: March 2009 |
 Economic Stimulus Package Signed into Law President Obama’s First Congressional Address National Service Gains Momentum in Washington House Approves Legislation to Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs PTA members will take to Capitol Hill next week as part of the PTA 2009 National Legislative Conference! How does it affect you? Your very own state PTA federal legislative chair, PTA state president, and other delegates from every community will descend on Washington DC to learn about issues and to take action for children. Attendees will participate in seminars and workshops and learn from successes in other communities. They will also meet with members of Congress to ensure education and children are a priority in their agendas. What are PTA’s priorities? Read them in the recently released 2009 PTA Public Policy Agenda. Economic Stimulus Package Signed into Law Largest Investment in Education in American History On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a $787 billion economic stimulus package, into law after tense negotiations to marry the House and Senate versions of the bill. Commitment to Education
Due to these commitments to critical public policy priorities—as well as the overwhelming need for job retention and creation, and an injection of capital into our economy—National PTA supported the ARRA and fought to maintain the valuable education and health investments in this legislation throughout Congressional debate. President Obama’s First Congressional Address On Tuesday, February 24, President Obama gave the first congressional address of his new presidency. While the economy was certainly the undertone of the entire speech, the president also laid out his key priorities in his Fiscal Year 2010 Budget…energy, health care and education. President Obama repeatedly expressed the need for immediate health care reform, signaling the beginning of a legislative process to address the matter sooner rather than later. On the issue of education, President Obama stated the following: The third challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America. In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a prerequisite. Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, and half of the students who begin college never finish. This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. That is a promise we have to make to the children of America. Already, we've made a historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We've dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. We've made college affordable for nearly 7 million more students, 7 million. And we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children's progress. But we know that our schools don't just need more resources; they need more reform. And that is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance, pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We'll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools. It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work, but it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. So tonight I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself; it's quitting on your country. And this country needs and values the talents of every American. That's why we will provide the support necessary for all young Americans to complete college and meet a new goal: By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That is a goal we can meet. That's a goal we can meet. Now, I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why, if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education. And to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations, I ask Congress to send me the bipartisan legislation that bears the name of Sen. Orrin Hatch, as well as an American who has never stopped asking what he can do for his country, Sen. Edward Kennedy. These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children, but it is up to us to ensure they walk through them. In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a parent, for a mother or father who will attend those parent-teacher conferences, or help with homework, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, read to their child. I speak to you not just as a president, but as a father, when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home. That is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. That's an American issue. Later, speaking on fiscal responsibility, President Obama said that, "in this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work." He also continued to speak about the dilapidated school in South Carolina that he had referenced in his first Presidential press conference, saying: I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina, a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She had been told that her school is hopeless. But the other day after class, she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this chamber. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself, and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina, but also the world. We are not quitters." That's what she said: "We are not quitters." For the entire transcript of this speech please go to http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/sotn.obama.transcript National Service Gains Momentum in Washington Bills Highlighted in Presidential Address and House Hearing, Usher Testifies In President Barack Obama's first joint address to Congress on February 24, 2009, the president made national and community service a cornerstone of his agenda to renew the country, pointedly calling on Congress to pass and send for his signature the Serve America Act (S. 277). A day after President Obama's address, the full House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing titled "Renewing America through National Service and Volunteerism." Witnesses included Usher, the recording artist and chairman of Usher's New Look Foundation, which provides mentoring for disadvantaged youth. Introduced on January 16 by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), S. 277 would provide, among other things, for one year of service for an additional 175,000 volunteers to address national challenges such as education, housing, healthcare, the environment and energy. The measure awaits consideration in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Last year in the 110th Congress, the House Committee on Education and Labor passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act with significant bipartisan support. The GIVE Act would have reauthorized national service programs such as Learn and Serve, AmeriCorps, and more. However, since it is a new Congress, the bill must be reintroduced. During the hearing after Obama’s address, Chairman Miller announced plans to move similar legislation in the coming weeks. Watch the House Hearing: http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/02/usher-testifies-on-improving-s.shtml Watch the President's Address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/24/The-Presidents-address-Excerpt/ On February 26, the Obama administration rolled out its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2010. This budget proposal provides the broad brushstrokes of the administration’s budgetary priorities, and therefore does not provide the specific funding levels for a wide variety of individual programs that would guide PTA advocacy efforts. However, with regard to education, the budget purportedly:
These priorities echo the above statements made by President Obama in his congressional address. As additional details are released, National PTA will be certain to follow closely and continue to engage both Congress and the administration in order to pursue the goals set forth in our Public Policy Agenda. On February 25, the House passed H.R. 1105, an omnibus Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 appropriations bill, by a vote of 245-178. The continuing resolution which funds government spending is set to expire on Friday, March 6. The Senate took up this bill on Monday, March 2. The bill, as passed by the House, provides $20 billion more in appropriations than the proposed budget put forth by former President George W. Bush last year. During that time, Congress and the Bush administration were at an impasse as to negotiating a compromise, and the continuing resolution was agreed upon in lieu of an official appropriations process. House Approves Legislation to Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs The House of Representatives approved legislation on February 23 to protect teenagers attending residential programs from physical, mental, and sexual abuse and to increase transparency to help parents make safe choices for their children. The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 (H.R. 911) won strong bipartisan support, with a vote of 295 to 102. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigations conducted at the request of House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Representative George Miller (D-CA), uncovered thousands of allegations of child abuse and neglect at teen residential programs since the early 1990s. This legislation, sponsored by Rep. Miller, was drafted in response to the disturbing findings of the GAO report. Specifically, the bill requires residential treatment centers (RTCs) to disclose to parents the qualifications, roles, and responsibilities of all RTC staff members and requires programs to notify parents of substantiated reports of child abuse or violations of health and safety laws. The House passed similar legislation last June in the 110th Congress by a bipartisan vote of 318 to 103. The bill will now be sent to the Senate for further consideration. |
