Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend from North Carolina.

I am happy to cosponsor this amendment. I think of this amendment in terms of Common Core because we have had a lot of controversy over Common Core. A lot of parents are upset about it, and they say: Look, this was the Federal Government getting involved in education, and people support it.

Congress said: Wait a minute. The Federal Government never mandated Common Core. That never happened.

And, you know, that is true.

But what did happen was the Federal Government had a huge amount of money under President Obama's race to the top, and they said: Hey, States--and this is during the recession and States needed the money--here is some money, but you have got to do what we want you to do.

And so they conditioned that funding and really coerced a lot of States into adopting something like Common Core.

And so I think what the A-PLUS does is it says: Okay. The Federal Government has gotten involved in K-12 education. I don't think it has been very successful from the very beginning, but if you are going to be providing money, at least give the State the ability to take that money and use it as they see fit to try and innovate and to try to do things that will improve the academic performance of their kids. But don't condition the funding on following specific formulas that Washington knows best.

I think this really empowers States. I think this is something that will empower local communities and, I think, ultimately will be better off as a matter of K-12 education. So I thank my friend from North Carolina for offering it.

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