releases: http://roby.house.gov/press-release/roby-%E2%80%9Cstate-authority%E2%80%9D-provision-goes-president%E2%80%99s-desk
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://roby.house.gov/press-release/roby-%E2%80%9Cstate-authority%E2%80%9D-provision-goes-president%E2%80%99s-desk | Roby State Authority Provision Goes to Presidents Desk | 2015-12-09 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | AL | Martha Roby | R000591 | roby.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON, D.C. - A bill provision introduced and championed by U.S. Representative Martha Roby (R-AL) to stop federal coercion in state education decisions is on its way to the presidents desk as part of a rewrite of the nations No Child Left Behind education law. The bill, the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed the Senate on Wednesday. It scraps No Child Left Behind and replaces it with a new law that returns education decision-making back to states and local school boards. The Roby state authority provisions strictly prohibit the federal government from using funding grants and rule waivers to coerce states into adopting its preferred standards or curricula, including Common Core. Roby has worked for two-and-half-years to build support for the provisions after U.S. Department of Education coercion on state policy became pervasive. The federal government has overstepped its bounds in education policy and its past time to rein it in, Roby said. Our state authority provisionswill prevent undue influence by the federal government by taking away the Department of Educations ability to attach curriculum and assessment policy strings to special grants and waivers. Local and state leaders are best positioned to determine policies that affect Alabamas students because theyhave direct interaction with parents and teachers in their communities. Washington bureaucrats are not. I have fought for two-and-a-half years to build support for ending the federal governments coercive practices in education, andI could not be more pleased that this language is headed to the presidents desk.I hope PresidentObama will hear the outcry from parents, teachers andadministratorsthroughout this country who are fed up with federal intrusion and sign this bill into law. In May 2013,Roby introduced the Defending State Authority Over Education Act,a standalone bill that sought to end the federal coercion on education policy that has tied the hands of state and local educators. She said at the time the true goal washaving the language included in a rewrite of No Child Left Behind,which Congress has been working on for years. This year theHouseandSenatepassed different versions of a plan to replace No Child Left Behind, which led the chambers to iron out the differences in a Conference Committee. The final version of the bill reported by the Conference Committee preserved Robys strong State Authority language, and both chambers have now approved that final bill. The Every Student Succeeds Act would replace the nations current law with policies that reflect a more conservative, state-driven approach to education. Specifically, the bill: Places new, unprecedented restrictions on the U.S. Secretary of Education, including the Roby State Authority" language prohibiting the Secretary and his agents from using money and rule waivers to coerce policy decisions; Eliminates the Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP metric and returns the responsibility for proficiency systems to the states where they belong; Phases in student mobility via a pilot program allowing Title 1 money to follow the student to the school of the parents choice, a provision that Robybelievesshould be built upon and expanded in the future; Supports the start-up, replication and expansion of high-quality public charter schools, which Alabama can now access to support its recently-enacted charter school program. Roby said shewould prefer the bill go much further in severing ties between federal and state governments in education, and voted to support amendments doing just that. However, the bill as it stands presents a cant-miss opportunity to reduce the federal footprint in education. Local education leaders and statewide advocates have signaled strong support of theNo Child Left Behind replacement bill. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |