President Barack Obama signed a nearly 1,000 page rewrite of the expired No Child Left Behind Act into law Thursday, aiming to reduce federal oversight and return power to state and local governments over education.
“After more than 10 years, members of Congress from both parties have come together to revise our national education law…a Christmas miracle, a bipartisan bill signing right here,” said Obama Thursday.
"This is a big step in the right direction, a true bipartisan effort," he explained.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved the legislation, called the Every Student Succeeds Act, by a 85-12 vote. All 12 votes against the proposal came from Republicans.
The new law includes an amendment from U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who served as a negotiator of the bill as a Member of the House and Senate Conference Committee.
Curbelo’s amendment would give English language learners additional time to become proficient in the language.
“It gives states the flexibility to create accountability systems that work for their students, ending the federal government’s punitive role in education,” Curbelo said on the law.
The primary goal of the new legislation is to scale back federal involvement in education and put control back the hands of state and local governments.
One way the law attempts to do so is by allowing each state to set their own educational goals -- under NCLB, those goals were dictated by the federal government, a direct jab at the Common Core State Standards, which the federal government pushed on states through financial incentives in 2010.
Since then, Common Core has become the center of intense criticism from parents, students, teachers, educational groups and even some politicians across the country. Many opposed to the standards have spoken out against a federal overreach in education, propelling the issue to the national stage.
Schools will still be responsible for how their students perform under the ESSA, but it will now be up to individual states to determine how to enforce penalties for student performance.
Standardized testing would still be mandatory under the new law, with all students in grades three through eight required to take reading and mathematics assessments each year. At least 95 percent of students are required to take standardized tests under the new law.
Obama said NCLB, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2001, had some “good goals” but ultimately fell short. He also said the new provision eliminated “unnecessary standardized testing” for students nationwide.
Despite the bicameral passage of the overhaul, not everyone has been totally pleased with the new law.
One parent group from Florida says the rewrite doesn’t do enough to reduce the federal government’s role in education, saying it does not fix some of the core problems plaguing education.
“WHEN are our elected officials going to stop the toxic assessment culture mostly benefiting test companies?” asked Florida Parents Against Common Core.
John B. King, Jr., who will replace retiring Education Secretary Arne Duncan, oversee the implementation of the ESSA.
