U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) praised the chamber’s passage of the Every Child Achieves Act late last week.
The legislation would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), essentially returning decision making regarding education standards and curriculum to local and state governments. The bill also would end the Obama administration’s current practice of pressuring states to adopt federal Common Core education standards through financial and other incentives.
“I’m pleased the Senate has passed this bill that will permanently end Washington’s Common Core mandate and give decisions about what children are taught back to the local and state level,” Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Education Committee, said. “This legislation will restore the responsibility of decision making back to states, local school districts, superintendents, principals, teachers, local school boards, parents and especially students.”
The Every Child Achieves Act passed the Senate by a vote of 81-17. The House passed a similar version of the bill last week. The two measures will be combined in conference before heading to the president’s desk.
The Every Child Achieves Act includes Roberts’ Learning Opportunities Created at the Local (LOCAL) Level Act. Roberts praised Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) for his hard work shepherding the bill through the legislative process and “for including my (LOCAL) language because it will prohibit the administration from finding additional ways to promote a state’s adoption of Common Core.
“We can finally say goodbye to federal interference in what we teach our children in school,” Roberts said
Roberts has represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate
since 1997. Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1936, Roberts previously served as a member of the U.S. House from 1981 to 1997. Roberts was educated at Kansas State University. Roberts serves on the following committees:
Standing Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (chairman); Finance Committee; Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Select Committee on Ethics; Committee on Rules and Administration.