ACTION ALERT: STOP THE STUDENT “SUCCESS” ACT (HR 5)

Congressional Leadership Is Bull-Rushing Through HR5, the 600 Page Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (rebranded the “Student Success Act”)

The House votes on it this week.  Call your Representative and call the Speaker of the House and tell them to vote “no” on HR 5!

 202-224-3121. 

Below are just a few of the problems.

1. HR5 Denigrates Parental Rights and Seizes State Sovereignty

• No program shall “operate within a State, unless the legislature of that State shall have . . . waived the State’s rights and authorities to act inconsistently with any requirement that might be imposed by the Secretary as a condition of receiving that assistance.” (Sec. 6561) (emphasis added).
• Federal requirements will trump the rights “reserved to the States and individual Americans by the United States Constitution” to lead in the education of their child. (Sec. 6564)
• Requires states to change laws and regulations to “conform” to HR5. (Sec. 1403)
• Alters the governance structures of states by requiring them to form “Committees of Practitioners” to whom the state must submit rules and regulations. (Sec. 1403)

2. HR5 Does Nothing to Relieve Children From No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB’s) Oppressive Testing Requirements.

3. Feds Will Effectively Direct State Education Policy through Enhanced Continuation of Heavy-Handed NCLB Policies

• Requires states to demonstrate to the federal government that their standards, assessments, and state accountability systems meet the goal of “prepar[ing] all students to graduate high school for postsecondary education or the workforce.” (Sec. 1001)
• Requires states to submit comprehensive state plans, which the Secretary can disapprove. (Sec. 1111)
• States had to make the same showing and meet the same definitional goal to receive NCLB waivers and Race to the Top grants.. HR5 allows for a Common Core “rebrand.”  (Sec. 1001) and (Sec. 1111(3)(A))
• Prohibitions against the Secretary forcing states into adopting Common Core are meaningless.

4. Increases Federal Data Collection To Control Curriculum

• Empowers the Department of Education to request individual student and teacher data from State and Local Education Agencies.
• Authorizes substantial new funding to use this data to evaluate whether schools are using “effective” instructional methods.  (Sec. 2111(b)(1)(A)) and (Sec. 2132)

The above information is originally from the Parents Against the Common Core website.

• Student for Success Act: HR5 can be found here: Bill Text: Student Success Act
• Top four talking points to share with the Representatives can be found here.  Click on Action Alert: Stop HR5.
• The list of US House Representatives may be found here.
• Let your representative know you have signed the petition against Common Core and that HR5 will cement Common Core (or whatever name a centralized system of standards is renamed) and more federal control/spending in public education.

The meme and following four bullet points come from the Missouri Education Watchdog.