Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

H.R. 1911, the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013 passed the House on July 9, 2013, with our support. The bill became Public Law No: 113-28. It establishes limits for interest rates on new student loans made on or after July 1, 2013.

H.R. 5, the Student Success Act, passed the House on July 19, 2013, 221-207, with our support. This legislation is pending approval by the Senate. If enacted, it would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for each of the Fiscal Years 2014-2019, at the Fiscal Year 2013 funding levels. Under title 1 of the bill, the Secretary of Education would be prohibited from attempting to influence the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (Common Core). Common Core is a state-led effort, which aims to set educational standards in language arts and mathematics for kindergarten through 12th grade. Common Core is led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and it was adopted by North Carolina in 2010.

Although Common Core is a state voluntary program, many people are concerned that this standardization may lead to the federalization of school curricula. Others have privacy-related concerns with the federal use of student's personal information. While publicized as state-led, federal funding for the Obama administration's school reform initiative, Race to the Top, is effectively tied to state adoption of Common Core.

We believe education standards should be determined by the individual states, and school districts, in order to ensure that the academic standards are best tailored to the needs of students.

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