Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the Every Student Succeeds Act. I know we have had one vote on this today already, and we will have another vote tomorrow. I will begin by applauding Senators Murray and Alexander and Congressmen Klein and Scott for reaching across the aisle and working with their committee colleagues and the Members of both bodies to fixing a long expired and broken law. I think we all understand that education is key to both individual success and to our economic success. ESSA gives parents, school districts, and States flexibility to close the achievement gaps that the No Child Left Behind helped us explore. ESSA maintains critical assessment requirements, but it also requires schools to track the progress of every child while also allowing States and school districts to set their own goals for improvement and determine what interventions are best when these achievement gaps persist. It invests in early childhood education, it permanently authorizes the Preschool Development Grant Program, and Virginia was one of the first States to receive a challenge grant. The bill recognizes there are factors other than test scores that describe students' success, and that is a significant advance past No Child Left Behind. I rise particularly because I am proud that a number of provisions that I worked on and that the Presiding Officer worked on were included in the final bill.…”