"While Congress shouldn't micro-manage discipline in local schools, we should step up to set standards to ensure that all our children are safe."
Rep. Elizabeth Esty
Lawmakers in Congress are debating the Student Success Act, which would replace and update the No Child Left Behind law. The Republican House bill passed without the support of Connecticut lawmakers, or any Democrats at all.
According to the U.S. Education and Workforce Committee, the law would "reduce the federal footprint and restore local control, while empowering parents and education leaders to hold schools accountable for effectively teaching students."
Speaking on the U.S. House floor on Wednesday night, Connecticut Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty criticized the bill for gutting education funding. She offered an amendment to the House Republicans' proposal -- which ultimately failed -- aimed at ensuring continued funding for students with disabilities through the Individuals with Disabilities Act, or IDEA.
“While Congress shouldn’t micro-manage discipline in local schools, we should step up to set standards to ensure that all our children are safe,” Esty said. “We should fully fund IDEA to ensure support for all children with disabilities. We can do better. We must do better for our children.”
Watch Esty's speech from the House floor below:
According to the CDC, one in 68 American children is now on the autism spectrum, a ten-fold increase over the last 40 years. And according to the Connecticut Department of Education and the Office of the Child Advocate, there were 35,000 incidents of children being restrained or placed in seclusion last school year.
The Connecticut Mirror reported that Rep. Joe Courtney's amendment also failed:
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, also tried to amend the bill to improve access to science, technology, engineering and math education resources. But GOP leaders did not allow a vote on Courtney's amendment either.
The Senate is debating a different education bill, which is expected to stretch into next week. According to The Washington Post:
The Senate bill, written by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would significantly shift power over public schools to states and local school districts, dismantling most of the federal accountability structure that has dictated policy to the country’s 100,000 public schools since 2002. The bill maintains the current requirement that students in grades 3 to 8 be tested every year in math and reading and once in high school. But it lets states and districts decide what to do about the test results and whether or how to intervene if schools don’t meet state performance goals.
