Washington, D.C. — Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved the Every Child Achieves Act, legislation introduced by Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
Committee consideration of the Every Child Achieves Act resulted in important changes to the bill designed to help curb overtesting, allow more students to benefit from additional learning time, and empower teachers to take on leadership roles. The bill does not do enough to address the educational needs of low-income students, students of color, or those students stuck in our lowest-performing schools. There are no requirements for states to support and intervene in perpetually failing schools or in schools with consistent achievement gaps. The bill does nothing to fix our broken school finance system, which permits millions of low-income students to attend systematically underfunded schools. The bill also fails to provide meaningful investments in high-quality early childhood education.
As the bill moves to the floor, the Senate should strengthen accountability, support efforts to turn around chronically failing schools, make our school funding systems more equitable, and invest in high-quality early childhood education. Educators, parents, and students have waited years since NCLB was passed not just to get a new law, but to get the right law that moves us toward greater educational equity and excellence.
Click here to see CAP’s resources and research on ESEA reauthorization.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.