George Miller

We face the continuing challenge of closing the achievement gap that begins with our earliest learners.

Both President Obama and Secretary Duncan have called education the civil rights issue of our generation.

A good education is a basic civil right.

It is absolutely key that science be treated on par with reading and math in any update of the No Child Left Behind Act.

I think we know many of the answers.

we must all acknowledge our collective role and responsibility in preventing student deaths and ensuring that our schools remain safe havens of learning.

I find it very disheartening that the President's budget does not request adequate resources for this program.

Thank you for all your doing to seriously address these severe problems of seclusion and restraints nationwide.

It is very hard to think of a person less powerful in the American legal and political system than a little boy who is in--been in foster care his whole life, who has been abused everywhere he has gone.

I would think that that would--I mean, the cumulative evidence that we have here would suggest that perhaps that is not a restraint that you want to continue to use on young children.

And even if you 'use it successfully,' the fear, the humiliation that that child has experienced is to me almost incomprehensible that we would think that this is some kind of proper therapy to use on very young children.

You know, we have been discussing a lot and listening about waterboarding, where you drip water over cloth on a person's face, they are upside down, I guess, and you create the perception that they are drowning.

I strongly urge federal legislation in regard to both seclusion and restraints, which are proven to be extremely dangerous and even deadly.

Chairman Miller, Ranking member McKeon and Distinguished Committee members, my role is that of a researcher...

It is not easy to be punitive, but we are talking about being punitive.

Thank you for testifying at the May 19, 2009 Education and Labor full committee hearing on, 'Examining the Abusive and Deadly Use of Seclusion and Restrain in Schools.'

It is wholly unacceptable for the egregious abuse of a child to be considered less criminal because it happened in a classroom.

this punishment is way, way out of bounds.

There is something wrong with that, and I appreciate the testimony.

this is just unacceptable.

Today's hearing is the first ever congressional hearing investigation of the abusive and deadly misuse of seclusion and restraint in our schools.

Children should not be abused in our classrooms under the guise of discipline or punishment. This must stop now.

Congress must step in and fill the void that has resulted in scars that may never heal for those children and their families who have been the victims of this abuse.

I agree with some of the committee members that teachers involved in such abuse or crimes should lose their license to teach.

It's obviously long past time to bring these school food standards into the 21st Century.