{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://byrne.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/byrne-supports-bill-to-limit-federal-role-in-k-12-education", "Byrne Supports Bill to Limit Federal Role in K-12 Education", "2015-12-02", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Bradley Byrne", "B001289", "byrne.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-AL), a member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, today voted in favor of a bill to update our nations K-12 education policy by limiting federal involvement and empowering individual states and school districts. The bill passed on a strong vote of 359 to 64.\nOver the past two years, Congress has been working on a replacement for No Child Left Behind, which has set K-12 education policy since 2002. Last week, House and Senate education leaders introduced the Every Student Succeeds Act. This bipartisan legislation is a result of negotiations after the House and the Senate passed separate education bills earlier this year.\nByrne said: For too long, our nations education system has failed under a heavy, top-down system of mandates and requirements set by Washington bureaucrats and special interest groups. The Every Student Succeeds Act changes that by getting Washington out of the way and empowering our local teachers, principals, and administrators. \nThis legislation achieves these goals by reducing the federal governments role in K-12 education and restoring control over education back to the states and local school districts  where it belongs.\nCongressman Byrne has heard from a number of constituents concerned about the Common Core standards, so he was pleased the Every Student Succeeds Act includes provisions to prevent the Secretary of Education from coercing states into adopting Common Core.\nByrne said: This bill expressly prohibits the Secretary of Education from influencing or coercing states into adopting Common Core. The bill makes clear that it is solely a states responsibility to set academic standards and assessments. These restrictions on the federal Secretary of Education are unprecedented and will end the Secretarys ability to influence education policy through executive fiat and conditional waivers.\nThe Wall Street Journal called the Every Student Succeeds Act the largest devolution of federal control to the states in a quarter-century. The legislation is supported by the National Parent Teacher Association, National School Boards Association, the School Superintendents Association, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council for American Private Education, the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and many other organizations more.\nSpecifically, the bill would make a number of important reforms including:\n Repeals the one-size-fits-all federal accountability system known as Adequate Yearly Progress;\n\tProhibits the secretary of education from dictating national education policy;\n\tRepeals 49 ineffective federal education programs;\n\tProvides school districts with the authority to set their academic standards and testing requirements;\n\tRemoves the burdensome highly qualified teacher mandate;\n\tPreserves the right of states to opt-out of federal education programs;\n\tPrevents any federal interference in private or home schools; and\n\tStrengthens charter school and magnet school programs to offer greater school choice.\n Click here to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://byrne.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/byrne-supports-bill-to-limit-federal-role-in-k-12-education"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.5282211136072874, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}