[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19734-19739]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 19735]]

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 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

[[Page 19736]]

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 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

[[Page 19737]]

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, 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

[[Page 19738]]

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.
  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.

[[Page 19739]]

  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.

                          ____________________