Student Success Act

Floor Speech

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the legislation on the Floor today, a missed opportunity to reform our education system and ensure that every student has access to a high quality education.

We should be working in a bipartisan manner to correct the widely-acknowledged flaws of No Child Left Behind and make the law more fair, flexible, and responsive to the needs of students. Instead, the bill before us shortchanges our schools and eliminates supports for our most vulnerable populations.

We should be providing the resources our schools need to fix the achievement gap and put a good, supported teacher in every classroom. Instead, today's bill locks in post-sequestration funding levels for K-12 education and cuts back on professional development.

We should be setting high expectations for our schools and giving States flexibility to create accountability systems that improve achievement for every student. Instead, this legislation eliminates requirements for districts to fix struggling schools and ensure that all students make it to graduation.

We should be providing additional support for students with additional challenges--students with disabilities, English-language learners, and at-risk youth. Instead, we have a bill that allows funds to be directed away from these students and allows all students with disabilities to be taught at a lower standard.

We should be encouraging innovation in the classroom, empowering teachers and allowing charter schools to test new ideas. But while this bill would expand charter school availability, it does not require those schools to be accountable or transparent with taxpayer dollars.

Mr. Chair there are many missed opportunities in this bill. It continues the exclusive focus on math and reading, with no support for STEM, geography, history, the arts, or other subjects that provide a well-rounded education. It eliminates funding for afterschool programs and wraparound services that ensure students are prepared to learn.

Our students, teachers, and parents deserve better than this bill. We should come together in a bipartisan fashion, as we have always done with education in the past, to develop real reform that gives our students the skills they need to succeed in our 21st century global economy.

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