[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 14, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1803-S1804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
H.J. RES. 57
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, in December 2015, this body came together
to enact what then-President Obama called a Christmas miracle, the
Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA. This truly bipartisan, bicameral
compromise reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
ESEA, for the first time in more than 14 years on the compromise of
local control for Federal safeguards. First enacted more than 50 years
ago as a part of the civil rights era, the ESEA sought to ensure that
all children, regardless of their ZIP Code, were able to obtain a high-
quality education. The legislative process is about compromise, and I
have
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concerns that last Thursday's vote to use the Congressional Review Act
to repeal the Department of Education's ESSA regulations will roll back
that compromise and leave our neediest students without the Federal
safeguards they deserve.
Ensuring access to a high-quality education is one of the most
important duties of Federal, State, and local governments. I supported
ESSA, along with 84 other Members of this body, to move our State and
local school systems away from a 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 rely on a collective set of test scores to measure
student performance as under No Child Left Behind, ESSA allows States
to design accountability systems that will 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 differentiations in
student performance within a school or a local school district. All of
this is being done while ensuring students are held to the high, yet
achievable, standard of being college- and career-ready upon completion
of high school. While State and local school systems have newfound
flexibility under ESSA, they must adhere to a Federal civil rights
safeguards meant to ensure children with disabilities, students of
color, low-income students, and our English language learners are not
forgotten.
Just as the Bush administration led Department of Education provided
after the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, the Obama
administration led Department of Education worked to enact regulations
and provide States with guidance and technical assistance to properly
implement ESSA. After work for nearly a year and feedback from more
than 20,000 education stakeholders, the Department published its final
accountability, State plans, and reporting regulations in November
2016. The regulations provided broad flexibility for State and local
school systems to improve student outcomes in their States and
districts while ensuring all students receive an excellent and well-
rounded education. The regulations provided certainty to States and
local school systems and clarified how to comply with their statutory
requirements.
The Congressional Review Act was the wrong instrument to modify the
Department's accountability regulations. In 2006 and 2008, the Bush
administration led Department of Education responded to concerns
regarding the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act by
education stakeholders and updated the regulations and guidance
necessary for State and local school systems to adhere to the law. Now
that the Congressional Review Act has struck down the existing
regulations, the Department is prohibited from issuing similar
regulations or addressing future implementation concerns raised by
those same stakeholders. Just as we have worked to move away from the
one-size-fits-all Federal solutions under the No Child Left Behind Act,
the Congressional Review Act wrongly utilizes a one-cleaver-eliminates-
all approach. We could not pick and choose which parts of the
regulations we would have wanted to keep, such as the regulation's
additional year for States to implement their State-designed
accountability systems before taking corrective action, all aspects of
the regulation, and nearly a year's worth of the Department's work is
eliminated. School systems will now have to rely on nonlegally binding
guidance from the Department on how to adhere to their statutory
requirements.
In my home State, the Maryland State Department of Education has
worked for more than a year to develop our State's education plan as
required under ESSA. Our State superintendent of schools, Dr. Karen
Salmon, has traversed the State, listening and engaging with
Marylanders who seek to have a voice in their child's education. The
purpose of ESSA was to ensure that we return the ability of our State
and local school systems to provide for the education of our children
in exchange for staying within certain Federal safeguards for our
neediest students. This is what we are doing in Maryland. The concerns
and feedback expressed by Marylanders will be incorporated into a
revised State plan and submitted to the Department of Education later
this year. All of this work to comply with the Department's draft and
final ESSA regulations, all of the consultation with members of the
local community, is now for naught now that the Senate agreed to the
use of the CRA. Our State and States are left with uncertainty as to
how to comply with their statutory Federal requirements. Our States are
clamoring to move away from the uncertainty of the Department's No
Child Left Behind waivers from 2012 and have a clear understanding of
how to comply with Federal law. The elimination of the Department's
accountability regulations further delays the ability of State and
local school systems to move away from No Child Left Behind policies.
Throughout Secretary DeVos's confirmation hearing, the Secretary
repeatedly demonstrated a lack of depth in the longstanding debates
surrounding the education community. I have concerns that Secretary
DeVos, who did not understand the protections afforded to children with
disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
IDEA, would be a forceful advocate to require States and local school
systems to ensure that children with disabilities are counted and not
forgotten. Given Secretary DeVos's expressed support for the
privatization of our Nation's public schools and resistance to
meaningful Federal oversight of nontraditional schools, I have concerns
that any new regulations created by the Department could incentivize
States and local school systems to promote the privatization of low-
performing public schools or set different accountability standards
between public schools and nontraditional schools. These concerns are
not unfounded; Secretary DeVos has already informed States that the
Department will be creating a new template for submitting State plans
outside of what is required under the Department's existing
accountability regulations. Our students need a Secretary of Education
that will uphold Congress's ESSA compromise, local control for Federal
safeguards.
The use of the CRA to repeal the Department's ESSA accountability
regulations provides Secretary DeVos with the ability to significantly
undermine the bipartisan nature of ESSA and Federal safeguards
necessary to protect our students. I am disappointed a majority of my
colleagues voted in favor of this shortsighted measure that fails to
protect our children with disabilities, students of color, low-income
students, and our English language learners.
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