NEWSBYGEORGE MILLER

Congressman George Miller is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Congressman Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

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 from 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.

Congressman George Miller is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Congressman Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

One year ago, our nation was headed toward an economic collapse, shedding an average of 600,000 jobs a month. State and local budget cutbacks were putting teachers' jobs -- and our students' educations -- in peril. Our economy was in need of emergency triage that would immediately begin to save and create jobs and lay the foundation for longer-term economic growth. One year after its enactment, it is clear that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is meeting these core goals.

To date, the law has already created or saved two million jobs and helped our economy grow at its fastest rate in years. It has funded more than 300,000 education jobs, keeping teachers in classrooms and children and students of all ages learning. It has helped minimize harmful cuts at public colleges and universities and provided students with larger Pell Grants to pay for college.

Congressman George Miller is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Congressman Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

This year we will reauthorize the laws governing the 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. As Chairman of the Committee with jurisdiction of these programs, I take this very seriously. 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.

Congressman George Miller is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Congressman Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Today, the Committee on Education and Labor considered the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and I introduced this bill in December for a simple reason: all children should be safe and protected at school.

Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office told our Committee about a shocking wave of abusive restraint and seclusion in our nation's classrooms. They told us that hundreds of students in this country have been victims of this abuse. In many cases these victims were our smallest and most vulnerable children: children as young as four and five, and many students with disabilities. And in some instances, children died.

We learned that while restraint and seclusion should be considered emergency tactics used as a last resort, far more often these techniques are abused under the guise of discipline or to force compliance. Last year, in California, districts reported more than 14,300 cases of seclusion, restraint and other "emergency" interventions.

Representative George Miller is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Change.org asked Representative Miller to respond to questions to provide context for his work and the causes he supports.

Change.org: What cause or causes would you most like to promote as a Changemaker and why?

As the chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, no cause is more important that the need to rebuild and strengthen America's middle class. I am dedicated to improving our nation's schools and making college more affordable and accessible, so that every student has the opportunity to succeed. I am committed to rebuilding a clean energy economy that will create millions of good-paying jobs and reestablish America's technological leadership. As we regain jobs through this new investment, I will fight to restore workers' rights, so that every American can benefit from economic opportunity. And we will make the preservation and strengthening of retirement savings a priority, so that all Americans can enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work.

Together, we can rescue our economy, restore the promise of the American Dream, and ensure that, in a nation as great as ours, the interests of students, workers, families and retirees are at the heart of our nation's priorities.

Change.org: What are you most proud of about your work for social change?

There are many things I’m proud of during my years of public service, but I’m very proud of our committee’s work this past year to improve the lives of all Americans. Last January, I was thrilled to stand by President Obama’s side with Lilly Ledbetter as he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law – an issue that our committee first began working on in 2007. At the same time, the House also passed the Paycheck Fairness Act that would help end the discriminatory practice of paying a woman less than a man for performing the same job by strengthening the landmark Equal Pay Act.