News
Senate Passes ESSA
December, 2015Using rhetoric eerily similar that for the failed No Child Left Behind Act, the US Senate voted to pass the 1061 page behemoth, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The complete language of this disastrous bill was only available for days before the final vote. The vote was 85-12. We are grateful to the following senators, who had the wise foresight to vote against this bill that, despite much propaganda about the "end of the Common Core mandate," actually enshrines standards like Common Core. (full roll call)):
Blount (MO), Crapo (ID), Daines (MT), Flake (AZ), Lee (UT), Moran (KS), Paul (KY), Risch (ID), Sasse (NE), Scott (SC), Shelby (AL), Vitter (LA)
Presidential candidate Rand Paul voted against the bill, while Senator Graham voted for it and Senators Cruz, Rubio, and Sanders did not vote on final passage, but Cruz voted yesterday against advancing the bill to final passage and issued a statement today affirming his opposition to it. Sanders' statement from 12/7 indicates he would have supported the bill if present. Although Rubio should be thanked for voting against the Senate bill in July, his lack of involvement in final deliberations for this very important bill may need to be viewed in light of significant pro-Common Core contributions by Bill Gates and Paul Singer.
We also appreciate the one floor speech in opposition in all of Congress that was offered or allowed in debate for the final bill by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT):
That this bill cements Common Core and that the prohibitions against overreach by the secretary of education are false and irrelevant, as well as the expansion of horrific preschool programs, was not just the opinion of more than 200 parent groups and experts in 46 states. This was confirmed yesterday by an Obama administration education official as reported by a state legislator attending a meeting where this bill was discussed:
According to Emma Vadehra, Chief of Staff, US Dept of Education, this bill will embed "college and career ready standards" or as we know, Common Core©. They do not expect any states to get away from the standards. It also solidifies the Department's plans for full preK expansion. It was also stated that the preK grants were significant in moving the ball and that states are on the hook financially as well. The DoE is giddy with excitement at the impending passage of ESSA.
The president plans to sign the bill into law tomorrow. Here is a news flash for the allegedly "conservative" members of Congress who voted for this bill. Any bill longer than No Child Left Behind that this presdient is giddy to sign, that received 100% support from the big government party of Congress, that was endorsed by the owners of Common Core's copyright and other proponents, probably does not "end the Common Core mandate" or protect parental rights!
