[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 108 (Monday, July 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4990-S4991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EVERY CHILD ACHIEVES ACT

  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I rise to talk about the bill we have 
before us today.
  We in the Senate have a unique opportunity long overdue and a 
responsibility to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act. The acronym is ESEA. This legislation is long overdue. It is vital 
for our children and their future that we get it right when addressing 
education policy. The consequences will be seen for years to come.
  I would like to acknowledge and especially commend the work of 
Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray, who worked so 
hard to get us to this point. This is something rather unique in the 
Senate. We are coming together. We are percolating with regards to 
important bills. This is a tremendously important bill.
  Due to their bipartisan leadership, the Every Child Achieves Act was 
approved back in April by the HELP Committee, of which I am a proud 
member, 22 to 0. I was very proud to vote yes.
  Let me repeat that. It passed 22 to 0. Because of that hard work, led 
by Senators Alexander and Murray, we are currently debating ESEA in the 
Senate for the first time since 2001. That is 14 years--14 years--that 
we have not had a reauthorization bill come to the Senate floor, and 
there is a lot of hope that it will pass. This is a prime example of 
what is possible when the Senate functions as it should and committees 
are actually able to legislate.
  Recently, 10 national education groups, representing educators, 
principals, school boards, superintendents, chief State school 
officers, parents and PTAs, and school business officials, called on 
the Senate to consider the Every Child Achieves Act to reauthorize the 
ESEA.
  Daniel Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents 
Association, wrote this in a letter:

       The nation's K-6th graders have spent every day of their K-
     12 experience under an outdated and broken ESEA. Our students 
     want and deserve more.

  His remarks perfectly summarize the issues at hand.
  I want to turn to a critical issue for States and school districts. 
Over the last few years, the administration has doubled down on Federal 
mandates and has used the waiver process to create law by fiat--thereby 
circumventing Congress and allowing those who have a Federal agenda in 
Washington to make too many decisions that are best left to the States 
and the school districts. It is evident that waivers have been granted 
only to those States that agree to implement the administration's 
preferred education policies. That is just not right.
  In fact, the New York Times has referred to the waiver process as 
``the most sweeping use of executive authority to rewrite Federal 
education law since Washington expanded its involvement in education in 
the 1960s.''
  Under section 9401 of current law, the ``Secretary may waive any 
statutory or regulatory requirement of this Act for a state education 
agency, local education agency, Indian tribe or school'' if that entity 
receives funds and requests a waiver.
  Language included in the Every Child Achieves Act amends section 9401 
to clarify that the waiver process is intended to be led by State and 
local requests, not Washington mandates. This will help ensure the 
process is State-driven and will allow for greater flexibility and 
innovation.
  In July 2011, the Congressional Research Service issued a report 
providing an overview of the Secretary's waiver authority under ESEA 
and warned of potential legal limits and challenges to the Secretary's 
flexibility proposal.
  The report states: ``If the Secretary did, as a condition of granting 
a waiver, require a grantee to take another action not currently 
required under the ESEA, the likelihood of a successful legal challenge 
will increase.''
  I have worked long and hard for language in the bill--years and 
years--that will prohibit the Secretary from imposing any additional 
requirements to waiver requests not authorized by the Congress. I am 
fully committed to fighting this one-size-fits-all Federal education 
agenda because I firmly believe local control is best when it comes to 
education.
  The Every Child Achieves Act, in its current form, puts an end to 
Washington mandates and allows Kansans to make their own decisions 
about the best way to improve education. While this legislation heads 
in the right direction in reducing the Federal footprint, I want to 
remind my colleagues it is important that we avoid adding back Federal 
mandates and prescriptive requirements.
  As we move forward, I will continue to push to return K-12 education 
decision-making to State and local control, where we can establish the 
best policies to ensure that every child receives the highest quality 
education.
  Now, I would like to briefly discuss something called Common Core and 
the Federal overreach in education. Common Core started out as a State-

[[Page S4991]]

led effort to create high standards that States would voluntarily 
adopt, but the administration had different ideas.
  In homes across America, parents are raising questions about what 
their children are being taught. In many cases, parents are hearing 
that local curriculum decisions have been driven by the Common Core 
education standards that most States adopted in a hurry under Federal 
pressure with little or no public input.
  Decisions about what children are taught are best made on the local 
level as close to parents as possible. The Federal Government should 
not have overriding influence over State and local education decisions. 
Simply put, the Department of Education has incentivized and coerced 
States into implementing Common Core education standards. Some within 
our education community in Kansas have even called this practice a 
bribe.
  The administration made it a criterion for States to adopt Common 
Core standards to have a reasonable chance to receive Federal funding 
under the multibillion-dollar Race to the Top Program and used Federal 
funds to develop Common Core-aligned tests. They have also threatened 
to withhold waivers from the onerous provisions of the No Child Left 
Behind Act if States do not adopt Common Core or similarly aligned 
standards and assessments. This is wrong.
  For that reason, earlier this year, I reintroduced the LOCAL Level 
Act, S. 182, to explicitly prohibit the Federal Government's role and 
involvement in Common Core. My legislation would strictly forbid the 
Federal Government from intervening in a State's education standards, 
its curricula, and assessments through the use of incentives, mandates, 
grants, waivers or any form of manipulation. Simply put, my legislation 
will preserve State education autonomy.
  A State will now be free from Federal interference in how to decide 
whether to use Common Core or any other type of academic standard. I am 
pleased the bill before us includes the language from my LOCAL Level 
Act and will, once and for all, end the administration's use of waivers 
to force or incentivize States to adopt Common Core standards.
  It will end the Obama administration's--and, for that matter, any 
future administration's--ability to use any tool of coercion to force 
States to adopt Common Core or any set of standards at all, whether it 
is Common Core by another name or some new set of standards--period.
  I thank Chairman Alexander for including my language because I firmly 
believe it will prohibit the administration from finding additional 
ways to promote a State's adoption of Common Core.
  I want to emphasize setting high standards for our schools, our 
teachers, and our children obviously is the right thing to do. But we 
will decide those standards in Kansas, and those decisions will be made 
in other States as well. We need to get the Federal Government out of 
the classroom and return our community decisions back to where they 
belong--in the community.
  If the Every Child Achieves Act becomes law, we can finally say 
goodbye to Federal interference in what we teach our kids in school. 
Chairman Alexander has stated that with this bill, we have the first 
opportunity in 25 years to restore decision-making back to States, 
local school districts, superintendents, principals and teachers, local 
school boards, parents, and especially the students. He is right.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise to express my strong support for 
the Every Child Achieves Act that is pending before the Senate. I want 
to commend Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray for working in 
such a great bipartisan fashion that brought this bill to the floor 
that will improve the quality of education for children across our 
country.
  The Every Child Achieves Act puts States and local officials back in 
control of our local schools. As we heard from the Senator from Kansas, 
Mr. Roberts, his hard work on this bill also stops the Department of 
Education from conditioning Federal funding on the adoption of national 
standards like Common Core.
  Importantly, this bill also makes sure parents and taxpayers continue 
to have access to important information about how the schools in their 
communities are performing. The Every Child Achieves Act deserves the 
Senate's support this week. Last week, the Senate unanimously adopted 
an amendment that will allow community school programs the flexibility 
to use Federal funds to pay for a site resource coordinator at their 
school or local education agency. This is important to the State of 
West Virginia. We have community schools. Community school programs 
provide important health, nutrition, and other key services for many of 
our West Virginia students who are, unfortunately, living in poverty.
  The amendment passed last week will allow those programs to better 
coordinate with community partners to provide resources and support for 
our children in need. I was happy to work with Senator Brown and my 
fellow Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin, to see that that 
amendment passed.
  I also want to talk briefly about a bipartisan amendment I introduced 
with Senator Durbin--he spoke about it a few minutes ago on the floor--
that takes important steps to create transparency for students and 
families. It does so by allowing students and parents to know the 
quality and progress of their schools as it relates to college 
readiness.
  This amendment will require States and local educational agencies to 
include postsecondary enrollment data on the existing report card 
measures that are included in the Every Child Achieves Act. It also 
encourages the inclusion of data on postsecondary remediation.
  It is supported by dozens of organizations, including the College 
Summit, the Business Roundtable, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 
because this amendment seeks to improve the education outcomes of our 
students.
  Parents and students alike deserve to know they are being adequately 
prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Including 
these simple, easy-to-understand measures on State and local report 
cards will provide them with the information they need to make informed 
choices about their future education. Additionally, the data will help 
States and school districts target limited resources to the schools 
that need it most. This amendment was carefully crafted to avoid 
putting onerous and additional burdens on our schools and States. 
Nearly all States already have made the investments necessary to 
collect, link, and report this data. In fact, the majority of States 
are already reporting it. Currently, 40 States produce high school 
feedback reports that include postsecondary enrollment data. More than 
30 States already include some measure of postsecondary success, such 
as remediation rates.
  Adding postsecondary enrollment and remediation rates to existing 
report card measures included in Every Child Achieves Act would make 
sure students, parents, educators, and policymakers have access to 
critical information about how well our high schools are preparing 
students to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. The end 
result will be successfully restoring decisionmaking to those who know 
best--the students and their parents.
  I urge everyone to support this amendment and also to support the 
bill.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

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