WASHINGTON, DC--U.S. Congressman Rick Allen (R-Ga.-12) today voted to support the bipartisan, bicameral Every Student Succeeds Act. This legislation was approved first by a House and Senate conference committee to replace No Child Left Behind. This legislation passed the House by a vote of 359-64.
“Today the House voted to scale back the presence of Washington in our classrooms by restoring authority to those who know our students best. As we have seen, the current top down and ‘one size fits all’ approach to education is not working. The Every Student Succeeds Act stops federal micromanagement and places new restrictions on the Secretary of Education, but most importantly it allows states and local school districts to address the needs of their students. Teachers, school officials and parents have an ear to the ground each day; they are the ones who know what our schoolchildren need to succeed—not Washington. This legislation is a great step forward from the current, unworkable and ineffective policies of No Child Left Behind, and although this legislation may not be perfect, it is a vast improvement to our current education system.
I am honored to serve on the House Education and Workforce Committee, where I worked with my colleagues to pass the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), which laid the framework for conservative principles in the Every Student Succeeds Act . ”
Key points from the Committee on Education and Workforce for S. 1177 include:
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This legislation reduces the federal role in K-12 education by:
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Repealing the one-size-fits-all federal accountability system;
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Ending the era of federally-mandated high-stakes testing;
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Prohibiting the secretary of education from dictating national education policy or requiring states to adopt Common Core; and
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Repealing 49 ineffective and duplicative programs, as well as reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy.
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This legislation restores local control by:
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Returning responsibility for accountability and school improvement to state and local leaders;
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Providing school districts more funding flexibility to help school leaders better target federal resources on local needs and priorities;
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Protecting the right of state and local leaders to determine what standards, assessments, and curriculum are best for their students; and
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Preserving the right of states to opt-out of federal education programs.
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The legislation empowers parents by:
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Providing parents information about local school performance so they can hold their schools accountable;
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Strengthening the charter schools program and the magnet schools program to offer parents greater school choice;
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Preventing any federal interference in private schools and home schools;
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Prohibiting – for the first time in the history of federal K-12 education policy – the use of federal education funds for abortions; and
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Establishing an equitable per-pupil funding program to provide eligible school districts the ability to allocate federal, state, and local education funds to follow students to the school they attend.
Congressman Allen recently spoke in support of this legislation, to watch his speech click HERE.
