Every Child Achieves Act

Floor Speech

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I want to thank all of my colleagues
for their hard work that has brought us to this point on the bipartisan
Every Child Achieves Act. My friend and colleague from Tennessee,
Chairman Alexander, and my great colleague, Ranking Member Murray, of
the HELP Committee have worked tirelessly to bring this bill to the
floor. I salute them for finding many points of agreement that unite us
in a very bipartisan way in forming our approach to high-stakes
testing--an issue that has bedeviled this body and our Nation for many
years--and requiring increased data collection and reporting, expanding
access to early childhood education, increases in authorization of
funding, and finally, after 13 years, reauthorizing the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act.

This bill is by no means perfect. Few measures approved by the
Congress are. We work to come as close to perfection as possible. But,
as the saying goes, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
This bill is a good bill. I personally would like to see some of the
accountability provisions of the bill strengthened, ensuring that
schools have real incentives to make reform.

I have some very serious qualms about a proposal that would change
the formula for allocating title I funding in a way that would take
funding away from certain districts in Connecticut and other States
that serve low-income children.

I am hoping that three of the amendments I have written will make
this legislation stronger.

First, I am pleased to say that an amendment that I had led to make
sure schools and districts understand their responsibility under title
IX was adopted in the underlying bill. I thank Chairman Alexander and
Ranking Member Murray for their commitment on this important title IX
provision that makes the bill better and guarantees that title IX will
be enforced.

A lot of people think title IX affects only athletic programs. In
fact, it actually covers all forms of gender-based
discrimination in schools, including sexual harassment and assault,
bullying, the needs of pregnant and parenting students, female
participation in the STEM field, and a lot more. All kinds of
discrimination are covered by title IX.

This landmark measure in our Federal law requires every school to
designate an employee to serve as a title IX coordinator, helping
students and staff to understand their rights and their obligations.
Unfortunately, a lot of schools currently fail to designate such a
coordinator.

In Connecticut, my friend Bill Howe has provided vitally important
statewide title IX compliance training for years, but I know he often
found it very difficult to secure funding for his efforts and was
sometimes forced to dip into his own pocket to keep these programs
going. Bill Howe is a hero in Connecticut for maintaining and
sustaining a title IX training program.

My amendment will give States the resources they need to ensure their
schools are protecting and promoting gender equity. No longer will Bill
Howe be forced to make that funding out of his own pocket--Connecticut
will have it as well.

I am proud to join with Senator Ayotte in championing an amendment
that will provide critical training and resources to help educators
recognize and respond to the earliest signs of mental illness. This
provision is really key because school personnel frequently see young
people in many different situations, and therefore they are among the
best positioned to see young people who are at risk of serious mental
illness and identify those risk signs and provide mental health
services at critical times before those illnesses become more serious.

We know from our tragic and horrific experience--we in Connecticut
know better than most--that violence and emergency situations can
happen anywhere, including at the youngest ages in elementary and
secondary schools. Resources must be made available for people to help
deescalate crisis situations. These funds will help diffuse those
crises before they occur or while they occur by providing critical
mental health services.

Training programs are important for teaching school professionals how
to safely deescalate a crisis, recognize the signs and symptoms of
mental illness, and refer people to appropriate mental health service
providers at the early stages of mental illness, reducing the number of
crisis situations.

Some of the programs already in place provide models of what kind of
training will be funded. They have proven immensely successful. They
are profoundly important, and they can serve as models for other
schools. Some of those models are in Connecticut--training and
education in helping to diffuse and resolve crises and provide for
treating mental illness.

Third, I am perhaps most proud to offer the Jesse Lewis Empowering
Educators Act. I am proud to offer the Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators
Act because I think it reflects an advance in education that truly
embodies the spirit and legacy of Jesse Lewis himself--a brave young
boy who had emotional intelligence way beyond his years and who was a
victim of the unspeakable, unimaginable, horrific tragedy that occurred
in Newtown. I thank my colleagues, Senators Murphy and Cantwell, for
cosponsoring it.

Jesse was one of the children who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook
tragedy. In those painful, aching days after Sandy Hook, I sat in the
living room of Scarlet Lewis, Jesse's mom, and I saw firsthand through
Jesse's own words and photos the awe-inspiring courage and caring of
this boy--his empathy and resilience and the compassion he demonstrated
repeatedly throughout his all-too-brief life.

This amendment is directly shaped by the Sandy Hook Advisory
Commission's final report, which highlights the importance of
integrating social and emotional learning concepts into our schools.
The commission noted that social-emotional learning is an integral part
of education because students must learn coping skills, such as how to
identify and name feelings and emotions such as frustration, anger,
sadness, and how to use their problem-solving skills to manage those
difficult emotional and potentially conflictual situations.

Resolving conflict means understanding the reasons for it. Social
intelligence is the means to do it, and training teachers in how to
teach it is one of the great missions we need to make sure our schools
serve.

As much as the commission's work, this amendment really is formed by
Scarlet Lewis and Jesse. His example of emotional and social learning,
of intelligence in that sense, provides an example of what we should
seek to emulate in our schools--demonstrating caring and concern for
others, maintaining positive relationships, and making responsible
decisions and resolving conflicts effectively. All of these are
teachable and learnable skills. In fact, they are essential to learn
for participating and contributing to society. The only question is,
Where are young people going to learn them? If they do not learn them
at home, they need to be taught in our schools.

If students are surrounded by educators who understand these concepts
and who have the right tools and training to teach them, these students
can learn to demonstrate what intelligence and emotional intelligence
means in practical, everyday terms--how it can make people happier and
make the people around those young people happier. Demonstrating the
kinds of emotional gifts and intelligence that Jesse had innately is
itself a gift that can be taught, and we have an obligation to teach
it.

Social and emotional learning is a strategy that is strongly grounded
in academic research. Numerous studies and reports, including the great
work being done at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, have
found that students who exhibit these skills not only perform better
academically but are less likely to engage in problematic behavior,
such as alcohol and drug use, violence, truancy, and bullying. It makes
perfect common sense. Students who have that emotional intelligence
better adjust and avoid the pitfalls of substance abuse, violence,
bullying, and conflict with fellow students.

We have an obligation to adopt social--emotional learning as part of
the curricula of our schools and to make sure teachers are trained in
how to impart and inculcate those great talents and gifts that are so
important to the happiness of the young people who come through their
classrooms, and I am hopeful this amendment will become part of this
bill.

My amendments recognize that education is not only about reading,
writing, and arithmetic, but learning requires an environment and a
culture that cares for each student and prepares each person as an
individual and as a healthy, involved member of a larger community. I
think that will be a legacy we can leave through this bill, and I hope
we will.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

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