[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11348-11349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        EVERY CHILD ACHIEVES ACT

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, on the floor now when we return for 
debate is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which has been 
named the Every Child Achieves Act, and is before the Senate this week. 
We may finish it. The issue is our opportunity on a periodic basis to 
debate the future of K-12 education in America. Millions of Americans 
follow this debate. It affects their local schools and school 
districts.
  It was under President George W. Bush that there was an amazing bill 
passed called the No Child Left Behind Act. What was amazing, 
politically, was that President Bush--a Republican and a conservative--
called for a larger role by the Federal Government in evaluating school 
districts and teachers and in deciding whether they were succeeding. It 
was controversial from the start. Ultimately, we have moved away from 
it.
  This new bill takes a much different approach. Instead of testing, 
testing, testing and grading school districts, we are basically 
shifting the responsibility back to the States to do this. It remains 
to be seen whether this is or will be an improvement.
  We learned a lot under No Child Left Behind when we took a close look 
at test scores. To say what the average test score is at a school meant 
very little--or nothing--when we broke out the students at the school 
and found out that some were doing exceedingly well and some not so 
well at all. We could find groups of students--some minority groups, 
for example--who were not doing very well at school, but the other kids 
might have brought the scores up. So now, by disaggregating scores, we 
can target our efforts and make sure that some students have a fighting 
chance.
  It remains to be seen, under this Every Child Achieves Act, whether 
we have gone far enough or too far in shifting the responsibility back 
to the States.
  I will mention very briefly, because I see my friend and colleague 
from Vermont on the floor, that there is one amendment here that I have 
offered with Senator Capito. This bipartisan amendment would require 
States to include information on their State report cards about 
postsecondary enrollment rates at public and State institutions. It 
will allow States to go further and include information on private, 
public, and out-of-State enrollment as well. It would encourage States 
to produce and publish data on remediation rates on students, so we can 
better understand which high schools are truly preparing their students 
for postsecondary education. Much of the data is already collected by 
the States. So the additional burden would be minimal.
  Ensuring students coming out of high school are college and career 
ready is an important goal of the bill. Our commonsense bipartisan 
amendment would help track whether that goal is being met.
  The amendment is supported by the Business Roundtable, Leadership 
Conference on Civil Rights, Education Trust, National Center for 
Learning Disabilities, National Council of La Raza, the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce, and America Forward.
  There is one other amendment I have, and I will close on this. When 
it relates to high school athletics, many of us are concerned about the 
incidents of concussions occurring in sporting events. I filed an 
amendment based on my Protecting Student Athletes from

[[Page 11349]]

Concussions Act. It is supported by the American Academy of Neurology, 
American College of Sports Medicine, Illinois High School Association, 
NCAA, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National 
Football League, National Hockey League, and many others.
  It directs States to develop concussion safety plans for public 
schools to protect student athletes from this dangerous injury. Most 
importantly, it would require the adoption of a ``when in doubt, sit it 
out'' policy, promoted by the medical community. This means that a 
student athlete suspected of a concussion would be removed from play 
and prohibited from returning to play that same day, no matter what. It 
doesn't make any difference how much he pleads or what the score of the 
game is or who is sitting in the stands. If you think you have evidence 
of a concussion, be safe. Don't put that student athlete back on the 
field.
  It would take the decision on when to put an injured athlete back in 
the game out of the hands of the coach, the athlete, and the parents. 
While I don't believe we will be able to get the adoption of the full 
amendment, I am pleased that a substitute includes a clear statement 
that allows funds to be used to develop these policies. I thank 
Chairman Alexander and Senator Murray for working with us to include 
that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, my dear friend, the senior Senator from 
Kansas, is going to speak next, but he has graciously allowed me to 
have the very few minutes I asked for, and then he will be recognized 
as soon as I give my statement.
  (The remarks of Mr. Leahy pertaining to the submission of S. Res. 222 
are printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Mr. LEAHY. I yield the floor, and I thank the Senator from Kansas.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I thank my colleague. I hope he gets 
better from his cold. He did our sports presentation for us this 
morning. Maybe he could do the sports news for us every morning.
  Mr. LEAHY. If the Senator will yield, it is not a cold. There are a 
few more pollens in the air that we Vermonters are not used to.
  Mr. ROBERTS. I understand.

                          ____________________