Rokita's Student Success Act Passes House

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education , released the following statement after the passage of the Student Success Act, a bill he authored to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and reform its current authorization, No Child Left Behind.

"No Washington bureaucrat cares more about a child than a parent does. And no one in Washington knows what is better for an Indiana school than Indiana families do. That is why the Student Success Act (SSA) puts an end to the administration's National School Board by putting state and local school districts back in charge of their own schools.

"Many Hoosiers will also be pleased to know that the Student Success Act prohibits the Secretary of Education from coercing states into adopting Common Core, again returning accountability and standards to state and local school districts, where it belongs," said Rokita.

The Student Success Act--H.R. 5--replaces No Child Left Behind by returning authority for school and student accountability to states and eliminates and consolidates ineffective and inefficient Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs by:

-Replacing Adequate Yearly Progress national standards with state-based accountability systems

-Repealing the bureaucratic Highly-Qualified Teacher requirements that value an educator's degree and credentials over his or her ability to improve student achievement.

-Eliminating or consolidating over 70 ESEA programs--and the bureaucrats within them. The savings are returned to the States with a Local Academic Flexible Grant, allowing the States and local school boards to efficiently use educational funds in ways that most benefit their schools.

This bill is supported by the National School Boards Association, Americans for Prosperity, the American Association of School Administrators, Concerned Women for America, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and Americans for Tax Reform, among many others.

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