The federal government has more control over elementary and secondary education than ever before, with top-down, government-knows-best rules, regulations, and policies. They dictate how states and school districts gauge school performance, spend limited taxpayer dollars, and hire and fire teachers. House Republicans passed a solution that puts the power back into the hands of parents and teachers, allowing them to make the decisions that best suits their children.
The Student Success Act (H.R. 5) is a conservative proposal to replace No Child Left Behind and stop the federal government from running K-12 schools through executive fiat with policies like Common Core. Here is how the Student Success Act is going to help achieve an education that supports and empowers the students:
The Student Success Act prohibits:
-Any agent of the federal government – including the Secretary of Education – from coercing states into adopting Common Core (or other specific standards) through waivers, federal grants, or any other authority;
-The Secretary of Education from creating additional burdens on states and school districts, particularly in the areas of standards, assessments, and accountability plans; and
-The Secretary of Education from exercising authority he does not have by reforming the regulatory process.
The Student Success Act eliminates:
-The current one-size-fits-all national accountability metric that dictates school improvement and turnaround strategies;
-Programs the Secretary of Education has used to coerce states to adopt his preferred policies, including Race to the Top;
-Sixty-nine ineffective, duplicative, and unnecessary programs and requires a reduction in the department’s workforce by the amount of staff assigned to the eliminated programs.
The Student Success Act protects:
-State and local autonomy over accountability, spending, hiring, standards, curriculum, and assessments;
-State sovereignty by safeguarding the right of states to opt out of any program under the law;
-Parental control over their children’s education by encouraging transparency, flexibility, and choice;
-Parents and taxpayers’ right to know whether schools are effectively teaching their children; and
It’s simple: Parents should be able to choose the best school for their children to attend. Communities should be able to choose the best curriculum to teach. And students should be able to learn and reach their full potential.
