03.09.11
“The current ESEA is no longer sufficient to help bring our country to the future. It is too burdensome and too outdated,” said Miller. “It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average. We can’t afford to lose a generation of children because our best intentions didn’t work as well as they should have.”
Secretary Duncan echoed similar sentiments.
“The urgency for change has never been greater. The plain fact is that America is stagnating while the rest of the world moves ahead,” said Duncan. “The plain fact is that -- to lead in the new century -- we have no choice in the matter but to invest in education. No other issue is more critical to our economy, to our future and our way of life.”
Miller’s full remarks as prepared are below.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And welcome back, Mr. Secretary.
This is the fourth time we’ve had the privilege of having you before this Committee since you were named Secretary of Education.
Each time, you’ve told us about the work the Obama administration is doing to help our students succeed and our country prosper.
You and President Obama have already shown us you are ready to lead, ready to set the bar high and ready to demand the best.
This means starting with our youngest learners and helping at every step along the way.
The President’s most recent budget makes it very clear that quality education has to start well before our children enter the doors of elementary school.
It makes important investments in early childhood education because investing in our youngest learners is one of the smartest investments we can make.
Programs like Head Start ensure our children are on the right pathway with a solid foundation for success.
In addition, the proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund would increase the number of low-income children arriving at kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed by spurring better standards and quality in early learning settings.
The President has also outlined an ambitious goal to have the world’s highest college graduation rate by the year 2020.
To meet this goal, it is imperative that we continue to invest in our nation’s college students through Pell grants and other forms of student aid.
And we need to encourage colleges and states to partner in initiatives to ensure that students not only enter, but graduate from college.
Especially in this economy, we have to keep this commitment to students. We used to lead the world in college graduates, now we’re shamefully ranking below other competitive countries.
This can change and it should.
But before we can even begin to have a conversation about college, we have to ensure our students are learning in elementary school, succeeding in middle school and graduating high school.
Secretary Duncan, Chairman Kline and I have all been part of several Big 8 meetings with our colleagues from the Senate about the future of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
These meetings have been productive. They’ve been engaging. And most importantly, they’ve been encouraging that we will be able to work in a bipartisan way to rewrite the education law in this country.
Mr. Secretary, I don’t need to remind you how important it is that we get to the ESEA reauthorization this year. In fact, I bet you’ll be telling us about that very soon.
We all know the statistics by now.
We rank 25th in math, 14th in reading and 17th in science among other industrialized countries.
The most recent NAEP results found only 21 percent of high school seniors performed at or above the proficient level.
We also know that employers are demanding a more qualified workforce than is available.
Our children deserve more. Our country deserves more.
Inaction here is one of the biggest threats to the future of this country, to our economic stability and our global competitiveness. We can’t be sitting on our hands.
It is time for real change.
The US has not fallen in international rankings because we have gotten worse – we’ve fallen behind because we have stagnated while other countries have accelerated.
Our top 10 percent of students are able to compete internationally while poor and minority students have been allowed to fall flat.
If we don’t hold our schools accountable for ALL the children in their classrooms, we fail.
There are no excuses for letting this continue in a country as great as ours.
It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average.
We can’t afford to lose a generation of children because our best intentions didn’t work as well as they should have.
What needs to change in our federal education policy isn’t a mystery.
We have to update the law to respond to student and national needs through college and career-ready standards.
We need to modernize the teaching and learning workforce and recognize teachers and leaders as the professionals they are.
And we need to reevaluate the federal role in education, as we discussed last week, we must maintain accountability, but provide states and districts more flexibility where appropriate.
I know we can get this right. Our students can’t afford for us to wait any longer.
I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Secretary, about how we can get this country back on track and what we can do to help students succeed.
I yield back.
Miller Calls for Urgent Action to Rewrite Education Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce committee, today called for Congress to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this session of Congress, stressing the urgency in fixing the law so it works in the best interest of students and the country’s economic stability and global competitiveness. The comments came during an Education and the Workforce Committee hearing today where U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan testified about the Obama administrations budget priorities.“The current ESEA is no longer sufficient to help bring our country to the future. It is too burdensome and too outdated,” said Miller. “It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average. We can’t afford to lose a generation of children because our best intentions didn’t work as well as they should have.”
Secretary Duncan echoed similar sentiments.
“The urgency for change has never been greater. The plain fact is that America is stagnating while the rest of the world moves ahead,” said Duncan. “The plain fact is that -- to lead in the new century -- we have no choice in the matter but to invest in education. No other issue is more critical to our economy, to our future and our way of life.”
* * *
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And welcome back, Mr. Secretary.
This is the fourth time we’ve had the privilege of having you before this Committee since you were named Secretary of Education.
Each time, you’ve told us about the work the Obama administration is doing to help our students succeed and our country prosper.
You and President Obama have already shown us you are ready to lead, ready to set the bar high and ready to demand the best.
This means starting with our youngest learners and helping at every step along the way.
The President’s most recent budget makes it very clear that quality education has to start well before our children enter the doors of elementary school.
It makes important investments in early childhood education because investing in our youngest learners is one of the smartest investments we can make.
Programs like Head Start ensure our children are on the right pathway with a solid foundation for success.
In addition, the proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund would increase the number of low-income children arriving at kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed by spurring better standards and quality in early learning settings.
The President has also outlined an ambitious goal to have the world’s highest college graduation rate by the year 2020.
To meet this goal, it is imperative that we continue to invest in our nation’s college students through Pell grants and other forms of student aid.
And we need to encourage colleges and states to partner in initiatives to ensure that students not only enter, but graduate from college.
Especially in this economy, we have to keep this commitment to students. We used to lead the world in college graduates, now we’re shamefully ranking below other competitive countries.
This can change and it should.
But before we can even begin to have a conversation about college, we have to ensure our students are learning in elementary school, succeeding in middle school and graduating high school.
Secretary Duncan, Chairman Kline and I have all been part of several Big 8 meetings with our colleagues from the Senate about the future of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
These meetings have been productive. They’ve been engaging. And most importantly, they’ve been encouraging that we will be able to work in a bipartisan way to rewrite the education law in this country.
Mr. Secretary, I don’t need to remind you how important it is that we get to the ESEA reauthorization this year. In fact, I bet you’ll be telling us about that very soon.
We all know the statistics by now.
We rank 25th in math, 14th in reading and 17th in science among other industrialized countries.
The most recent NAEP results found only 21 percent of high school seniors performed at or above the proficient level.
We also know that employers are demanding a more qualified workforce than is available.
Our children deserve more. Our country deserves more.
Inaction here is one of the biggest threats to the future of this country, to our economic stability and our global competitiveness. We can’t be sitting on our hands.
It is time for real change.
The US has not fallen in international rankings because we have gotten worse – we’ve fallen behind because we have stagnated while other countries have accelerated.
Our top 10 percent of students are able to compete internationally while poor and minority students have been allowed to fall flat.
If we don’t hold our schools accountable for ALL the children in their classrooms, we fail.
There are no excuses for letting this continue in a country as great as ours.
It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average.
We can’t afford to lose a generation of children because our best intentions didn’t work as well as they should have.
What needs to change in our federal education policy isn’t a mystery.
We have to update the law to respond to student and national needs through college and career-ready standards.
We need to modernize the teaching and learning workforce and recognize teachers and leaders as the professionals they are.
And we need to reevaluate the federal role in education, as we discussed last week, we must maintain accountability, but provide states and districts more flexibility where appropriate.
I know we can get this right. Our students can’t afford for us to wait any longer.
I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Secretary, about how we can get this country back on track and what we can do to help students succeed.
I yield back.
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