Rep. Scott Garrett Fights for Local Accountability in Education

Press Release

Rep. Scott Garrett Fights for Local Accountability in Education

Today, U.S. Representative Scott Garrett (NJ-5) introduced the Local Education Authority Returns Now (LEARN) Act, an education bill that enables states to opt out of the costly and burdensome No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law.

Rep.Garrett stated "My bill gives control back to the parents, the teachers, and the local elected officials, allowing them to pursue local and state educational initiatives based on what they believe will best help their students. This means that states and local school districts can set their own standards, enforce their own penalties for failure, and establish their own goals for teachers and students."

The LEARN Act allows states that are unhappy with the burdensome regulations and mandates of NCLB to opt-out of the program. Residents of those states would receive a tax credit equal to the amount that they would have otherwise received in federal funding. Currently, states are forced to participate in the burdensome federal education mandates unless they are willing to give up the federal education funding that goes with No Child Left Behind. Under the LEARN Act, if New Jersey decided to opt out of NCLB, its taxpayers would receive an estimated $318,990,166 in tax credits.

"If we are truly interested in improving public education in America, we need to remove Washington bureaucrats from the equation and return the control and accountability to local communities where they can affectively make change in the areas they know it is needed the most," concluded Rep. Scott Garrett.

Currently thirty four members of Congress have co-sponsored the LEARN Act.

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