Letter to the Honorable John King, Secretary of the Department of Education - ESSA: Murray, Scott Continue Push to Ensure New Education Law Works for Every Student, Strengthens Equity of Educational Opportunity

Letter

In negotiating the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) with our colleagues, we fought to preserve the Department of Education's (Department) full regulatory authority to promulgate rules and issue guidance. We applaud the Department's notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on 34 CFR parts 200 and 299 for balancing ESSA's strong and clearly articulated federal guardrails with the new law's flexibility for state and local decision-making.

The Department's unique role in upholding the civil rights legacy of this law is critical to ensure implementation honors Congressional intent that states and local educational agencies sufficiently support improving outcomes for the nation's disadvantaged students, including through improving equity of educational opportunity. While Congress replaced much of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with new statutory requirements in ESSA, the new law maintains the historic and bipartisan focus of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on improving educational outcomes for our nation's disadvantaged students, including low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, and English learners. In putting forth the proposed regulations, the Department employed its regulatory authority to articulate parameters that will empower states and school districts to use the new flexibility that ESSA affords In particular, we applaud the Department's efforts to clarify statutory requirements that will help states build new accountability systems that are focused on student learning and equity of educational opportunity and are transparent and actionable for educators, parents, and communities. Regulatory clarity of this nature will help ensure that additional resources reach high-need schools that need support to prepare all students for college and career.

The following is broken down into an addendum of draft regulatory provisions that we applaud and urge you to maintain in the final regulation, followed by draft provisions on which we seek additional clarity or correction to more closely align the final regulation with Congressional intent. Thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to continued partnership to ensure effective implementation of ESSA that honors Congressional intent to protect and promote the right of every child to receive an education that prepares him or her for success in college and career.

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