U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) reiterated on Monday that the Every Child Achieves Act will end the Obama administration’s practice of using waivers to incentivize states to adopt its federal Common Core standards.
The Senator fought hard to include language within the measure that will permanently remove the federal government’s ability to use any tool of coercion to force states to adopt Common Core, or any other set of curriculum or performance standards.
“Decisions about what children are taught are best made on the local level as close to parents as possible,” Roberts told fellow members of the Senate. ”The federal government should not have overriding influence over state and local education decisions. Unfortunately in recent years, this has not been the case.”
In its essence, the Every Child Achieves Act reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which has been due for reactivation for the last seven years.
The Learning Opportunities Created At the Local Level Act, a bill drawn up by Roberts earlier this year, was included as part of the Every Child Achieves Act. The bill preserves autonomy for each state regarding education by prohibiting the federal government from coercing states to adopt blanketing federal education standards such as Common Core.
“We need to get the federal government out of the classroom, and return community decisions back to where they belong — in the community,” Roberts added. “We have the first opportunity in 25 years to restore decision making back to states, local school districts, superintendents, principals, teachers, local school boards, parents and especially students. If the Every Child Achieves Act becomes law, we can finally say goodbye to federal interference in what we teach our kids in school.”