Every Child Achieves Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. I thank the Senator.

Mr. President, the work the Senate is engaged in this week is long overdue. The last time the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was updated was 14 years ago. Congress gave the country No Child Left Behind, a policy that by all accounts has been a failure. That is why in 2012 the Obama administration began offering waivers to States, allowing them to opt out of the coercive and ineffective requirements that No Child Left Behind imposed on America's school districts and classrooms. But State and local school boards quickly learned, just as parents and teachers did, these so-called waivers didn't solve the fundamental problems created by No Child Left Behind; they further entrenched that problem. These weren't waivers in any meaningful sense because they came with a new set of strings attached that only reinforced the authority of Washington, DC, to micromanage the policies and the curriculum of classrooms all around the country. They did not give State and local policymakers the freedom and flexibility to use education funding in a way that would best meet the needs of students and truly empower every child to succeed. No. Instead, they forced teachers, school boards, and State officials to choose between the lesser of two evils--either, on one hand, abide by the Federal mandates of No Child Left Behind or, on the other hand, accept the Federal mandates prescribed by common core and Race to the Top.

The underlying bill we will vote on next week makes the same mistake, and unless it is amended, we can expect it in turn to have the same disappointing results. More kids will be trapped in failing schools, their opportunities in life predetermined by their parents' ZIP Code rather than their God-given talents and their own individual desire to learn and succeed. More teachers can be rewarded on the basis of the number of years they have been on the job rather than on the basis of the number of kids they have helped to graduate. And more parents will regrettably but understandably lose faith in the public education system, knowing it is designed to serve the ideological whims of Federal politicians and Federal bureaucrats instead of the educational needs of their children.

That is why I am here this morning to offer my support and to encourage my colleagues to offer their support for an amendment to the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an amendment that would help us avoid the serious mistakes of the past.

The basic premise, the basic animating principle behind the bill before the Senate, as it now stands, and the basic premise, basic principle behind No Child Left Behind and common core is that when it comes to running the classroom, Washington bureaucrats and politicians know better than America's teachers, parents, and local school boards. The principle behind the A-PLUS amendment is essentially the opposite; that no one is in a better position to make decisions about a child's education than his or her parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, and principals. If you believe in this principle as I do--and as experience instructs all of us to do--then you must support the A-PLUS Act because it empowers every child's parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, and principals to make the greatest impact on their education and on their lives, and it would do so without eliminating any Federal mandates--coercive and ineffective though they may be--and would simply give States the choice to opt out of them, no strings attached.

Here is how the A-PLUS act works. If a State's legislators determine that the Federal Government's approach to education reform has not improved academic achievement in their State, they have an alternative. They can submit to the U.S. Department of Education a declaration of intent outlining their State-directed education reform initiatives. In States that choose to opt out, education officials will no longer have to spend all of their time complying with onerous one-size-fits-all Federal mandates. Instead, they will have the freedom and flexibility to listen and respond to the needs and recommendations of parents, teachers, principals, and school boards. They will be able to make their education funds go further by consolidating programs and funding sources, and they will be able to improve the educational opportunities to disadvantaged children by designing their State's policies to be more responsive and more targeted.

This amendment isn't about States' rights so much as it is about children's rights, such as the right to a good education. It would secure those rights by empowering America's teachers and parents to pursue innovative policies, such as charter schools and school vouchers and pay-for-success initiatives that have proven to be successful in classrooms all around the country.

The bill the Senate will vote on next week may be well-intentioned in its reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but it misdiagnoses the problem of the status quo. Our education system needs to be reformed, not in spite of excessive Federal control but because of it. The A-PLUS Act recognizes this fact, and it takes critical steps to rebuild our education policy around it.

I urge my colleagues to support the A-PLUS amendment. The success of America's children depends upon it.

I thank my friend and distinguished colleague from Montana and yield my time back to him.

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