As the presidential race started out, Common Core was seen by many as a divisive issue in the Republican party. Jeb Bush’s full-throated support of the program was seen as a vulnerability by many primary watchers. As the race has gone however, Common Core and some other domestic policy issues have taken a backseat as Donald Trump brought immigration to the fore and events on the international scene, such as terrorist attacks, at home and abroad, have put foreign affairs more in the spotlight.
That does not mean however that legislators in Washington D.C. are not working on certain issues. Last week, the House voted to approve the Every Child Achieves Act on a bipartisan vote of 359-64. The bill is meant to amend the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, pushed through during the first term of George W. Bush. According to the official summary, the Every Childs Achieves Act, or the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), “provides states with increased flexibility and responsibility for developing accountability systems, deciding how federally required tests should be weighed, selecting additional measures of student and school performance, and implementing teacher evaluation systems.”
Strange bedfellows came out against No Child Left Behind and strange bedfellows have come out again in support of its reform. Much of the criticism from the conservative side of the aisle of No Child Left Behind resulted from the central role of the Federal government in implementing the program. The ESSA attempts to move some of this oversight back to the states. Teachers unions and other more left-leaning groups objected to No Child Left Behind’s strategy of teacher evaluation based on students testing results. The president of the National Educators Association Lily Garcia, issued a statement in praise of the legislation prior to the House vote. The NEA president noted in particular the reduction of standardized testing and making sure educators’ voices are part of the process.
“In particular, the bill includes student and school supports in state accountability plans to create an opportunity ‘dashboard’; reduces the amount of standardized testing in schools and decouples high-stakes decision making and statewide standardized tests; and ensures that educators’ voices are part of decision making at the federal, state and local levels,” said Garcia.
Not all groups were supportive of the new bill though. Heritage Action for America, a conservative group that prominently scores legislators on their fealty to conservative principles, came out strongly against the reforms. Calling it a re-authorization of No Child Left Behind, Heritage took issue with the length of the reforms, through FY2020, effectively taking reform out of the hands of the next president. The bill also did not do away entirely with the testing requirements, did not freeze K-12 spending and retreats on school choice measures.
Georgia legislators were nearly unanimous in their support of the bill. Buddy Carter was pleased that teachers and parents were able to recover some power from the “Washington-knows best mentality.”
“This guts the federal government’s ability to dictate how children are taught and puts families, teachers and communities in the driver’s seat,” Carter said in a statement. “All children learn differently and at their own pace and they should not be punished for this because of one-size-fits-all standards. I am proud to support this agreement today to prohibit the Obama Administration’s federally prescribed education standards and end Washington’s intrusion into our nation’s classrooms.”
Jody Hice and Barry Loudermilk were the lone Georgia congressmen to vote against the bill. The two conservative congressmen are facing pressure from many groups to maintain their status as conservative outsiders. The vote did not receive much attention from the wider media as the presidential race sucks up much of the coverage but the issue may come up again in next year’s Congressional primaries. For Hice and Loudermilk at least, this issue is off the primary challenger table.
