When I was elected to represent our community in Congress I pledged to work and fight for solutions that will better our education system by empowering parents and teachers while equipping students with an education that will prepare them for success. Congress, along with the president, have united to make this pledge a reality.
My colleagues and I have worked together to approve the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and it was signed into law by the president just last week.
This much-needed reform marks the end of the overly rigid, one size-fits-all system which has severely burdened school districts and teachers. It gives states the flexibility to create accountability systems that work for their students, ending the federal government’s punitive role in education. Far-reaching federal oversight in the education system has long been proven a failure in the United States, as evidenced by a decline in reading and math proficiency for the first time in 25 years. Now that the ESSA has been signed into law, states will have more power than ever before to set their own guidelines and rating systems for our schools, protecting our students from harmful mandates and allowing local governments to shape school systems to fit their communities.
No Child Left Behind offered no flexibility to English learners. As a former School Board member in Dade-County, I was all too familiar with the significant burden this placed on students, teachers, and schools. These rigid expectations were simply unfair and unrealistic. The Every Child Succeeds Act includes a provision that I introduced to provide additional time for English learners to become proficient in reading and math, but still requires that every student is counted.
The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act is an example of the great work Congress can achieve when it works for the American people, and not for special interests centered in Washington. I’m proud to be a part of the Education and the Workforce Committee where this bill was created, and where I can devote my time as a congressman to improving the lives of South Florida’s students, teachers, and workers.
I look forward to the bright futures lying ahead of all of our nation’s students and how our great nation can benefit from their successes.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., was first elected to Congress in 2014
