[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 174 (Wednesday, December 2, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H8868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT MUST BE REAUTHORIZED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Dold) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote 
``yes'' on the Every Student Succeeds Act, which will reauthorize the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill goes a long way to rectifying the problems 
that were created by No Child Left Behind. We have seen 14 years now of 
Federal encroachment on local schools, one-size-fits-all testing, and 
local school districts that are not allowed to apply local solutions to 
local problems.
  Mr. Speaker, the version of ESEA that is coming to the floor later 
today will fix these problems. The bill will streamline the annual 
assessment process and will ensure that our teachers are not required 
to teach only the material that will be on these tests. It will remove 
the high stakes from these assessments and will ensure that school 
districts have the local control over the assessment process.
  More importantly, the bill will allow States to develop their own 
academic content and achievement standards that are designed to suit 
the needs of their students. Teachers and administrators will be given 
the freedom to truly educate their students and will be able to 
innovate and develop real solutions to their problems without fear of a 
bureaucrat in Washington looking over their shoulder.
  Mr. Speaker, though I rise in support of this bill, I must say that I 
am disappointed that the final version to come out of conference did 
not include the text of an amendment that I offered that was adopted in 
H.R. 5, the Student Success Act.

                              {time}  1045

  My amendment would have forbidden States from requiring school 
districts to divert Federal education dollars away from the classroom 
and into State pension funds to pay off unfunded liabilities of the 
past.
  In my home State of Illinois, the State government is presently 
requiring school districts that choose to use Federal education dollars 
to pay teacher salaries to divert over one-third of their Federal 
education dollars to the State's Teachers' Retirement System to cover 
past financial mismanagement. This amounts to a Federal bailout of 
State pension programs at the expense of schools and education. Mr. 
Speaker, this only happens in Illinois.
  So what does this mean for the 10th District of Illinois? In 2014, 
Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 had to send over 
$140,000 to the State to cover past pension obligations. That is 35 
percent of the $400,000 of total Federal dollars that came to Wheeling 
that Wheeling spent on teachers. If Wheeling had only had to pay the 
normal pension cost, the current pension obligation, it would have had 
to have contributed $32,000. That means that Wheeling was forced to 
divert over $100,000 to the pension system to cover past pension 
obligations at the expense of teachers in the classroom. At $40,000 per 
year, this would have enabled them to hire an additional 2\1/2\ 
teachers that could have been educating our children, reducing 
classroom sizes, and making each of our students receive the individual 
attention that they need to succeed.
  In Waukegan, Illinois, this problem is even worse. Waukegan spent 
$2.6 million in Federal education dollars on teachers and was forced to 
divert over $900,000 annually to the State to cover past pension 
obligations. If the Dold amendment had been law, Waukegan would have 
had an additional $700,000 to hire more teachers, or in the case of 
District 60, they would have been able to offer full-day kindergarten. 
That makes an enormous difference in children's lives--and parents' 
lives for that matter.
  More tragically, because Illinois does not require the same kind of 
contribution when teacher salaries are paid with State or local 
dollars, this policy is taking away Federal education dollars from our 
neediest and most vulnerable children, precisely the students that the 
ESEA was intended to help.
  Mr. Speaker, my amendment would have fixed this problem once and for 
all and would have ensured that education dollars intended for the 
students of Wheeling and Waukegan and everywhere else where Federal 
dollars can make a real difference in our children's lives would have 
actually gone to help these students.
  I will continue to fight on this issue and will continue to work with 
my colleagues to make sure that the Federal dollars that are given to 
school districts are not diverted away from the neediest to cover up 
financial mistakes of the past.
  Mr. Speaker, Every Student Succeeds Act is by no means a perfect 
bill, but it is a significant upgrade and a step forward that goes a 
long way toward fixing the problems posed by No Child Left Behind.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill and ensure that our 
children's getting the education they deserve is something that we can 
all count on.

                          ____________________