Every Child Achieves Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, before I make my remarks, I would like to commend the Presiding Officer and Senator Graham and the people of the great State of South Carolina on the way they have handled the terrible tragedy that took place in their State.
I know time and again we have all heard on the floor of the Senate and in conversations we have had in private the amazing mercy and grace shown by the families of the victims of the terrible tragedy that took place, but equally as well the great way in which the elected officials in the State of South Carolina, led by the Presiding Officer and Senator Graham, have caused a terrible event to be a learning experience for all of America and an example for the way in which tragedy should be dealt with. I want the Presiding Officer to know how much I personally appreciate it, but I know I speak on behalf of all of the people of Georgia as well.
Mr. President, I will speak briefly about two subjects.
Mr. President, I am one of the two people left in the Congress who had something to do with No Child Left Behind. The other one is John Boehner, the Speaker of the House. I will never forget that night in 2001, in the basement of the Capitol, after the conference committee finally came to an agreement on No Child Left Behind--us talking about how proud we were of what we had done but more how we knew that if we did not get it fixed by the end of the sixth year, it would go from being a positive change in education to a negative.
It is now 13 years later. We have gone 7 years without a reauthorization. What became a good goal of meeting adequate yearly progress, setting standards for schools, and remediating schools that were in trouble has become a bill where 80 percent of the school systems in America have to ask for waivers to even operate. It is a bill that no longer is doing what it was intended to do for the education of our children.
I commend Senator Alexander and Senator Murray for the unbelievably good work they have done to bring the new reform of the ESEA to the floor of the Senate today. I participated in all the hearings, as did the Presiding Officer. The Presiding Officer knows what I know: that we brought about compromise and common sense. We created a bill that is good for children, good for educators, and good for America.
First and foremost, it gets us out of the national school board business, which is Chairman Alexander's favorite statement for the Department of Education.
People forget that the U.S. Department of Education is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution of the United States. It is mentioned in two places. One is in title I in the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s when we provided funds for free and reduced-price lunches for poor students to give them a leg up and second in 1978 when, in the Carter administration, we passed what was known as Public Law 94-192, which created special needs children benefits or what is known as the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Those are the only two places in statute that the Federal Government has a role. Senator Murray and Senator Alexander have seen to it that we recognize that fact.
We enhance education where we are supposed to, but we turn it back over to the States, where it belongs and where it should be.
Secondly, one of the big buzzwords in bad brand labels that have taken place in education is Common Core. Common Core is a lot of things to a lot of people, but most importantly for many people it is a Federal mandate of standards, it is a homogenization of standards, and it is a mandate the American people do not like.
This bill ensures there will be no Common Core mandate by the Federal Government to the States and ensures local control of curriculum from beginning to end.
Then, as I said a minute ago, to ensure that it gives local control, it does away with the waiver business and puts all local school boards and State boards of education in control of their education.
On the question of testing, it does away with federally mandated tests and says to systems: You develop the test and the assessment mechanism yourself. We just want you to have standards that are made good for students to improve and grow their education. But we want to make sure that every student has the access they can to be tested well and improve. For example, we have done some creative things in this bill, such as give assisted technology funding capability out of title I to handicapped children in title I qualifications so they can use assisted technology to take exams they otherwise could not take. A student with cerebral palsy, Duchenne, or many other diseases does not have the coordination ability to take a paper-and-pencil test; yet they can be bright, they can be a genius. Because of technology that has been developed in America, assisted technology can allow them to take that exam given the disabilities they have. It is only appropriate we authorize the use of title I funds to do that.
Most importantly, though, we keep the parent in control of their child's life by giving them the permission to opt out of any State test that is mandated where the State allows an opt out, which means the parent is in control of the testing, the State is in control of the assessment and the type of model that takes place, and the Federal Government is saying to the local schools and State boards of education: You take our children to the next level. We will assist you, but we are not going to govern you, we are not going to ruin you.
I commend Senator Alexander and Senator Murray for bringing together a bipartisan approach to education reform that works. I thank the American Federation of Teachers, the national association of educators, the National Association of School Superintendents, and the National Governors Association. Every vested organization in education in the United States of America has endorsed this bill. They have because they know it is time for education to be enhanced and improved from the local level up. They know the benefits that may have come from No Child Left Behind have long since passed. We are now disaggregating, we are now measuring, and we are doing all the things we should have been doing all along. Let's take what is a good platform and make it even better to ensure that every child learns, every child progresses, and every child succeeds.
MILITARY CUTS
Mr. President, I want to make note of the announcement today by the Department of Defense on the dramatic cuts to our military--40,000 people over the next 2 years.
Mr. President, I am a pretty easygoing guy, but I am really angry. I am really mad. I know it is ironic to me--and it is one of the reasons I put a hold today on an appointment--but it is ironic, on the day we all learn by reading the newspaper, not by being advised by the Department of Defense, that we are going to lose 40,000 soldiers over the next 2 years--Georgia is going to lose 4,350 soldiers over the next 2 years. Nobody did the courtesy of calling us. But on the day when they did not call us, they also send up for confirmation a legislative affairs official for the U.S. Department of Defense in the administration.
I have a hold on that person for one simple reason: I want to meet with them and to see to it that if they in fact do get in control of congressional liaison and congressional affairs, they make sure we are the first to find out, not the last to find out.
Our military is critically important to my State, as it is to the Presiding Officer's State. It is important that we know what the government's plans are, and it is important that we have a chance to have a say. I know the President does not like to use the legislative body very much. He would rather regulate and do Executive orders. But when you talk about our military and you talk about the investment in our military, every Member of this Senate, every Member of the House--all of us ought to be together with all our oars in the water rowing in the same direction, not in misdirection.
I want to make one note here. It is also ironic that last week the President for the first time went to the Pentagon to talk about the strategy in the Middle East, particularly with regard to ISIL. It took 18 months to go talk about a situation that has grown from being an irritant to a crisis. When we left Iraq and left all the equipment that we had there and left the Iraqis to fend for themselves, we created a vacuum. And what happened? In came ISIL. And now they are in 16 countries in the Levant and in the Middle East right now. We created a vacuum that they filled and are continuing to fill, and we are talking about reducing our manpower over the next 2 years to a point that we no longer can confront an enemy on two fronts; we are going to have a tough time doing it on one.
A vulnerable and a weak American defense and military allow and encourage people who might have nefarious goals and dreams to take advantage of America's weakness. We should be very careful about diminishing our resources and our military to levels that are not in the best interest of the American people or their security.
I want to ask the administration to be sure to give us information in advance rather than after the fact, to include us wherever possible in the decision, and to see to it that the Congress is once again a partner with the Commander in Chief and to see to it that we confront our enemies and have the manpower and the troops to do it.
I, for one, have thought for a long time that we should be doing more to confront ISIL in the Middle East. I think that is being borne out every day. Hopefully the President is coming to that realization as well. But whatever we do, we should not be telling the world we have problems but we are going to cut some more.
It is time we made an investment in the security and peace of our country and our military, and it is time we worked together--the President and Congress alike--to do what is right for America, its defense and its freedom and its liberty, which we just celebrated over the past weekend on July the 4th.
Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of my time and defer to the Senator from Ohio.
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