Thornberry votes for education overhaul

U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) voted yesterday in support of a bill that would return many of the decision-making responsibilities in education back to the states by reauthorizing and reforming the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The Student Success Act, H.R. 5, passed the House by a vote of 218-213.

The bill would remove one-size-fits-all federal education standards, eliminate a number of federal mandates, empower local schools and officials, and enhance school accountability. It gives local schools more flexibility in using the federal funds they receive for the district’s individual needs.

“Bureaucrats in Washington cannot replace the first-hand experience and understanding that our local teachers and parents have of the needs of students throughout our area,” said Thornberry. “Education standards should be determined by the individual states and school districts to ensure that the academic standards are best tailored to local schools and their students. Too often, Washington thinks it can and should dictate policy at all levels of government, and those policies often come at the expense of our communities and the American people.”

The Student Success Act improves K-12 education by:

• Returning responsibility for measuring student and school performance to the states and school districts rather than using the current national system based on high stakes tests;
• Repealing more than 65 ineffective, duplicative, and unnecessary programs and replacing them with a Local Academic Flexible Grant for schools to better support students;
• Prohibiting the Secretary of Education from coercing states into adopting Common Core or any other common standards or assessments, as well as reining in the Secretary’s regulatory authority; and
• Strengthening existing efforts to improve student performance among targeted student populations, including English learners and homeless children.

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