Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 3036, No Child Left Inside Act Of 2008
Floor Speech
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Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, House Resolution 1441 provides for consideration of H.R. 3036, the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008, under a structured rule.
The rule provides 1 hour of general debate controlled by the Committee on Education and Labor. The rule makes in order five amendments printed in the Rules Committee report. The rule also provides for one motion to recommit with or without instructions.
Madam Speaker, it is important that elementary and secondary schools across America continue to offer curriculum that is aligned with the needs of our children and the interests of our great country. That is why the Congress will move today to extend the National Environmental Education Act under an initiative offered by the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. JOHN SARBANES, entitled the No Child Left Inside Act.
This national environmental education bill was reported by the Committee on Education and Labor by a strong bipartisan vote. Under the leadership of the Education and Labor Committee chairman, GEORGE MILLER, our Nation's students have been well served by this Congress with numerous landmark reforms and investments.
I thought we would take the time just to name a few. This Congress has passed the College Cost Reduction Act that was signed into law last year. It provides the single largest increase in college aid since the GI Bill, roughly $20 billion over the next 5 years. But it does so at no new cost to taxpayers.
Under the law, 6.8 million students who take out need-based Federal student loans each year will see the interest rates on their loans halved over the next 5 years, saving the typical borrower over $4,000 during the life of the loan once that is implemented.
That College Cost Reduction Act also boosts the maximum Pell Grant scholarship to $5,400 over the next 5 years. That's up from about $4,000 in 2006.
In a part of that bill that has not received a lot of attention, that new law provides loan forgiveness for public service members like nurses, police officers, firefighters and first responders and makes those loan repayments more manageable and gives up-front tuition to students who commit to teaching in the high-need public schools.
This Congress has also passed, and it has been signed into law, the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans for American Families. There is nothing more important during this credit crunch than that affordable student loans and access to college remains available for our young students that would like to attend college.
That Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans for American Families Act provides new protections, in addition to those already in current law, to ensure that families continue to have timely, uninterrupted access to Federal college loans in the event that distress in the credit markets leads to a significant number of lenders in the federally guaranteed student loan programs to substantially reduce their lending activity.
The Congress has also passed, and it was signed into law just last month, the expanding college access for students and families law. It passed the House here by a vote of 380-49. The legislation addresses the rising price of college by encouraging colleges to rein in price increases, clean up corrupt practices in student loan programs and streamline the Federal financial aid application process. The bill also addresses textbook costs and increases college aid and support programs for veterans and military families.
Madam Speaker, this is another bill before us today that continues the new direction, Congress' commitment to higher education, and to improving elementary and secondary education for students across America.
Today we will focus on improvement to environmental education for America's schools, the best kind, where Washington doesn't dictate the parameters or curriculum to local schools, but gives schools the tools they need to decide themselves how to modernize curriculum. Today, it is our challenge, and the challenge of our children, to build a more sustainable energy efficient world, and sometimes you have to get outside the classroom and learn by doing and exploring your environment.
Many children, including my 9-year-old daughter, learn more effectively this way. I know many of you love to visit classrooms and talk with students, like I do.
Students today are particularly interested in energy conservation, climate change, clean air and clean water. Students, teachers and schools are clamoring for more knowledge and understanding of our natural environment.
Unfortunately, many schools and school districts simply do not have the resources to teach beyond the basics these days. Since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, we have seen a narrowing of school curriculum with schools being forced to spend more and more learning time preparing for high-stakes testing.
Well, like other science courses, this grant program, under the national environmental education program, the environmental education instructs students in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, obtaining and analyzing data, communication and learning by doing. These skills are critical for success in the 21st century, and environmental education helps students by learning how to conserve, how to conserve energy, how to ensure safe products are on the shelves, which eventually strengthens our Nation's economy and makes it a much safer world.
Our environmental actions here at home have an impact on the global economy and on our energy security, and energy security is national security. Having a solid understanding of natural environment and our global interdependency is critical to keeping this Nation safe.
The modest but important resources we will send to local schools under this National Environmental Education Act is particularly helpful now. Helping our kids to learn about the natural environment in an active learning setting will motivate students and propel them towards success. It will pull kids away from the TV sets and the video games and the video screens and bring them outdoors.
The bill supports local efforts to expand and enhance environmental education and also provides teachers with important professional development opportunities. Under this legislation, our Nation's teachers will become better equipped to teach students about the environment and encourage students to be knowledgeable about environmental issues and how they affect all of us.
When environmental education is integrated into the classrooms, students and teachers are better able to use current, local environmental issues to increase their understanding of math, science, history and other academic subjects.
Environmental education is a powerful tool to help motivate students to help take care of the environment and help improve their academic achievement.
This bill also strengthens environmental literacy plans. According to the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, Americans still widely lack the environmental knowledge that will enable them to safeguard the public health, protect natural resources, support energy conservation efforts and engage in the movement towards a more sustainable future.
So this is a win-win proposition for our local schools, for teachers and for the future of our great country. This legislation will modernize environmental education for the 21st century by emphasizing environmental literacy.
I urge passage of the rule and this underlying bill.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance my time.
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Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, over the past year and a half, this new direction Congress has been solely focused on growing and strengthening America's middle class. Despite the protestations from my friend from the other side of the aisle, it was just this week that we passed the most comprehensive, balanced energy legislation that has been considered in the past decade. That Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act proved that there are real differences between the two sides of the aisle here because our energy bill was focused on lowering prices for consumers and protecting taxpayers.
Yes, it expanded domestic drilling offshore and on land, but it also added a huge expansion of renewable sources of energy. It increases our security by freeing America from the grip of foreign oil. And it finally requires Big Oil to pay what it owes the American taxpayers.
Is it fair that Big Oil continues to receive taxpayer subsidies at a time when they are making huge record profits? No, it doesn't, so we end the subsidies to the big oil companies. And a lot of this new emphasis on clean, green, renewable energy will have the extra added benefit of creating good-paying jobs here in America.
Besides energy, we have also been focused on landmark education reform. Indeed, as I highlighted at the beginning of consideration of this bill, we've passed truly landmark historic investments in education for America's students. First was the single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. Under that law, 6.8 million students who take out need-based Federal loans each year will see the interest rates on their loans cut in half.
We increased Pell Grants by over $1,000. We have also passed and it was signed into law by President Bush the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans For American Families Act. That is so vital during this turmoil in the financial markets. It is absolutely vital that American families can still get those low-cost student loans. That new law provides new protections to ensure that families have timely, uninterrupted access to Federal college loans in the event that distress in the credit markets leads to a significant number of lenders not being liquid and being able to lend to families.
We also expanded college access for students and families, we cleaned up the corrupt practices going on on some campuses in student loan programs, addressed student textbook costs and increased college aid and support programs for veterans and military families.
And one that I didn't mention but I think we can all celebrate, the hugely bipartisan and popular new GI bill for the 21st century that will provide 4-year scholarships to the brave men and women who have served in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. We truly have been on the side of American families and the middle class.
This modest bill today also renews our commitment to the No Child Left Inside Act. Doesn't that really bring all of this together as we focus on energy policy and improving our public education and higher education in this country, a modest but important commitment to students at home who are interested in environmental sustainability and energy conservation. We will provide additional resources to our schools and our students so they can get outside the classroom, get away from the TV set and the video games and learn by doing, learn in an active setting, learn out in the natural environment how to conserve energy and to address global climate change.
Studies shows that environmental education boosts student achievement, it builds students' critical thinking and social skills, it improves student behavior, and it can enhance teaching. So we are going to help schools and States expand and enhance environmental education. We are going to focus on qualified expert teachers in the Nation's classrooms, and strengthen and develop environmental literacy plans.
For a long time there was another group in charge here in Washington, and it oftentimes seems like over the past decades it has been the Democrats who have had to come in and clean up the mess of past administrations. Well, I think we are proving again that we are on track to do that again. We are all in this together and we need to pass this bill. I urge a unanimous ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule.
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