Hudson Votes to End No Child Left Behind, Common Core

Statement

Today U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (NC-08) voted to end Washington's mandate on Common Core and end No Child Left Behind.

"By using taxpayer dollars to coerce states to adopt Common Core, this administration has pursued unprecedented measures to strengthen its hold on our local classrooms. Today's vote to end Common Core is the linchpin in getting Washington's bureaucrats out of our local classrooms and returning control back to teachers, parents and students.

"As the son of a retired Cabarrus County public school teacher, I realize this is the first step and will continue to fight to get the federal government out of our classrooms and ensure our schools can continue to build an environment where every student has the opportunity to succeed. While today's legislation is not perfect, it is a bipartisan step forward to end No Child Left Behind and improve education by reducing federal involvement, restoring local control, and increasing individual opportunity for students."

Today the House passed the bipartisan, bicameral Every Student Succeeds Act (S. 1177), the largest return of control to states and localities from the federal government in a quarter-century. It is a proposal approved by a House and Senate conference committee to end No Child Left Behind, block Common Core by stopping the federal government's extortion, and empower states, local communities, teachers and parents to make the best decisions for students by:

· Prohibiting the Secretary of Education from incentivizing, forcing or coercing states into adopting Common Core. In addition, no agent of the federal government -- including the secretary -- can interfere with the right of a state to develop or change its own standards or assessments.

· Placing new and unprecedented restrictions on the authority of the Secretary of Education. The agreement rejects policies and programs the secretary has used to coerce states to adopt Common Core, including waivers of K-12 education law and Race to the Top.

· Preventing the secretary from imposing additional burdens on states and school districts through the regulatory process in areas of standards, assessments, and state accountability plans.

· Repealing the one-size-fits all federal accountability system, known as "Adequate Yearly Progress" or AYP while restoring to state and local leaders the responsibility for holding schools accountable and ending the era of federally-mandated high-stakes testing.

· Repealing 49 ineffective, duplicative, and top-down federal programs. The agreement helps clean up a confusing maze of K-12 education programs and requires the secretary to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy accordingly.

· Holding the line on no new pre-k programs and instead relocating to the Department of Health and Human Services an existing program using existing resources to promote better coordination and alignment across state and federal pre-k initiatives.

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