct outreach to parents and students about concussion and the plan.

• Inform and empower student athletes, parents and school personnel about concussions by requiring schools to post information about concussions in a way that is publicly visible within the school and on the school website.
   
• Support students’ health and recovery by implementing “when in doubt, sit it out” policies that require a student suspected of sustaining a concussion during a school-sponsored athletic activity to be removed from participation, prohibited from returning to play that day and evaluated by a health care professional. Parents must also be notified. 
   
• Prevent prolonged recovery by making sure students recovering from concussions have the supports they need as they return to athletic and academic activities in school.
  

“More and more children and teenagers are suffering traumatic brain injuries while playing basketball, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

“Researchers examined emergency room visits of people under the age of 20 who were treated for basketball related injuries between 1997 and 2007 and found the number of traumatic brain injuries shot up  by 70%.

“Overall the proportion for traumatic brain injury doubled for boys and tripled for girls, said senior study author Dr. Laura B. McKenzie.

“Coaches, athletes and parents need to understand what can cause traumatic brain injuries and learn to recognize a possible concussion  according to McKenzie.”

“Iowa school districts will split a pot of $96.5 million in federal funding intended to save or create education jobs.

“Districts will receive monthly payments throughout the 2010-11 fiscal year starting in September or October based on enrollment. In Northeast Iowa, that means a total of $2.35 million for Waterloo Community Schools, $885,245 for Cedar Falls Schools, $386,161 for Waverly-Shell Rock, $300,669 for Independence and $134,235 for Hudson.”

“More Austin Public School teachers will keep their jobs thanks to an estimated $1 million dollars in federal aid from the Education Jobs Fund.”

…

“The incoming aid helps ease the district’s projected $1 to 1.5 million deficit for next year, acting as an insurance against possible job cuts in the immediate future.”

“… for low-income families who struggle to overcome hunger, back-to-school season brings an end to the strain of putting additional meals on the table when the free and reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches are unavailable.”

…

“Every child in America should have enough to eat regardless of the season -- summer, fall, winter or spring. Children need access to nutritious food year-round, so why shouldn't the programs that serve them be able to operate year-round? With a gap of nearly 17 million children unserved by summer feeding programs, we ought to do everything we can to make it easier for food banks and other community-based providers to reach children in the summer. Passage of Chairman Miller's child nutrition bill is an important first step to making sure no child goes hungry next summer.”

“The lunch ladies, the administrators, the people who feed our kids want to do better. But they are limited by one thing: a lack of money. The federal government spends about $2.51 per child per day to feed them lunch. Out of that you have to pay for labor, facilities, and administrative costs, leaving about a dollar for food. Imagine trying to feed yourself a nutritious meal every day with only a dollar. Very difficult. Now imagine trying to do that while satisfying the picky palate of a typical school kid.

“Right now, we have an opportunity to change that. Every five years, Congress takes another look at the issue when the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is voted on, opening the door for discussion about possible improvements to these programs as well as increased funding. Among other things, the CNR provides money for and sets nutritional guidelines school for school lunch programs. Every five years it comes up for renewal. It is the most important piece of legislation that no one has ever heard of.”

On Friday, the Department of Education authorized $1.2 billion for California as part of the recently passed Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. That money should help return an estimated 16,500 teachers to their jobs in California.

One school district is already putting that money to good use. With their share, the Vallejo school district has the money to pay the teachers they hired back earlier this month in order to bring K-3 classes back down to 28 students.

District spokeswoman Tish Busselle said:

"The jobs bill has become a great relief because we still don't have a state budget," she said.

In early August, State Administrator Richard Damelio agreed to give 20 laid-off Vallejo teachers their jobs back as a way to prevent K-3 classes from increasing to 31 students.

All told, some 38 teachers were brought back recently, though the unresolved state budget casts uncertainty on school district funding levels.

The teachers were laid off in anticipation of state funding cuts, but were hired back just prior to the start of the new school year.

Vicki B. Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, has a post at Huffington Post about why the House Child Nutrition Bill is Better for Children.

She said:

The House Education and Labor Committee approved a strong bill in July, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010 (H.R.5504). This bill includes many of the same improvements to nutritional quality as the Senate bill but does far more to invest in increased program access. The House bill would significantly increase access to food at breakfast, after-school, on weekends, and during the summer. Children need access to food every day, before, during, and after school, and the House provides much-needed improvements to address these gap periods.

The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 pays particular attention to increasing access because hunger doesn't take a summer vacation or stop at the end of the school day.

• Increasing the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification.
• Providing enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility.
• Increasing children’s access to healthy school breakfasts by providing competitive grants to school districts to start up or improve their program.

• Ensuring fewer children go hungry year round by providing meals for over 225,000 children through seamless meal service for children in school based and community based summer and after-school programs, and in low income rural areas. 
• Improving access for children in home-based child care by reducing administrative costs for sponsors of child care meal programs.

As schools return from their summer break, many students will again have their only chance at a healthy meal all day. And those meals are key according to a new report by Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Public Policy Peter Hinrichs. 

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Hinrichs said:

"The research found that the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has not had a dramatic effect on health into adulthood, but it has had a significant effect on educational attainment," Hinrichs said. "The NSLP today is still broad in its reach, but it targets poorer children. There are higher standards for eligibility and also special funding for poorer schools. Had these elements been in place at the inception of the program, there may have been a more detectable effect on health in its early years."

That is why under H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010, the program increases the number of eligible children enrolled in the school lunch programs by using Medicaid/SCHIP data to directly certify children who meet income requirements without requiring individual applications and requiring states to establish and execute a plan to increase rates of direct certification. It also provides enhanced universal meal access for eligible children in high poverty communities by eliminating paper applications and using census data to determine school wide income eligibility. The more eligible students who are having a regular, nutritious lunch the more students will be performing in the classroom.

The bill passed out of committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor. 

Learn more about H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010.

“…with increased focus on school reform under this administration, it seems some companies with little or no expertise in education are purporting to be experts in school turnaround to try and take advantage of available federal money. Companies who are hired to help turn around schools as partners should have the best expertise and the best qualifications. I plan to hold a hearing and use the committee’s oversight authority to investigate the process of hiring providers to help turn around schools.”

“There are 5,000 chronically low-performing schools in this country doing a disservice to
hundreds of thousands of students.

“Two thousand high schools produce 70 percent of our nation’s dropouts.”

“With the Obama administration pouring billions into its nationwide campaign to overhaul failing schools, dozens of companies with little or no experience are portraying themselves as school-turnaround experts as they compete for the money.”

…

“Many of the new companies seem unprepared for the challenge of making over a public school, yet neither the federal government nor many state governments are organized to offer effective oversight, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit group in Washington.”

“With days to go before classes begin, the Broward County School Board gave the OK Tuesday for its superintendent to start recalling nearly 100 laid-off teachers and other teachers whose work has been curtailed.

“Broward schools will receive about $54 million to rehire teachers and other employees, thanks to a new federal stimulus package with $10 billion earmarked for education jobs.”

“The bill would send Missouri $292 million for Medicaid and $189.7 million to help cash-strapped schools rehire staff or prevent future layoffs. The education funding will save 3,000 jobs statewide and more than 1,200 in the 4th, 7th and 8th congressional districts. The Medicaid funding would help states meet other budget needs, such as keeping thousands of police officers, nurses and other public workers employed.”

“Montana will receive $38 million in Medicaid funding and $30.7 million to avoid layoffs, mostly of K-12 teachers, from the bill. The U.S. Education Department estimates that the money will save about 700 teachers' jobs in Montana.”

“Valley schools may be able to rehire teachers and shrink the size of classes when school starts now that a $26 billion jobs bill has become law.

“‘I guess there is such a thing as Christmas in August,’ said Ricardo Medina, superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District.”

“What we’re talking about is creating jobs for teachers, for firemen, for police, for nurses – the people that hold our public spaces together in this country. And we should not have our children lose a year’s education because the Republicans refuse to create jobs.

“And you know what they call teachers and firemen and nurses and policemen with jobs? You know what small businesses call them? They call them customers.”

Later today, the House will vote on H.R. 1586, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. It provides $10 billion for additional support to local school districts to prevent imminent layoffs. The latest estimates from the Department of Education are that this fund will help keep 161,000 educators employed this coming school year. It pays for these additional funds by closing loopholes that encourage corporations to ship jobs overseas.

Last week, the Washington Post editorial board didn't think it was important to save teacher jobs. In Chairman Miller's letter to the editor  today, he sets them straight about the importance of saving teacher jobs:

It is disappointing that The Post's editorial board, which consistently supports school reform, opposes efforts to keep teachers in the classroom by way of a $10 billion education jobs package ["Throwing money at education," editorial, Aug. 6]. Across the country, damaging budget cuts have forced school districts to lay off hundreds of thousands of employees, shorten school years and increase class sizes -- to the detriment of students. All of these decisions were based on decreased revenue, largely due to the financial crisis that was no fault of any principal, teacher or student. 

This emergency investment in our schools will save teacher jobs and keep students in their classrooms, learning, growing and succeeding. If we were to take the path suggested by The Post, we would let our schools suffer, stifle our students' futures and reverse the progress made in schools under the Obama administration. Congress won't let that happen.

This morning Chairman Miller appeared on MSNBC to explain why the House is returning from its 6-week district work period to vote on this important piece of legislation. Watch him after the jump:

This morning Chairman Miller appeared on MSNBC to explain why the House is returning from its 6-week district work period to vote on this important piece of legislation.

Based on analysis from the Council of Economic Advisors of projected State budget shortfalls for FY 2011, we estimated that as many as 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs could be at risk across the country in the upcoming school year.

We know States and districts are working hard to find ways to minimize job losses and keep cuts away from classrooms, but some are making cuts that we know will have an impact on kids. Furlough days, cutting after school programs, and cutting or reducing summer school are some of the tough choices being made when we know we need to be expanding learning time.

We also know these job losses would ripple through the wider economy and undercut ongoing efforts to create jobs.

That is why the House will take a rare August vote to pass this legislation and send it to President Obama for his signature prior to the start of the new school year.

“We owe it to the children who aren't reaching their potential because they're not getting the nutrition they need during the day. We owe it to the parents who are working to keep their families healthy and looking for a little support along the way. We owe it to the schools that are trying to make progress but don't have the resources they need. And we owe it to our country -- because our prosperity depends on the health and vitality of the next generation.”

“Nearly 17 million American children struggle against hunger. For these children, school food programs are sometimes the only access they have to food. At the same time, one in three American kids is overweight or suffering from childhood obesity, because their families simply cannot afford fresh, nutritious foods. School food systems are one of the few ways we have to provide good nutrition to all of our kids.

…

“Child hunger and malnutrition in the world's wealthiest nation is morally unacceptable. The U.S. economy loses at least $28 billion per year due to poor school performance and long-term health care spending due to poor child nutrition. We can pay now or pay a much greater price in every sense later.”

Being overweight or obese is the leading medical reason why young Americans cannot join the military. Over the last 30 years, child obesity rates have tripled. One study found that 80 percent of children who were overweight at ages 10-15 were obese at age 25.

Here in Maine, 41.2 percent of youths from ages 18 to 24 are overweight or obese. In addition to hindering our military preparedness, obesity also costs the American people billions in medical expenses every year.

From the mid-1990s to 2000, the state of Maine spent $375 million per year on obesity-related medical expenses. This data is 10 years old -- Maine's current expenditures are surely much higher today.

What can we do to address the problem? One way is to improve the quality of food and beverages served in our schools. The school environment is critical for shaping the eating and exercise habits of our youth.

...

The White House has proposed additional resources for a robust child nutrition reauthorization package that would reduce child obesity and improve the diets of children. Current proposals in the House and Senate include provisions that will raise the quality of all foods and beverages served in schools by requiring the secretary of agriculture to establish new nutrition standards that are consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

"Mission: Readiness" strongly supports these provisions and urges Congress to enact reauthorization legislation immediately.

By applying increased nutritional standards to all foods sold on school grounds, expanding access to healthier meals, and supporting schools in implementing proven programs that educate children and their families about healthy eating and exercise, we can get junk food and high-calorie beverages out of schools and out of our children's daily diets.

Recent research provides strong evidence that receiving school meals can help low-income children maintain a healthy weight.

“From journalists and educators to politicians and parents -- there is a growing sense that a quiet revolution is underway in our homes and schools, classrooms and communities.”

“With a budget of just $5 billion dollars -- less than one percent of total education spending in America -- this minor provision in the Recovery Act has unleashed an avalanche of pent-up education reform activity at the state and local level.

“Forty-eight states voluntarily collaborated to raise the bar and create common college and career-ready standards -- solving the single biggest drawback of NCLB -- without a federal mandate or a federal dollar. So far, 27 states have adopted those standards. Even Massachusetts -- universally viewed with the highest standards in the country -- voted unanimously to adopt last week.”

"A gallon of milk is $3-something. A bottle of orange soda is 89 cents…Do the math."

“‘Higher reimbursement rates would mean more food choices,’ he said. ‘It would allow us to possibly go with more fresh fruits and vegetables.’”

 “Hunger in America is complicated. It's not just getting enough food, but getting the right food — and making the right choices.”

• 9 percent
• 16 percent
• 27 percent
• 65 percent
  

“I congratulate Chairman Miller and the House Education and Labor Committee on the successful bipartisan passage of a child nutrition reauthorization bill out of the Committee today. This important legislation will combat hunger and provide millions of schoolchildren with access to healthier meals, a critical step in the battle against childhood obesity. I urge both the House and Senate to take their child nutrition bills to the floor and pass them without delay. The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.”

“At the YWCA in downtown Sioux Falls on Wednesday, primarily elementary-aged boys and girls filed through a serving line while workers filled their trays with a sloppy joe sandwich, green beans, pineapple and milk. On average, the agency dishes out 220 lunches and 110 breakfasts each weekday, said Karla Johnson, director of child care services.

“‘There's no question in my mind that this program is really helping those children and their families. And we're seeing more of that,’ she said.”

“Workers at the Northwest Baltimore center say at least half the students have come to depend on the sponsored meals to tide them over for the evening, food that serves as a substitute for the free lunches the children receive during the school year.

“With school out, state and federal officials say about 25 percent of the 328,000 low-income Maryland children who received free school meals during the year got them last summer. The numbers, however, are on the rise.”

Hungry children looking for a free meal this summer may not be able to find one.

States and cities have cut funding for summer meal programs as need has skyrocketed, according to a new report from an anti-hunger group that tracked the program in 2009. Budget woes that have left many families hungry are also affecting local governments that find themselves without the needed dollars to feed children while they are out of school.

"Low-income children across the country clearly bore the brunt of budget cuts," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, which compiled the report to be released Tuesday.

Summer nutrition programs aim to feed children who get most of their nutrition — or sometimes their only real meal of the day — at school. The food research group measures the effectiveness of those summer programs by comparing the number of low-income children receiving meals during the summer with those receiving free and reduced-price school meals during the school year.

Schools these days are confronted with complex questions on whether and how to deal with cyberbullying, an imprecise label for online activities ranging from barrages of teasing texts to sexually harassing group sites. The extent of the phenomenon is hard to quantify. But one 2010 study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, an organization founded by two criminologists who defined bullying as "willful and repeated harm” inflicted through phones and computers, said one in five middle-school students had been affected.

Affronted by cyberspace’s escalation of adolescent viciousness, many parents are looking to schools for justice, protection, even revenge. But many educators feel unprepared or unwilling to be prosecutors and judges.

Often, school district discipline codes say little about educators’ authority over student cellphones, home computers and off-campus speech. Reluctant to assert an authority they are not sure they have, educators can appear indifferent to parents frantic with worry, alarmed by recent adolescent suicides linked to bullying.

Whether resolving such conflicts should be the responsibility of the family, the police or the schools remains an open question, evolving along with definitions of cyberbullying itself.

Nonetheless, administrators who decide they should help their cornered students often face daunting pragmatic and legal constraints.

Thousands of Contra Costa County children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches during the school year. But come summer vacation, many of them no longer have access to regular meals.

"During the summer, they don't have that program and the resources of families are stretched," said Barbara Jellison, food services director for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. "I don't think they get the nutrition that they need."

• 4C Council of Santa Clara County
• 9to5, National Association of Working Women
• Action for Children North Carolina
• Action for Healthy Kids
  
• Advocates for Better Children’s Diets
• Advocates for Children and Youth, Maryland
  
• Afterschool Alliance
• Alberts Organics
• America SCORES
  
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Association for Health Education
  
• American Beverage Association
• American College of Preventive Medicine
• American Commodity Distribution Association
• American Dental Association
  
• American Diabetes Association
• American Dietetic Association
• American Farmland Trust
  
• American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO
  
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
  
• American Heart Association
• American Humane Association
  
• American Public Health Association
• American Rivers
  
• American School Health Association
• American Society of Bariatic Physicians
• Association of Schools of Public Health
• Association of State & Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors
• Association of State Nutrition Network Administrators
• Audubon California
• Audubon Dakotas
  
• BJ Enterprises
  
• B.J. Jordan Child Care Programs
  
• Bread for the World
• California Association of Food Banks
• Alameda County Community Food Bank
  
• Food Bank at Contra Costa and Solano Counties
• Redwood Empire Food Bank
• San Francisco Food Bank
• California Association of Nutrition & Activity Programs C-A-N –Act
  
• California Center for Public Health Advocacy
• California Climate and Agriculture Network
• California Farmers Union
  
• California Food Policy Advocates
• Camp Fire USA
  
• Campaign for Better Nutrition
  
• Campaign to End Obesity
• Catholic Charities USA
  
• CDI/CDC-Choices for Children
• Center for Rural Affairs
• Center for Environmental Health (CA)
  
• Center for Science in the Public Interest 
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Central Valley Children's Services Network, Child Care Food Program
• Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage
  
• Child & Family Resources, Inc.
• Child Care Council
  
• Child Care Development Services, Inc.
  
• Child Care Food Program Roundtable
  
• Child Nutrition Initiative
• Child Nutrition Program of Southern California
• Child Welfare League of America
  
• Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition
• Children First for Oregon
• Children Now
  
• Children’s Alliance
• Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire
  
• Children’s Campaign, Inc.
  
• Children’s Council of San Francisco
• Children’s Defense Fund
• Church Women United of New York
  
• Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc.
  
• Coalition on Human Needs
• Community Action Partnership
• Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CA)
  
• Community Bridges Child & Adult Care Food Program
• Community CROPS (NE)
  
• Community Food Security Coalition
• Community Health Partnership: Oregon’s Public Health Institute
  
• Concord Child Care Center
• Connecticut Farmland Trust
• Connecticut Forest and Parks Association
• Conservation Law Foundation
  
• Consumer Federation of America
• Contra Costa Child Care Council
• Defenders of Wildlife
  
• Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
• Directors of Health Promotion and Education
  
• Early Care and Education Consortium
• Emergency Food Bank of Stockton/San Joaquin
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Environmental Working Group
  
• Escondido Community Child Development Center
  
• Family Resource & Referral Center
• Farm Aid
  
• Farm Fresh Rhode Island
  
• Feeding America
• First Focus Campaign for Children
• Fixing School Food Alliance Monterey Bay
• Food Bank for Monterey County
• Food for People
  
• Food Lifeline
  
• Food Marketing Institute
• Food Research & Action Center
• FoodLink for Tulare County, Inc.
• Foodways Alliance (AZ)
  
• FRAMAX, CACFP Sponsor
• Go For Health! Collaborative of Santa Cruz County
• Hunger Action Los Angeles
  
• ICNA Relief
• ICNA Council for Social Justice
  
• Inter-Faith Ministries
• Interfaith Council of Amador
  
• International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO, CLC
  
• International Institute of Los Angeles
• International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, (UAW)
• Islamic Circle of North America
• Izaak Walton League of America
  
• J.C. Family Home Association
  
• Jewish Council for Public Affairs
• Kansas Action for Children
• Land Stewardship Program
• Land Trust Alliance
  
• Lawyers Helping Hungry Children
  
• Lean & Green Kids
• Learning Care Group, Inc.
  
• Leopold Group, Iowa Sierra Club
  
• Louisiana Upgrading Nutrition for Children's Health (LUNCH Program)
  
• Love Little Children, Inc.
• Maine Children’s Alliance
  
• Mayor Bloomberg, New York
  
• MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
• Meredith Matthews East Madison YMCA
  
• Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
• Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (WI)
  
• Michigan Land Use Institute
• Michigan’s Children
• Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
  
• Minute Menu Systems
• Mission: Readiness
  
• Montana Dietetic Association
• Montana Farmers Union
  
• Monterey County Office of Education Food & Nutrition Services
• Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MD)
• Montgomery County Community Action Development Commission (PA)
• Mount Adams Resource Stewards (WA)
  
• National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• National Association of Conservation Districts
  
• National Association of County and City Health Officials
  
• National Association of School Nurses
• National Association of Sport & Physical Education
• National Audubon Society
• National Catholic Rural Life Conference
• National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
  
• National Center for Appropriate Technology
  
• National Consumers League
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Council of La Raza
  
• National Family Farm Coalition
  
• National Farm to School Network
  
• National Farmers Union
  
• National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
  
• National Parent Teacher Association
• National Research Center for Women & Families
  
• National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
• National Wildlife Federation
  
• National WIC Association
  
• National Women’s Law Center
• Natural Resources Defense Council
  
• Nemours
• New England Farmers Union
• New England Small Farm Institute
  
• New Mexico Voices for Children
  
• New York Coalition for Healthy School Food
  
• New York State Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Alliance
• North Dakota Dietetic Association
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – Connecticut
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – Massachusetts
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Hampshire
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Jersey
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – New York
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – Vermont
  
• Northern New Mexico Stockman’s Association
  
• Northwest Harvest
• Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (CA)
  
• Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
• Ohio Farmers Union
• Oklahoma Composting Council
  
• Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition
  
• Oklahoma Institute For Child Advocacy
  
• Options Child Care Agency
  
• Oregon Hunger Task Force
• Organic Farming Research Foundation
  
• Partners for a Healthy Nevada
  
• Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon
  
• Partners for Sustainable Pollination
  
• PATCH, Hawaii
  
• Pennypack Farm and Education Center (PA)
• Pesticide Watch Education Fund (CA)
  
• PHFE/Angels Child Care Food Program
• Pollinator Partnership
• Prairie Rivers Network
  
• Prevention Institute
  
• Public Health Foundation Enterprises – WIC
  
• REAP Food Group (WI)
  
• RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund
• Revolution Foods
• River City Food Bank
  
• Roots of Change
  
• Sacramento Hunger Coalition
  
• St. Joseph’s Family Center
• St. Mary’s Center
  
• Salt Lake Community Action Program
  
• Save the Children
  
• School Nutrition Association
• School’s Out of Washington
  
• Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
  
• Seacoast Eat Local (NH)
  
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
  
• Second Harvest Food Bank, Santa Cruz County
• Service Employees International Union
• Shape Up America!
  
• Share our Strength
• Shasta County Office of Education
  
• Society for Nutrition Education
• Sodexo Foundation
• South Carolina Wildlife Federation
  
• South Dakota Voices for Children
  
• Soyfoods Association of North America
  
• Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture (NY)
  
• Sun-Maid Growers of California
• Sunnyvale Community Services
  
• Sustainable Northwest
  
• The Alliance to End Hunger
• The Cherokee Nation
• The Nature Conservancy
  
• The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
  
• The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (MT)
  
• Trust for America’s Health
  
• U.S. Apple Association
• Union of Concerned Scientists
  
• Union Station Homeless Services
  
• United Fresh Produce Association
• United Way Silicon Valley
  
• Utah Farmers Union
  
• Utahns Against Hunger
• Virginia Association for Biological Farming
  
• Voice for Utah Children
  
• Voices For America’s Children
• Voices for Georgia’s Children
  
• Voices for Illinois Children
  
• Wallace Center at Winrock International
• Washington Child Nutrition Reauthorization Coalition
• Washington Sustainable Food & Farming Network
  
• Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium
• WhyHunger
  
• Wild Friends Program (NM)
  
• Wisconsin Council on Children and Families 
• World Wildlife Fund
• Women, Food and Agriculture Network
• Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
  
• Your Care Plan

Tonight, in a little strip-mall office next to the local Safeway, a teenage student from Alameda, California will spend the evening dialing up strangers to make an earnest request: please save my school.

The budget ax is about to fall on this Bay Area city. Seven million dollars in K-12 education cuts are planned this year, nearly $10 million will be lopped off next year, and a massive $17 million cut looms in 2012. A few weeks ago, Alameda's Board of Education handed out pink slips to 130 teachers, administrators and staff.

"This is the worst yet," said Superintendent Kirsten Vital, a 20-year veteran of California's education system. "I've never seen anything like it."

Across the country, mass layoffs of teachers, counselors and other staff members — caused in part by the drying up of federal stimulus dollars — are leading to larger classes and reductions in everything that is not a core subject, including music, art, clubs, sports and other after-school activities.

Educators and others worry the cuts could lead to higher dropout rates and lower college attendance as students receive less guidance and become less engaged in school. They fear a generation of young people could be left behind.

...

"Literally tens of millions of students will experience these budget cuts in one way or another," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is urging Congress to provide another round of emergency funding for schools. "If we do not help avert this state and local budget crisis, we could impede reform and fail another generation of children."

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has introduced legislation that would create a $23 billion fund to help schools retain teachers, principals and other staff members. The fate of the bill is uncertain.

The American Association of School Administrators estimates that 275,000 education jobs will be cut in the coming school year, based on an April survey. Other AASA surveys found that 52 percent of administrators plan to cut extracurricular activities, and 51 percent are reducing elective courses not required for graduation.

And it’s why, through our recovery efforts, we’ve provided emergency aid that saved the jobs of more than 400,000 teachers and other education jobs -– and why I believe these efforts must continue. I believe these efforts must continue as states face severe budget shortfalls that put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. We need and our children need our teachers in the classroom. We need your passion and your patience, your skill and experience, your determination to reach every single child.

Last year’s $100 billion education stimulus plan insulated the public schools from the worst of the recession and saved an estimated 300,000 jobs. With the economy still lagging and states forced to slash their budgets, Congress must act again to prevent a wave of teacher layoffs that could damage the fragile recovery and hobble the school reform effort for years to come.

In March, Representative George Miller, a Democrat of California, introduced a jobs bill that included a $23 billion school rescue plan. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, has since introduced a similar plan fashioned as an emergency spending bill. The House version is the better of the two.

The need for a second school stimulus plan was underscored on Monday by a new analysis from the American Association of School Administrators, which reported that cash-strapped districts were prepared to cut as many 275,000 jobs in the 2010-2011 school year.

The loss of that many paychecks — and the resulting decline in consumer spending — could kill off still more jobs in the communities where teachers and other school employees live.

The worst recession since the 1930s is clobbering the nation's schools.

In Indiana and Arizona, the legislatures have eliminated free all-day kindergarten. In Kansas, some school districts have gone to four-day weeks. In New Jersey, 60 percent of school districts are reducing their course offerings. In Albuquerque, the number of school district employees is down 10 percent. In the D.C. suburbs, Maryland's Prince George's and Virginia's Prince William counties have increased their class sizes.

The Keeping All Students Safe Act in the House would implement minimum federal safety standards for public schools similar to those that exist for hospitals and other community facilities. There is no current federal regulation on how seclusion and restraint can be used in schools, both private and public.

The bipartisan effort is led by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and was prompted by a report last year that said two decades of torture-like tactics, mostly on special needs kids, went unregulated on the federal level.

President Obama will seek to raise academic standards across the country by requiring states to certify that their benchmarks for reading and mathematics put students on track for college or a career, administration officials said Sunday.

The proposal, part of Obama's evolving blueprint for a revision of the No Child Left Behind law, was expected to be released Monday as the president meets with governors in Washington. It will give a further boost to a state-led movement toward common standards, a groundbreaking development for a public education system in which current expectations for students vary widely from coast to coast.

We won’t be able to build the world-class education system our economy needs and our children deserve unless all students are taught to internationally-benchmarked standards that prepare them for college and good jobs and to compete in a 21st century global economy.

The proposal would rework the way the federal government judges public schools, scrapping a requirement that states increase the percentage of students meeting standards each year, though it allows states to set their own standards.

In its place, President Obama wants lawmakers to consider rewarding states that show progress toward internationally benchmarked, nationally developed standards.

...

Obama and Arne Duncan, his Education secretary, have long said No Child Left Behind doesn't hold states to high enough standards. On a conference call Monday, Duncan told reporters the law "often does little to reward progress" of schools that help students achieve — and lets states set standards that are too low to allow U.S. children to get into college or compete internationally.

"In too many states, those standards are too low, and the existing law doesn't provide states with incentives to raise their standards," Duncan said. "In fact, quite the opposite is true."

I applaud the President’s continued funding commitment to early education and our K-12 schools. His budget sends the right message about balancing incentives with resources – spurring major school improvements and providing the resources needed to make them. I agree with his focus on rigorous standards, effective teachers and turning around our lowest performing schools. We will examine these and other key areas as we begin working on a bipartisan rewrite of our federal education laws.

The president’s fiscal year 2011 budget, slated to be released Monday, will seek a 6.2 percent increase to the U.S. Department of Education’s budget, including up to $4 billion more for K-12 education. The department’s discretionary budget for fiscal 2010 is roughly $63.7 billion.

A large piece of the increase, $1.35 billion, would be aimed at extending beyond this year the $4 billion in economic-stimulus program Race to the Top grants and opening up the competition—now limited to states—to school districts. The president highlighted the Race to the Top saying it had “broken through the stalemate between left and right,” and pledged to expand the reform priorities of that competition—among them turning around failing schools and increasing the supply of effective teachers—to all 50 states.

“The idea here is simple,” he said. “Instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success. Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform­—reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner cities.”

...

President Obama also called on Congress to pass legislation that would make sweeping changes to the student loan program and redirect money from the projected savings to building new school facilities and bolstering community colleges, early-childhood-education programs, and Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for college.

“I am especially pleased that President Obama called on Congress to rewrite our nation’s federal education laws. The key to getting this done will be bipartisanship. I plan to begin working on this immediately with this administration, Congressman Kline, our colleagues on the House Education and Labor Committee and all parties that have ideas about how to improve our schools.

“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.

Federal agencies that supply food for 31 million schoolchildren fail to ensure that tainted products are pulled quickly from cafeterias, a federal audit obtained by USA TODAY finds.

The delays raise the risk of children being sickened by contaminated food, according to the audit by Congress' Government Accountability Office.

In recent recalls, including one this year in which salmonella-infected peanut butter sickened almost 700 people, the government failed to disseminate "timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodities program," the audit says.

Such alerts sometimes took more than a week to reach schools, "during which time (schools) unknowingly served affected products."

• Invests the bill’s savings in making college affordable and helping more Americans graduate
• Provides reliable, affordable, high-quality Federal student loans for all families
• Prepares students and workers for 21st century jobs by providing all Americans with the skills and resources they need to compete
• Promotes early learning standards reform to ensure the next generation of children enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed in school
  
• Meets Pay-As-You-Go fiscally responsible principles and reduces the deficit  

Let us stop here and recall how the current loan system works:

1) Federal government provides private banks with capital.

2) Federal government pays private banks a subsidy to lend that capital to students.

3) Federal government guarantees said loans so the banks don’t have any risk.

And now, the proposed reform:

1) The federal government makes the loans.

....

If it all works out, Congress will have come a way toward fixing this problem, at least when it comes to federally financed student loans. There’s already a new law that forgives part or all of the debt for graduates who go into careers in public service. Terms will be easier for low-income debtors.

Across the country each year, thousands of schoolchildren—especially disabled ones—are restrained or isolated for misbehaving. The Government Accountability Office reported more than 33,000 incidents of restraint or seclusion last year at schools in Texas and California, two of only six states that track such data. Nineteen states have no regulations at all regarding the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

George Miller (D., Calif.) is working on a new set of rules that could limit the use of restraint and seclusion, provide funding to train school staff, and require communication with parents if extreme disciplinary measures are used. Says Miller: “We’re meeting with the Obama Administration and education experts about a federal action to keep kids safe and stop horrific abuses from going unchecked.”

In Washington, the effort to limit the use of such techniques is being championed by Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. In January, the California Democrat called for the GAO review, and last month his committee held hearings. What was discovered, he said in an interview, is a system "in which children are unnecessarily dying and being harmed."

In testimony before Congress in May, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called such findings "disturbing" and said he is instructing chief school officers in all 50 states to detail their plans for keeping students safe.

...

The scope of any possible federal law is still uncertain. Mr. Miller and others involved in the discussions say they would like it to be crafted so that states are primarily responsible for developing and enforcing policies.

Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high, federal data show, and many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals' rising costs.

Through February, nationwide enrollment in free school lunch programs was up 6.3% over the same time last year, to 16.5 million students, based on data from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which subsidizes the programs. Participation in reduced-price lunch programs rose to 3.2 million students, the data show.

...

Preliminary school lunch data for March suggest that February's record demand may be dipping slightly. Still, Congress should give "serious consideration" to boosting the federal subsidy during the reauthorization this fall of the Child Nutrition Act, says Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. "For millions of children, this is the nutritional safety net."

This is outrageous. Federal law allows workers in hospitals and treatment centers to restrain children only in emergencies, but the law leaves it up to the states to set policies regarding schools. State laws differ greatly. Many states allow teachers to severely restrain disabled children for little reason. To its credit, Nevada does not. The state outlaws the use of restraints on disabled children except where absolutely necessary and requires that school employees who work with disabled students receive training on “positive behavioral intervention.”

The disparity between states and the harshness of some of the restraint techniques has caught the attention of Congress. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said the result is that many students “are abused under the guise of punishment.”

Miller has called for legislation to outlaw schools from restraining or secluding students except in emergencies. Congress should act on that before any more students are hurt.

Confining and restraining a student should be the last resort in every classroom. Training must be a critical part of any state policy. School should be a safe place for students and faculty.

His case is one of 10 to be highlighted today during a hearing on Capitol Hill over the use of restraint and seclusion in the USA's public and private schools — techniques often used to control children with disabilities.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, also out today, finds "widespread" allegations of abuse involving the practices in schools — even when students aren't physically aggressive or dangerous to themselves or others.

Investigators say they uncovered hundreds of allegations of abuse involving restraint or seclusion at public and private schools nationwide between 1990 and 2009.

The soaring dropout rate is causing the United States to lose ground educationally to rivals abroad and is trapping millions of young Americans at the very margins of the economy.

Many of this country’s large urban high schools are rightly called “dropout factories” because more students leave school than graduate....The dropout crisis presents a clear danger to national prosperity.