SENATE VOTES TO END DEBATE ON NCLB REWRITE, REJECTS LEE’S AMENDMENT ALLOWING PARENT OPT-OUTS FROM TESTS

The Senate voted to end debate on the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) Wednesday, 86-12, allowing for a final vote on Thursday on the measure that is that chamber’s version of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law.

An amendment to the bill, introduced by 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)

100%

, that would have allowed parents to opt their children out of standardized tests, was rejected by the Senate Tuesday by a vote of 32-64.

Lee’s amendment would have allowed parents to opt their children out of standardized tests in writing, without causing any penalty to the parent, the child, any school leader or employee, or the school itself.

In addition, the amendment would have also allowed states to implement their own opt-out criteria for additional state and/or local assessments.

“Parents, not politicians or bureaucrats, will have the final say over whether individual children take tests,” Lee said, according to the Washington Post, regarding his amendment.

The ECAA was introduced by 

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

24%

, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees education, who worked closely with ranking committee member and co-sponsor 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)

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.

Alexander himself voted to reject Lee’s amendment allowing parents the opt-out right, asserting that the amendment would remove the right of states to decide whether parents should be allowed to opt their children out of tests.

“I say to my Republican friends, do we only agree with local control when we agree with the local policy?” Alexander asked.

Writing at Townhall, Jane Robbins and Heidi Huber observed recently that, despite Alexander’s claim that his legislation would provide more parental and local control of education, it “doesn’t ignore the ‘opt out’ movement – in fact, it adds language that effectively encourages the states to lower the boom on noncompliant students and parents.”

Via: Breitbart

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Republican Senator: Ted Kennedy ‘Set a Wonderful Example for Us’

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio) stand behind President Bush as he signs the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. (White House photo)

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Lamar Alexander (R.-Tenn.) said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass) set a wonderful example for other senators.

“He set a wonderful example for us, and it is nice to be reminded of him,” said Sen. Alexander.

Alexander’s remarks came while the Senate was discussing his proposal to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act that imposes federal regulations and sends federal money to local public schools. The initial No Child Left Behind Act was co-sponsored by Kennedy and Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and signed into law in 2002 by President George W. Bush.

During Wednesday’s debate on the No Child Left Behind Act--while discussing whether the law should be amended to require local public schools to do a criminal background check on applicants for teaching jobs--Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) recalled that Sen. Kennedy had once been placed on the terrorist No-Fly List:

“It wasn’t that many years ago, our colleagues may remember, that our colleague Senator Ted Kennedy ended up on a no-fly list. He kept saying: Why am I on a no-fly list? It was a mistake. It was a government mistake that identified him as a danger to the country. Mistakes can be made. There needs to be a due process requirement in here so those accused of something that they are not guilty of have a chance to have their day to tell their story as best they can.”

Following on this, Sen. Alexander recalled what “a wonderful example” Sen. Kennedy had been:

“I thank the Senator from Illinois for his remarks. I was thinking, as he was talking about Senator Kennedy, whom we all loved, I think the mistake was that he was on a Republican no-fly list. That was the mistake. But he loved telling that story and enjoyed it very much. It is nice to be reminded of him today because he was chairman of this committee that is producing the fix for No Child Left Behind.

"He would make, in my view, the most outrageous liberal speeches from the back of the Senate, and then he would come to the front of the Senate and would work out a good bipartisan agreement and get a good piece of legislation. He set a wonderful example for us, and it is nice to be reminded of him.

Via: CNS News

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How We Can Stop The Expansion of the Federal Government Into Our Classrooms

Innovation starts locally – not in Washington.

Yet, over the past few years, we have witnessed the unprecedented expansion of the federal government into our classrooms.

Decades of regulations, mandates and rules have been piling up on our educators, but failing to improve our students’ education.

Congress is set to reconsider, and potentially reauthorize, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

This law outlines federal programs for K-12 education and was last reauthorized in 2002 as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which further expanded Washington’s intrusion in our schools by creating new federal mandates.

No Child Left Behind also expired in 2007.

This means the Obama administration has been able to operate without certain limitations and has strong-armed states into complying with its liberal education agenda.

Thankfully, we have the opportunity to get Uncle Sam out of the business of micromanaging our schools from the top-down and return control to our local families, educators and officials.

This week in the House, my colleagues and I are revisiting the way Washington approaches our K-12 federal education policy with consideration of H.R. 5, the Student Success Act.

This bill repeals and reforms many failed education policies like the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) mandate, but I challenge that we can do even better for our children and future generations.

Conservatives have the largest majority in Congress that we have had in years, and we have a real opportunity to stand against Washington’s culture of bureaucracy and make a difference in our federal approach to education — let’s ensure we truly return education decisions back to the local-level.

Via: Daily SIgnal

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Mitch McConnell Outsourcing Everything, Including His Job

No, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t officially resign from the Senate.  He will still engage in all legislative activities that advance Obama’s agenda, such as Obamatrade, the highway trust fund bailout, Export-Import Bank, and reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.  But he did publicly outsource the last vestige of constitutional checks on the two unelected branches of government.  So what is the purpose of serving in the legislative branch of government other than to enrich your friends with pay-for-play favors? 

We already know that McConnell doesn’t believe in the congressional power of the purse under any circumstance – no matter how unlawful and harmful this Administration grows in its final two years.  Now he is surrendering every remaining legislative check on the Judiciary as well, and worse, he is openly welcoming the extremists in the Judicial Branch to serve as judge, jury, and executioner over religious liberty.  

McConnell builds up the straw-man option of a constitutional amendment only to knock it down by observing that it will never pass.

McConnell is one of those GOP leaders who would successfully secure the support of credulous and ineffective social conservatives groups for years by saying he was for traditional values.  Yet over the past decade he has remained stone silent in the face of the most unconstitutional assaults on natural law and religious liberty, including the assault on federalism, when his own hand-picked judge illegally tossed out his state’s marriage law. A law, which passed with the support of 75% of the people.  Now he is emphatically saying that the lawless Supreme Court decision, which is precluded by the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and precedent from several recent court cases, is the “law of the land.” He told Politico that they are out of legislative options and that it’s time to move on, presumably, to more important things…like reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.   

McConnell builds up the straw-man option of a constitutional amendment only to knock it down by observing that it will never pass.  But he refuses to even recognize the Article III powers that Congress has to strip the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction over these issues and to completely regulate and remake the lower courts.  These are initiatives that can pass with a GOP president the same way he plans to pass his K Street agenda.

But it gets worse.

While offering a parsimonious recognition of the need to protect religious liberty, McConnell outsources our most inherent founding rights to…you guessed it…the very same courts that don’t believe in them and are even ripping replicas of the Ten Commandments from state capitals as we speak.

“There’s the possibility of legislation, but I think most of this is going to be in the courts.” With these words, McConnell has just granted the courts the authority to regulate the very foundational inherent rights we celebrate this year in marking the 239^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

Sadly, this is nothing new.  McConnell refused to nullify the D.C. anti-religious liberty laws, which he could have done with a simple-majority vote.  Yet, he says his hands are tied in responding to last week’s bloodless revolution.

Via: Conservative Review

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Nevada’s Common Core Tests Turn Into Costly Fiasco

A new, online standardized test designed to test Nevada schoolchildren on Common Core standards has been a huge fiasco in its first year, with the vast majority of students unable to event complete the test. The failure could expose the state to federal sanctions.

Under No Child Left Behind, states are supposed to test children in grades 3-8 each year in mathematics and reading. At least 95 percent of students must take the tests, or else a state can face federal sanctions such as a loss of millions of dollars in funds.

Nevada, on the other hand, was only able to test 37 percent of the 213,000 students it was supposed to, thanks to a cascade of glitches and computer problems that left students unable to complete their exams. In Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas metro area and over half the state’s students, only 5 percent were successfully tested.

Because so few were tested, Nevada’s department of education says it will be unable to issue grades for individual schools based on performance, like it is supposed to. The failure means Nevada is at risk of losing millions in federal funding, but such sanctions are unlikely in this case because the state made an honest effort that simply undone by technical shortfalls.

Blame for the fiasco is being placed squarely with the groups chosen to produce Nevada’s tests: the Smarter Balanced testing consortium, which is supposed to organize similar Common Core tests for member states, and the company it hired, Measured Progress. Measured Progress attempted to administer its test entirely via computer, but its servers were not up to the task of handling thousands of test-takers at once. Despite providing schools a testing window of nearly three months to avoid overloading, there were still repeated crashes that left students unable to make any progress. In response, Nevada has accused Measured Progress of breaching its $4 million contract with the state.

Even though it designed the tests, Measured Progress has tried to deflect the blame, pointing a finger back at Smarter Balanced instead. They claim the consortium provided an online testing platform which proved to be inadequate and unpredictable.

Via: Daily Caller

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Chart of the Week: How Many Edu-crats Does Your State Have?

Federal laws and regulations such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) levy a mighty bureaucratic compliance burden on state departments of education.

A recent report conducted by The Heritage Foundation finds that state departments of education on average have 142 employees per million state residents.

To manage the decades of federal growth and the corresponding paperwork burden placed on states, state departments of education have staff to manage the hundreds of hoops and federal regulations requiring them to demonstrate compliance with federal programs and mandates.

Via: The Foundry

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