Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for his great leadership on this bill and in the committee generally.

I rise in strong support this afternoon because every student, Mr. Chairman, every student deserves an effective teacher, an engaging classroom, and a quality education that paves the path for a bright and prosperous future. That is what we all want. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, the Nation's current K-12 education law has failed to provide students this fundamental right. In fact, the law has only gotten in the way.

Far from taking us back to the past, this bill will take us to the future, where we should have been for a while now in terms of education, so that we can maintain competitiveness with the rest of the world and win in the 21st century.

No Child Left Behind's onerous requirements and the Obama administration's waiver scheme and pet projects have created a one-size-fits-all system that hinders innovation and stymies local efforts to improve student learning. As a result, too many young adults leave high school today without basic knowledge in reading, math, and science. They are ill-equipped to complete college and compete in the workforce, and consequently they are deprived of one of the best opportunities they have to earn a lifetime of success. We shouldn't shackle any student to that kind of future.

Americans have settled for the status quo for far too long, and today we have an opportunity to chart the new course. The Student Success Act departs from the top-down approach that has inefficiently and ineffectively governed elementary and secondary education and restores that responsibility to its rightful stewards: parents, teachers, State and local education leaders, and the local taxpayers.

First, the bill gets the Federal government out of the business of running our schools. It eliminates the dizzying maze of Federal mandates that has dictated local decisions and downsizes the bloated bureaucracy at the Department of Education that has focused on what Washington wants rather than what students need. The whole theme of this bill is that we trust teachers, parents, local education officials, and our local taxpayers much more than we would ever trust a Federal bureaucrat.

Mr. Chairman, I find it funny that the other side, those who are against this bill, actually cite the Department of Education in arguing what a bad bill this is. Imagine a Federal bureaucrat actually arguing to devolve its power back to its rightful owners. Of course they are going to be for the status quo. They benefit from the status quo. The students do not.

Second, the bill empowers parents and education leaders with choice, transparency, and flexibility. It ensures parents continue to have the information they need to hold schools accountable and helps more families escape underperforming schools by expanding alternative education options such as quality charter schools. It also provides States the flexibility to develop their own systems for addressing school performance and the autonomy to use Federal funds in the most efficient way.

This bill respects, Mr. Chairman, that it is the people's property. It is their tax dollars. We shouldn't be forcing any kind of maintenance of effort requirement on States or local jurisdictions. It is their decision to decide what to do with their money.

With the Student Success Act, we have an opportunity to overcome the failed status quo of high stakes testing and Federal waivers. We have an opportunity to reduce the Federal footprint in our Nation's classrooms. We also have an opportunity to signal to moms, dads, teachers, administrators, and State officials that we trust them to hold schools accountable for delivering a quality education to every child.

As my good friend, former colleague and fellow Hoosier Governor Mike Pence, said before the House Education and the Workforce Committee earlier this month:

There is nothing that ails education that can't be fixed by giving parents more choices and teachers more freedom to teach.

That is exactly what this bill does. This bill fosters an environment to accomplish that very thing. So I urge my colleagues to join me in replacing a broken law with much-needed, commonsense education reforms and ask you to vote ``yes''--``yes''--on the Student Success Act.

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