On Thursday, in a somewhat rare bill-signing ceremony underscoring how unpopular the law had become, President Barack Obama signed the Every Child Succeeds Act as a replacement. John Kline (R-Minn.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), all of whom were on stage with the president.
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President Obama had said as recently as July that he could not support the bills then moving through the House and Senate.
Alexander was a chief author of the bill along with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.
The Senate voted 85 to 12 on Wednesday to give final approval to the Every Student Succeeds Act (S.1177), a bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
It would also encourage states to set limits on the total amount of time kids spend taking tests and would end federal efforts to tie test scores to teacher evaluations. The feds pushed standardized testing, making sure students met certain achievement levels. One of the ways that No Child Left Behind failed, in my view, was that it set very high expectations but didn’t actually give the local school districts the tools to get to those expectations.
“We had a Tennessee mindset in the development of the actual law, and I think that is beneficial to us as a state”, said True.
By comparison, the Every Student Succeeds Act, the president said, will put the United States in a better position to compete with other nations. “We can create and do the things we know are going to work better for our state, ‘” Capito said of the legislation on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline”. Instead, it allows states to decide how to intervene with low-performing schools without requiring a waiver from the federal government to do it.
In a statement after the bill signing, state superintendent Sherri Ybarra hailed ESSA as a “fresh start” for Idaho schools.
Garrison believes her students will succeed more with this new law and is excited to see them excel.
States will also determine how they want districts to go about turning around struggling schools.
“It wasn’t long after the law was passed that we realized it was full of flaws”, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said to CNN. Since 2012, the administration has offered grants through its Race to the Top program for states that adopted strong academic standards for its students. Under No Child Left Behind, schools that performed poorly were subject to federal sanctions that ranged from hiring more tutors to closing a school.
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“I am hopeful that ESSA will ultimately deliver increased control of our education system to the state of Arizona and our local schools and districts”.
