New Federal Education Law Gives Colorado More Flexibility

The Every Student Succeeds Act President Barack Obama signed this week leaves more control of education in the hands of state and local government.

Obama called the ESSA “an early Christmas present” and a “Christmas miracle” as a bipartisan bill.

Schools will still be responsible for how their students perform under the ESSA, but it will now be up to individual states to determine how to enforce penalties for student performance.

“Now it’s a mute point, so South Dakota is thrilled to have this measure passed”, Schopp said.

“I don’t understand the euphoria that’s going on in Washington“, said William Mathis, a member of the State Board of Education who is chairman of its education quality review subcommittee. “I wish they would have reduced the testing requirements for elementary students in grades three through eight and then once in high school, that requirement is still there that they are tested ever year”, Freeman said.

Walters said the law is still very new and they are still working out the details on changes to the school system, but he encourages parents to take part in the discussion.

Today, on a vote of 85-12, the U.S. Senate approved the bill, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a statement on Wednesday.

The new legislation will curb the role of the federal government in education, and instead allow states and local governments to set their own standards.

Obama officially replaced the No Child Left Behind act by signing Every Student Succeeds into law on Thursday at the Eisenhower Executive Building.

Gridlock is usually the norm on Capitol Hill but the President welcomed this bipartisan effort to fix the “No Child Left Behind” education initiative.

The Act requires intervention for schools that fail to meet state standards, but critics of the new law worry that states will just lower the bar to make schools seem successful.

The new law ends federally dictated accountability and improvement standards, but national math and reading exams are still in place.

Educators say the new law is not a matter of backing down on accountability, but making it more applicable to each region. There will also be a change in English language acquisition, suspension rates as well as the measure of test scores.