Every Child Achieves Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I rise again to encourage all of our colleagues to support this vote to move us to a negotiated conclusion to this very important bill.

I thank the senior Senator from Tennessee, as well as the majority leader, for working with us to get this agreement so we can continue moving forward in a bipartisan way to get this done.

Across the country, students, parents, teachers, and communities are really counting on us to fix No Child Left Behind. I have been very pleased to work with Chairman Alexander on this bipartisan bill called the Every Child Achieves Act.

This bill will give our States more flexibility, but it will also include some Federal guardrails to make sure all of our students do have access to quality education. It passed through our committee unanimously and, for the past week or so, we have made good progress on the Senate floor.

There is still some work to be done. There are a number of amendments that we will be voting on this afternoon and into tomorrow. The senior Senator from Pennsylvania is offering a very important amendment I support to expand high-quality early childhood education.

We have an amendment that we will be voting on to strengthen the Federal guardrails. It is the accountability amendment from Senators Murphy, Booker, Warren, and Coons to help make sure all of our kids, especially our most vulnerable students, have what they need.

There are many more amendments, as you know, from Democrats and Republicans, to finish this bill, but I urge our colleagues to vote yes on cloture. We are finishing this bill and working to make sure that we can fix a broken law.

I will have more to say about the amendments as we go through the process. But at this moment, I urge all of our colleagues to support this vote, continue this bipartisan process, and let's work to get this bill done.

I yield the floor.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, our Nation has always held the ideal of providing education for all, but a half century ago we put that ideal into action with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or ESEA. That law aimed to close education gaps between rich and poor, Black and White, kids from rural areas, and kids from big cities.

Today, we are debating an amendment to strengthen accountability in our bill to reauthorize ESEA to do even more by making sure schools are delivering on the promise of quality and equality to every student in America.

Across the country, too many schools today have failed too many of our children for too long, and that has to change. Now our bipartisan bill removes the unrealistic goals and one-size-fits-all mandates of No Child Left Behind. But we can still have strong accountability without going back to those requirements.

Senator Murphy's amendment, which we will be voting on shortly, will shine a light on the persistent inequality and achievement gap that still exists and do something about it, and it would ensure that we make sure children from low-income backgrounds, the kids of color, the students who are still learning English, and students with disabilities have access to a high-quality education.

Under his amendment, States would identify the bottom 5 percent of schools, States would identify the high schools that are failing to graduate one-third or more of their students, and States would identify schools that have failed to help subgroups of students make progress.

Now, of course, accountability is about more than just identifying the schools and districts that need help. We have to make sure those schools get the resources they need. The Every Child Achieves Act allows districts to design interventions tailored to the individual needs of low-performing schools. This amendment doesn't change that, but this amendment would give parents, teachers, and communities important measures to hold schools accountable for delivering a quality education to every child.

I will also note that in our bipartisan bill, we have done a lot to help the adults in this school get the support they need from professional development to easing the burden on school administrators. I was very proud to work on all of those provisions. But this amendment isn't about the adults. It is about the children in our schools. So I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the Murphy amendment so we can do even more to make sure all of our students learn, no matter where they live or how they learn or how much money their parents make.

Let's fix No Child Left Behind. Let's continue to improve this bill by strengthening accountability, and let's reaffirm our Nation's commitment to providing a quality education to every student in America.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, every once in a while you meet an individual who thinks bigger than themselves, rises above challenges with grace, is driven by a passion to better the world around them and, most importantly, is a truly wonderful human being. I have come across many advocates and community leaders in my career, but Dr. Elson Floyd was exceptional. He was a giant in Washington State's higher education community. He inspired countless students and teachers and many across the State as Washington State University's president. I can only imagine what else he would have accomplished had his life not been cut painfully short.

For 8 years, I have had the privilege to work with Dr. Floyd in his role as the beloved president of my alma mater, Washington State University. He was one of our Nation's most successful advocates for affordable and accessible higher education. I always admired his dedication to his students, his passion for education, and his desire to make a great university even better.

The last time I spoke with Dr. Floyd a few months ago, he spoke of the bright future of Washington State University and the innovative steps the institution was taking to provide high-quality education to its students.

As we look back now on the life and legacy of Dr. Elson Floyd, we will remember how he led WSU through a trying economic recession by tirelessly advocating for investments in higher education as a path to the middle class and how he doubled the enrollment of students of color. We will remember how he skillfully convinced our State legislature to allow the university to begin building the State's second medical school at Washington State University-Spokane. And, most importantly, we will remember how, through a warm handshake to visiting alumni or a comforting hug to a student, he always had a way of making those around him feel welcome.

I hope to honor Dr. Floyd's memory by striving every day to better our higher education system with the enthusiasm and the warmth he emanated as a tireless advocate for Washington State students.

There is so much we can all learn from his work, and I know his legacy will continue to live on in Washington State and across the higher education community.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

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