New Democrat Coalition: ESEA Compromise a Step Forward
Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), two leaders of the New Democrat Coalition's 21st Century Education, Immigration, and Workforce Task Force, released the following statement on the compromise reached between Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to update the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for the first time in over a decade:
“We applaud the efforts of Sen. Murray and Sen. Alexander to work across the aisle and produce compromise legislation that seeks to fix our nation’s schools and use high-quality models of education that put students first. The most important law governing the federal role in education hasn’t been updated in more than a decade and is long overdue for an upgrade that Democrats and Republicans can support.
Americans don’t want to take a step backwards from accountability for our schools, they want Congress to get accountability right.
While we look forward to learning more about this deal, we appreciate that this compromise maintains annual assessments and reporting requirements, allowing states and districts to identify the groups of students most in need of additional support and resources. We are glad to see that this bill includes vital support for innovative federal initiatives that help students, teachers, and administrators succeed, as efforts like these help to give every American a chance at securing a piece of the American Dream. While we hope that Congress can agree on a way in statute to avoid states and districts defining success downwards, having metrics in place to measure success remains a critical component of the transparency that the American people demand. We also hope that Congress can do more to improve the quality of our hard-working teachers through meaningful professional development, fair evaluations, and new and innovative training.
We are pleased to see that leaders in the Senate chose to take a constructive, inclusive approach to reforming our nation’s education law and we look forward to working with our colleagues in both houses and on both sides of the aisle to improve this proposal and pass federal education legislation that works for everyone.”
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