[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 178 (Wednesday, December 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8528-S8529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS BILL

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, earlier today the U.S. Senate added to its 
list of accomplishments this year by passing important education 
reform. The Democratic leader, our friend from Nevada, has called this 
Senate ``unproductive,'' but the Washington Post took a look at what he 
had to say and gave him three Pinocchios for that one.
  When we look at the accomplishments of this year, they are 
bipartisan, to be sure--as they must be. That is the nature of this 
institution. Even the minority can, and frequently does, stop us from 
doing things the majority would like to do. But what has been 
remarkable is where we have been able to find consensus and work 
together. Certainly, the education bill--the Every Student Succeeds 
Act--is an example of that, as is the leadership not only of Majority 
Leader McConnell, who

[[Page S8529]]

scheduled the vote on this legislation, but also Chairman Alexander of 
the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and Ranking Member 
Murray.
  Senator Murray has also been very important in working with us on 
important anti-human trafficking legislation that passed the Senate 99 
to 0. She worked with us on the President's request for us to pass 
trade promotion authority that only 13 Democrats voted for. This is an 
important piece of economic legislation.
  Then, in recent days, we passed the first multiyear highway bill. 
That was due to the partnership of Senator Inhofe, chairman of an 
important committee, Chairman Hatch, chairman of the Finance Committee, 
and Senator Boxer on the Democratic side basically trying to take on 
her own leadership that didn't want us to pass a multiyear highway 
bill, at least at first, because they wanted to use the pay-fors in 
that bill to spend on other things.
  My point is that leadership is important not only at the Presidential 
level; it is important here at the level of Congress in terms of 
setting the agenda. But the hard work of legislation is actually trying 
to find areas of common ground and consensus so we can actually get 
things done.
  There are some times that stopping what the majority wants to get 
done is the right thing to do--when the legislation is misguided, when 
it is the wrong kind of policy. But we found places where we can work 
together in order to deliver results for the American people, and the 
Every Student Succeeds Act is an example of that. It replaced a law 
which was sorely in need of reform, and it stopped Washington from 
imposing common core mandates on our classrooms. It will ensure that 
power is devolved from Washington back to the local communities, to 
parents and teachers, where that power should exist.
  In the words of Chairman Alexander, it has eliminated the Department 
of Education as a national school board. Our country is simply too big 
and too diverse, and the needs of our students in local communities are 
so different that the power to innovate, the power to set the standard, 
and then to find the most creative and innovative way to achieve those 
standards I believe is best determined at the local level and not here 
in Washington, DC. This legislation does just that.
  I use as an example Laredo, TX, where I went to a ninth grade science 
class. Due to the proximity of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, 
they were teaching ninth graders the fundamentals of petroleum geology 
as a way to teach their science courses. So the students could see the 
future of a job in the oil and gas sector because of the proximity of 
the Eagle Ford Shale and the prosperity that has brought and a direct 
connection between the otherwise abstract lessons of science that they 
might be learning in class. Washington, DC, is not going to be able to 
come up with that kind of creative solution or way of making science 
relevant to students in Laredo, TX. So I use that as an example of why 
this legislation is so important to leave to the States and local 
school districts, parents, and teachers the ability to determine the 
curriculum and accountability measures they want to adopt.
  I am proud we have come together in true bipartisan fashion to 
strengthen the hands of parents, teachers, and local communities and to 
provide real education reform for our children.

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