[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 178 (Wednesday, December 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8509-S8513]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STUDENT SUCCESS ACT--CONFERENCE REPORT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the conference report to accompany S. 1177,
which the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Conference report to accompany S. 1177, a bill to
reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 to ensure that every child achieves.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 10:45
a.m. is equally divided between the two leaders or their designees.
The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the American people have a lot on their
minds this week about things happening in our world and in our country,
but today we turn our attention to something at home. The Senate and
Congress--and I believe the President--by the end of the week will have
a Christmas present for 50 million children and 3.4 million teachers in
100,000 public schools across this country, something they have been
eagerly awaiting. Today the Senate should pass by a large margin our
bill to fix No Child Left Behind.
A lot has been said about how the bill repeals the common core
mandate, how it reverses a trend toward a national school board that
has gone on through the last two Presidential administrations, and how
it is the biggest step toward local control in a quarter of a century
for public schools. That is all true.
The legislation specifically prohibits the U.S. Secretary of
Education from specifying in any State that it must have the common
core standards or any other academic standards--not just this Secretary
but future Secretaries. It gets rid of the waivers the U.S. Department
of Education has been using to act, in effect, as a national school
board, causing Governors to have to come to Washington and play
``Mother May I'' if they want to evaluate teachers or fix low-
performing schools or set their own academic standards. And it is true
that it moves a great many decisions at home. It is the single biggest
step toward local control of schools in 25 years.
This morning, as we come to a vote, which we will do at 10:45, I
would like to emphasize something else. I believe the passage of this
legislation--and if it is signed later this week, as I believe it will
be, by President Obama--will unleash a flood of innovation and
excellence in student achievement across America, community by
community and State by State. Why do I say that? Look at where the
innovation has come from before. My own State, Tennessee, was the first
State to pay teachers more for teaching well, creating a master teacher
program in the 1980s. Florida came right behind. That didn't come from
Washington, DC. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota created
what we now call charter schools in the early 1990s. That didn't come
from Washington. The Governors themselves met with President George
H.W. Bush in 1989 to establish national education goals--not directed
from Washington but with Governors working together, with the President
involved in leading the way and providing the bully pulpit support.
Then the Governors since that time have been setting higher standards,
devising tests to see how well students were doing to reach those
standards, creating their own State accountability systems, and finding
more ways to evaluate teachers fairly.
My own State has done pretty well without Washington's supervision.
Starting with the master teacher program in the 1980s, then-Governor
McWherter, in his time in the 1990s, helped Tennessee pioneer relating
student achievement to teacher performance. Then Governor Bredesen, a
Democratic Governor, realized that our standards were very low--we were
kidding ourselves--so he, working with other Governors, pushed them
higher. Our current Governor Bill Haslam has taken it even further, and
our children are leading the country in student achievement gains. So
the States themselves have been the source of innovation and excellence
over the last 30 years.
We have learned something else in the last 10 or 15 years: Too much
Washington involvement causes a backlash. You can't have a civil
conversation about common core in Tennessee or many other States. It is
the No. 1 issue in Republican primaries, even in general elections,
mainly because Washington got involved with it. Now Washington is out
of it, and it is up to Tennessee and Washington and every State to
decide for themselves what their academic standards ought to be. The
same is true with teacher evaluation.
I was in a 1\1/2\-year brawl with the National Education Association
in 1983 and 1984 as Governor, when we paid teachers more for teaching
well. It carried by one vote in our State senate. So when I came to
Washington a few years ago, people said: Well, Senator Alexander is
going to want every State to do that. They were absolutely wrong about
that. The last thing we should do is tell States they must evaluate
teachers and how to evaluate teachers. It is hard enough to do without
somebody looking over your shoulder. Too much Washington involvement
has actually made it harder--harder to have higher standards and harder
to evaluate teachers. I believe we are changing that this week.
I had dinner with a Democratic Senator last night who plans to vote
for the bill. He said he would have given me 5-to-1 odds at the
beginning of the year that we wouldn't be able to pass this bill. Why
are we at the point where we are likely to get votes in the mid-
eighties today in favor of the bill? No. 1, because we worked on it in
a bipartisan way. And I have given credit many times to Senator Murray
from the State of Washington for suggesting how we do that. I see
Senator Mikulski from Maryland on the floor. She has been a force for
that as well. Our committee worked in a bipartisan way, and so did the
House of Representatives as we worked through the conference.
The President and his staff members and Secretary Duncan have been
professional and straightforward in dealing with us all year long, and
I am grateful for that. We knew from the beginning, when we said to the
President: Mr. President, we know we can't change the law; we can't fix
No Child Left Behind unless we have your signature. We know that. He
dealt with us in a straightforward way.
Then we found a consensus. Once we found that consensus, it made a
very difficult problem a lot easier. The consensus is this: We keep the
important measurements of student achievement so that parents,
teachers, and schools will know how schools, teachers, and parents are
doing. There are 17 tests designed by the States, administered from the
3rd grade through the 12th grade, about 2 hours per test. That is not
very many tests. Keep those, report the results, disaggregate the
results, and then leave to classroom teachers, school boards, and
States the decisions about what to do about the tests. That should
result in better and fewer tests. That consensus underpins the success
we have had.
Six years ago, in December, we had a big disagreement in this
Chamber. We passed the Affordable Care Act, with all the Democrats
voting yes and all the Republicans voting no. The next day, the
Republicans went out and started trying to repeal it, and we haven't
stopped. That is what happens with that kind of debate. This is a
different kind of debate.
If the President signs this bill, as I believe he will, the next day,
people aren't going to be trying to repeal it. Governors, school board
members, and teachers are going to be able to implement it, and they
will go to work doing it. They will be deciding what tests to give,
what schools to fix and how to fix them, what the higher academic
standards ought to be, and what kind of tests should be there. It will
be their decision. They will be free to do it from the day the
President signs this bill. It lasts only for 4 years until it is
supposed to be reauthorized, but my guess is that this bill and the
policies within
[[Page S8510]]
it will set the standard for policy in elementary and secondary
education from the Federal level for the next two decades.
It is a compromise, but it is a very well-crafted piece of work. It
is good. It is good policy.
There are some things that are undone. Senator Murray has her list of
things that couldn't get in the bill, and I have mine. I was glad to
see us make more progress on charter schools. I have watched that go
from the time I was Education Secretary in the early 1990s, when I
wrote a letter to every school superintendent asking them to try at
least one of those Minnesota start-from-scratch schools. I watched it
go from there to today where over 5 percent of our children in public
schools go to charter schools. That is a lot of kids--almost 3 million
children--going to schools where teachers have more freedom and parents
have more choices.
What we haven't made as much progress on is giving low-income parents
more choices of schools for their children so they have the same kind
of opportunity that financially better off parents do. My Scholarship
for Kids proposal got only 45 votes here. I thought it was a very good
idea that would give States the option--not a mandate--to turn all
their Federal education dollars into scholarships for low-income
children. That would be $2,100 for each of those children, and it would
follow them to the school their parents chose under the State's rules,
not Washington's rules. That is not a part of this bill, but we can
fight about that and discuss that another day, and I intend to try to
do that.
Today I think we celebrate the fact that we have come to a very good
conclusion. We are sending to the President a bill I hope he will be
comfortable with. While it does repeal the common core mandate and it
does reverse the trend to a national school board and it is the biggest
step toward local control in 25 years, what excites me about the bill
is I believe it will unleash a flood of innovation and excellence in
elementary and secondary education that will be a wonderful Christmas
present for 50 million children in 100,000 public schools being taught
by 3.4 million teachers.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Every Child
Succeeds Act. Today will be a great day for the Senate because we will
actually pass a bill that is a result of a bipartisan effort led by two
very able and dedicated leaders, Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member
Patty Murray. They have done an outstanding job in guiding the
committee and encouraging open debate with extensive hearings,
consultation with Members, and committee markups that were long, hard,
and sometimes quite feisty to say the least. That is the way the
Congress ought to be, and I thank them.
I think their dedication showed that in the Senate--we acknowledge
the work of Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott in the House, but
here, we were led by two educators: Senator Alexander, the former
president of a university and former Secretary of Education and Senator
Murray, a teacher herself, who has taught us many lessons in our caucus
on how to do the right job in the right way.
Today we come with the rewrite of a bill that started 50 years ago,
when Lyndon Johnson wanted to have a war on poverty and passed the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It was the first time the
Federal Government was going to be involved in education and wanted to
be sure there were Federal resources to help lift children out of
poverty.
Many us agree with what the great former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said, that education is the civil rights issue of this
generation because education is what opens doors today and opens doors
tomorrow. The legislation we pass today will make sure that we correct
the problems of the past and do the right thing in the future.
When I knew that the committee was going to be serious about the
doing the bill, I crisscrossed Maryland consulting with parents,
teachers, and administrators of our school system to get the best
ideas. The first thing I asked was, what are we doing right, what are
we doing wrong, what do you want us to do more of, and when do you want
us to get the heck out of the way?
They said to me: Senator Barb, the problem in Washington is that you
have a one-size-fits-all mentality. Washington wants to take the same
rules that apply in New York City and apply them to Ocean City, MD. You
cannot have a one-size-fits-all for every school district in the United
States of America.
The second thing they said is, yes, you need accountability; yes, you
do need metrics. But what we have come up with is overtesting that
still does not result in high performance.
I worked on a bipartisan basis with the leadership to do what we
could to get rid of the excesses of one-size-fits-all, all decisions
that are made in Washington, and the fact that we shouldn't be racing
to the test, we should be racing to the top.
My first rule in working on this legislation was to do no harm. I was
deeply disturbed that there was an effort to change the formula--the
formula that meant what Federal funds do come in the area of title I.
We worked very hard to make sure the formula was fair and equitable,
along with the rules of the game now and the groundwork for the rules
of the game for the future.
What that meant was that initially Maryland would have lost $40
million and Baltimore City and Baltimore County would have each lost $6
million. In Prince George's County, which is experiencing a new wave of
immigrant children, we would have lost $7 million. We were able to make
sure the formula works the way it should.
We also made sure our teachers have the support they need. Our
teachers have been overregulated. They have had demands placed on them
to solve problems that are not theirs when a child comes to the
classroom. Their job is to teach the child, but they can't solve every
problem the child has. Many of our children come to school with
significant and severe health problems. Some have peanut allergies.
Some have asthma. Some are challenged by autism. The school system
needs help with supportive services.
I am so proud of the effort I led to make sure we have opportunities
for school nurses to be in those schools; to make sure Federal funds
can be used for the coordination of the services that will be needed to
provide and oversee the health needs of our children, such as vision
screening, hearing screening, and important mental health services--
this is what we need to be able to do; also, to make sure that while we
maintain testing in reading and math, we make sure we get rid of the
overtesting and the race to the test.
The Every Student Succeeds Act is good for all of Maryland's
students. There are 874,000 boys and girls in school today. Some are
from at-risk populations. What we do here is get them ready for school.
We make investments in preschool education, which is so important. We
have afterschool programming because children don't learn only during
the school day but through structured afterschool programming. Children
continue to learn all day while they are in a safe and secure
environment. We empower families, we empower teachers, and we empower
the local level.
I think this is a very good job in what has been done here. What we
hope to be able to do is to make sure our children are ready for the
21st century. I believe this bill is a downpayment on our children's
future and therefore on our Nation's future. When we spend money on
education, the benefit not only accrues to the child, it accrues to our
society. Every time a child can read, every time a child can
participate in the demands and the knowledge of what the 21st century
requires, we are going to be in a better place.
I congratulate Senator Alexander and Senator Murray on a great job.
I urge adoption of the conference report.
I yield the floor.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I wish to celebrate a truly
bipartisan, bicameral accomplishment. For the first time in 14 years,
Congress is on the precipice of reauthorizing the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, ESEA. First enacted 50 years ago as a part of
the civil rights era, this legislation sought to ensure all children,
regardless of ZIP code, were able to obtain a high-quality education.
The latest reauthorization of ESEA was signed
[[Page S8511]]
into law in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind, NCLB, Act. Due for
reauthorization since 2007, an entire generation of students have
matriculated through our Nation's public school system under this
Federal education policy while reforms have been desperately needed. I
am proud of the compromises that Senate HELP Committee Chairman
Alexander and Ranking Member Murray were able to craft together
starting back in January and for the tireless work of their staffs to
get us to this point we are at today.
Ensuring access to a high-quality education is one of the most
important duties of Federal, State, and local governments. While
Congress enacted the NCLB Act with the best of intentions and a
comforting name, in reality the red tape and overreliance on the
Federal assessments it codified have left far too many children behind
since its passage. In the years leading up to today, I have heard from
parents concerned about the pressure their children feel when taking
certain assessments, I have been disheartened to hear educators in my
State say that they are falling out of love with teaching with
consistently changing mandates and the unpredictability of high stakes
testing, and I have met with education leaders who are trying to make
the best of an untenable situation. All of those involved in
education--from students, parents, educators, school support personnel,
education leaders, volunteers, and organizations which hold our schools
accountable to ensure every child obtains a high-quality education--
deserve to move on from the failed NCLB Act.
I have often heard from educators in my State who stress that a child
is more than a single or collective set of test scores. I am pleased
the Every Child Achieves Act, ECAA, will replace the Federal, one-size-
fits-all ``adequate yearly progress'' accountability system and allow
States to design their own accountability systems to identify, monitor,
and assist schools. Rather than relying on a collective set of test
scores to determine student performance, accountability systems will be
able to take into consideration student growth over the course of a
school year. States will be able to consider multiple measures of
student learning, including access to academic resources, school
climate and safety, access to support personnel, and other measures
which can allow for differentiation in student performance. All of this
will be done while ensuring that students are held to the high yet
achievable standard of being college- and career-ready upon completion
of high school.
I am proud that the ECAA recognizes that, to support a successful
student, schools should support the whole child, both physically and
mentally. The approved bill includes a provision I coauthored with
Senator Roy Blunt that will allow schools in low-income areas to use
Federal resources under title I to provide school-based mental health
programs. School-based mental health programs have been proven to
increase educational outcomes, decrease absences, and improve student
assessments. The ECAA also makes an effort to ensure students in our
Nation have a deeper understanding of how our government functions, and
I would like to thank Senators Chuck Grassley and Sheldon Whitehouse
for working with me to modify the american history and civics title of
ECAA to accomplish this goal. Our provision allows evidence-based civic
and government education programs that emphasize the history and
principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, to
receive Federal funding for expansion and dissemination for voluntary
use. For too long, a singular focus on assessments pushed out other
important subjects like these which ensure a student receives a well-
rounded education.
My home State of Maryland has made a commitment to funding education
adequately over the past decade that has allowed Maryland to be a
consistent national leader in student performance and student outcomes.
Each day, our State's nearly 875,000 students make their way to the
classrooms of more than 60,000 educators and thousands more support
personnel and education leaders in nearly 1,446 Maryland schools. I
appreciate the service of educators not only from the perspective of a
lawmaker, father, and grandfather, but also as a husband of a teacher.
I appreciate my colleague Senator Barbara Mikulski, for standing with
me to prevent a proposal from Senator Richard Burr from being included
in the final conference report which would have harmed Maryland's
hardest to serve low-income students. Senator Burr's proposal would
have reduced Maryland's share of title I-A funding for educating low-
income children by $40 million per year, punishing States like Maryland
that have made the decision to make proper investments in funding
education for our children. Thanks to the work of Senator Mikulski and
a strong coalition of members from similar States, the final conference
report does not include this provision.
The legislative process is about comprise. In many respects, this
bill is a vast improvement over the No Child Left Behind Act, and the
hard work of HELP Committee Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray,
House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline, and Ranking
Member Bobby Scott have led us to this point. However, work remains to
address a current lack of protections to make our schools safer places
for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, LGBT, students. In
addition, Congress must not repeat the same mistakes we learned from
under the NCLB Act by underfunding our Nation's public schools. I stand
ready to work with Members from both parties to ensure that all
Americans can obtain a high-quality education.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, Duncan Taylor is the parent of a second
grader in Highline public schools in my home State of Washington. Like
so many parents in my State, he got a letter in the mail saying his
son's school was failing.
Last year, Washington State lost its waiver from No Child Left
Behind's requirements. Not only did that mean most of the schools in
the State are now labeled as failing, it meant Washington State lost
flexibility over how to spend some of its Federal funding.
As an active member of the PTA, Duncan volunteers in the classroom.
So he knew that the label of ``failing'' did not reflect the kind of
education his son was getting, but as an education advocate, he also
knew that losing out on that funding--in effect punishing schools that
serve students from all kinds of backgrounds--was not going to help.
Like so many parents and teachers across the Nation, Duncan has been
following our work to reauthorize the Nation's elementary and secondary
education bill. We cannot let them down.
I thank Chairman Alexander for working with me since February on a
bipartisan path to get us to this point today. This process started
when Chairman Alexander and I agreed that No Child Left Behind is badly
broken and needed to be fixed. He has been a great partner, and I am
thrilled we have reached this point together.
I also thank all of our colleagues on the HELP Committee for their
work and dedication in moving this bill forward. In particular, I thank
my committee Democrats for their tireless work on behalf of families,
schools, and communities in their States. This is a stronger bill
thanks to their commitment and effort.
I thank the two leaders, Senator McConnell and Senator Reid. In
particular, I thank Senator Reid for his guidance and support.
We would not be where we are without Chairman Kline and Ranking
Member Scott in the House. While Chairman Kline and I do not see eye to
eye on everything, he has been a great partner on this bill, and I look
forward to getting more done with him before he retires next year.
Ranking Member Bobby Scott has been a partner in getting this deal
done. Without him and the passion he brings around dropout factories
and creating a real accountability system for our schools so all
children can succeed, we would not have been able to get this bill to a
place where Democrats and the President could support it.
There have been many late nights and weekends for our staff this
year. I want to take a moment now to recognize their extraordinary
efforts and service. On Senator Alexander's staff, I want to
particularly acknowledge and thank his staff director, David Cleary,
[[Page S8512]]
as well as Peter Oppenheim and Lindsay Fryer, his education and K-12
policy leads, who worked closely with our staff over many months. I
also want to acknowledge and thank Jordan Hynes, Bill Knudson, Lindsey
Seidman, Hillary Knudsen, Bobby McMillin, and Jim Jeffries, who all did
great work on this important bill.
In the House, I was proud to work with Chairman John Kline, and I
recognize and thank his staff director, Juliane Sullivan, as well as
Amy Jones, Brad Thomas, Mandy Schaumburg, Leslie Tatum, Kathlyn Ehl,
Matthew Frame, Sheariah Yousefi, Krisann Pearce, and Brian Newell.
I was glad to work with my friend, Ranking Member Bobby Scott, and I
truly appreciate all of his hard work and dedication to this bill. I
want to recognize and thank his staff director, Denise Forte, along
with Jacque Chevalier, Helen Pajcic, Alex Payne, Christian Haines,
Kiara Pesante, Brian Kennedy, and Rayna Reid.
In addition, I thank our committed floor staff, who provide
outstanding guidance to us every day. In particular, I thank Gary
Myrick, Tim Mitchell, Tricia Engle, and Daniel Tinsley.
Finally, I cannot say enough about my own incredible staff, who have
put their time and talents into this bill from the word ``go.'' In
particular, I want to thank my staff director, Evan Schatz, and my
public education policy director, Sarah Bolton, for their extraordinary
efforts on this legislation.
I want to acknowledge the long and hard work of Amanda Beaumont,
Allie Kimmel, Leanne Hotek, Jake Cornett, Aissa Canchola, Sarah
Rosenberg, Aurora Steinle, Leslie Clithero, Eli Zupnick, Helen Hare,
Mary Robbins, Jeff Crooks, John Righter, Beth Stein, Beth Burke, Sarah
Cupp, Melanie Rainer, Stacy Rich, Emma Rodriguez, and my chief of
staff, Mike Spahn. I noticed all of your long, hard work on the
unwavering commitment.
As a former teacher, I want to thank you for standing up for the best
interests of our students, our educators, and our communities in
Washington State and across the country. We would not be where we are
today without all of your efforts. Thank you.
Every Senator here has heard from teachers, parents, and students in
their home State about how No Child Left Behind is badly broken. For
one thing, the law overemphasized testing, and oftentimes those tests
are redundant or unnecessary. It issued one-size-fits-all mandates but
then failed to give States the resources to meet those standards. I
have seen firsthand how this law is not working in my home State of
Washington.
Thankfully, we were able to work in a bipartisan way on a solution.
Together, we passed our bill through the HELP Committee with strong
bipartisan support. We passed our bill here on the Senate floor with
strong bipartisan support. We got approval from our bicameral
conference committee with strong bipartisan support. Last week the
House passed this final legislation with strong bipartisan support.
Today I hope our colleagues here will approve this final bill with the
same bipartisan spirit that has guided our progress so far.
The Every Student Succeeds Act will reduce reliance on high-stakes
testing. It will invest in improving and expanding access to early
learning programs so more kids start kindergarten ready to learn. It
will help ensure that all students have access to a quality education
regardless of where they live, how they learn, or how much money their
parents make.
With today's vote, I am looking forward to going back home and
telling teachers and principals that we are on their side. I am looking
forward to showing the American people that Congress can actually work
when both sides work together.
I am looking forward to making sure this bill is implemented in a way
that works for Washington State students, parents, teachers, and
communities, but first we have to clear this last legislative hurdle
before we can send it to the President's desk. I urge my colleagues to
vote yes to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act. Vote yes to fix No
Child Left Behind. Vote yes to prove Congress can break through
gridlock, work together, and get results. Vote yes to pass this bill
for students, parents, teachers, and communities across the country.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Order of Procedure
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following
the vote on the adoption of the conference report, the Senate be in a
period of morning business until 6 o'clock p.m., with Senators
permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, yesterday I extended my appreciation to
Senator Murray's staff and to mine--some she noted yesterday. Some of
them have been working on this bill for 5 years. I am deeply grateful
to them. I have deep appreciation for their hard work, their ingenuity,
and their skill in helping us come to this result. Without their hard
work and tireless effort, we wouldn't have been able to reach the
successful conclusion on the passage of this important bipartisan,
bicameral bill.
On Senator Murray's exceptional staff, I would like to thank Evan
Schatz, Sarah Bolton, Amanda Beaumont, John Righter, Jake Cornett,
Leanne Hotek, Allie Kimmel, and Aissa Canchola.
On my hardworking and dedicated staff, I would like to thank David
Cleary, Peter Oppenheim, Lindsay Fryer, Bill Knudsen, Jordan Hynes,
Hillary Knudson, Jake Baker, Lindsey Seidman, Allison Martin, Bobby
McMillin, Jim Jeffries, Liz Wolgemuth, Margaret Atkinson, and Taylor
Haulsee.
I would like to thank some of my former staff who participated in
this multiyear effort, but have moved on to other endeavors, including
Marty West, Diane Tran, Matthew Stern, Patrick Murray, and Haley
Hudler.
On Chairman Kline's staff, I would like to thank Juliane Sullivan,
Amy Jones, Brad Thomas, Mandy Schaumburg, Leslie Tatum, Kathlyn Ehl,
and Sheriah Yousefi.
On Congressman Scott's staff, I would like to thank Denise Forte,
Brian Kennedy, Jacque Chevalier, Helen Pajcic, Christian Haines, Kevin
McDermott, Alex Payne, Kiara Pesante, Arika Trim, Rayna Reid, Michael
Taylor, Austin Barbera, and Veronique Pluviose.
I would like to thank the hard-working staff of our Senate HELP
Committee members and conferees, who played important roles in reaching
this agreement, including Steve Townsend with Senator Enzi, Chris
Toppings with Senator Burr, Brett Layson with Senator Isakson, Natalie
Burkhalter with Senator Paul, Katie Brown with Senator Collins, Karen
McCarthy with Senator Murkowski, Cade Clurman and Natalia Odebralski
with Senator Kirk, Will Holloway with Senator Scott, Katie Neal with
Senator Hatch, Josh Yurek with Senator Roberts, Pam Davidson with
Senator Cassidy, Brent Palmer with Senator Mikulski, David Cohen with
Senator Sanders, Jared Solomon with Senator Casey, Gohar Sedighi with
Senator Franken, Juliana Hermann with Senator Bennet, Brenna Barber
with Senator Whitehouse, Brian Moulton with Senator Baldwin, Mike
DiNapoli with Senator Baldwin, Eamonn Collins with Senator Murphy, and
Josh Delaney with Senator Warren.
Much of the hard-working staff from the White House and Department of
Education also provided great help in getting this conference agreement
completed.
From the White House, I would like to thank Chief of Staff Denis
McDonough, Domestic Policy Adviser Cecilia Munoz, James Kvaal, Roberto
Rodriguez, Kate Mevis, Don Sisson, and Mario Cardona.
From the U.S. Department of Education, I would like to thank
Secretary Arne Duncan, Emma Vadehra, and Lloyd Horwich for their
technical assistance.
The Senate legislative counsel staff work long hours on the many
drafts of this bill and the amendments we considered on the floor in
July, so I would like to especially thank Amy Gaynor, Kristin Romero,
and Margaret Bomba.
We always rely on the experts at the Congressional Research Service
to give us good information in a timely manner, so I extend my thanks
to Becky Skinner, Jeff Kuenzi, Jody Feder, and Gail McCallion.
[[Page S8513]]
On Senator McConnell's staff, I would like to thank Sharon
Soderstrom, Don Stewart, Jen Kuskowski, Katelyn Conner, Erica Suares,
John Abegg, Neil Chatergee, and Johnathan Burks.
On the Senate floor staff, I would like to thank Laura Dove, Robert
Duncan, Chris Tuck, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Megan Mercer, Tony Hanagan,
Mike Smith, and Chloe Barz.
On Senator Cornyn's staff, I would like to thank Monica Popp, Emily
Kirlin, and John Chapuis.
From the Republican Policy Committee, I would like to thank Dana
Barbieri.
Finally, I would like to thank some in the education community for
their persistent help with this bill, including Mary Kusler with the
National Education Association, Tor Cowan with the American Federation
of Teachers, Chris Minnich, Peter Zamora Carissa Moffat Miller, and
Jessah Walker with the Council of Chief State School Officers, Stephen
Parker and David Quam with the National Governors Association, and
Noelle Ellerson and Sasha Pudelski with the School Superintendents
Association.
Mr. President, as I said earlier--and I am speaking mainly to my
colleagues on the Republican side now--Senator Murray's preference for
a large early childhood program is not in the bill. My preference for a
large program to give parents more choices of schools is not in the
bill. We are not voting on that today.
Today we are voting on one of two things: the status quo or the
change. You are either voting yes to repeal the common core mandate or
no to keep it. You are either voting yes to get rid of the waivers
through which the U.S. Department of Education has been operating as a
national school board for 80,000 schools in 42 States or a vote no is
saying: I like the national school board. Your voting yes means the
largest step toward local control of schools in 25 years or no means
you are voting against the largest step toward local control in 25
years. A vote yes means you like the fact that this bill should produce
less testing; no means you like the testing the way it is. Those are
the choices. We are past the time when each of us has a chance to offer
an amendment. We all offered our amendments. I have offered mine. Some
of mine got 45 votes, and I needed 60 votes, so they are not in the
bill, but the choice today is a choice to unleash a flood of excellence
in student achievement across this country the way it should be--State
by State, community by community, classroom by classroom.
I urge my colleagues to vote yes.
I yield back any time we have remaining.
I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on the adoption of the conference report.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio)
would have voted ``nay.''
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 85, nays 12, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 334 Leg.]
YEAS--85
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cotton
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Franken
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rounds
Schatz
Schumer
Sessions
Shaheen
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
NAYS--12
Blunt
Crapo
Daines
Flake
Lee
Moran
Paul
Risch
Sasse
Scott
Shelby
Vitter
NOT VOTING--3
Cruz
Rubio
Sanders
The conference report was agreed to.
Vote Explanation
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, today the Senate voted on the
adoption of the conference report to accompany S. 1177, the Every Child
Achieves Act. The conference report is commonly referred to as the
Every Student Succeeds Act. While the Every Student Succeeds Act takes
important steps in restoring some control over education decisions back
to the States, it does not go far enough. Unfortunately, the bill does
not grant States autonomy in all education decisionmaking, expands the
Federal Government's role in pre-K, and fails to include important
measures that broaden school choice. Due to these shortcomings, I am
unable to lend my support to this bill.
____________________