President Barack Obama signs S. 1177, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), during a bill a signing ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, Dec. 10, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
President Obama signed the Every Student Success Act into law today. He lauded the “bipartisanship” behind the bill during his remarks.
And I just want to point out that it’s not as if there weren’t some significant ideological differences on some of these issues. No, there were, but I think this is really a good example of how bipartisanship can work. People did not agree on everything at the outset, but they were willing to listen to each other in a civil, constructive way, and to work through these issues, compromise where necessary, while still keeping their eye on the ball. And I think it’s really a testament of the four leaders of the respective committees that they set that kind of tone. And that’s something that we don’t always see here in Washington. There wasn’t a lot of grandstanding, not a lot of posturing — just a lot of really good, hard work. So I just want to, again, thank them for the outstanding work that they did.
President Obama touts bipartisanship. U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) also plugged bipartisanship and patted each other on the back. The love fest was nauseating. At the risk of sounding overly partisan, something that I try to avoid here if possible, what exactly did conservatives get out of this? What is the fruit of this “bipartisanship”? Jane Robbins writing at The Pulse 2016 today had a money quote today which I believe should have been a red flag for any Republican voting for this bill.
This bill is so progressive that it was supported by every single Democrat in Congress. It was supported by Barack Obama. It was supported by the owners of the Common Core national standards (National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers). It was supported by every other pro-Common Core and pro-progressive education interest group in the country. And it was adamantly and eloquently opposed by over 200 anti-Common Core grassroots organizations.
Yep. Bipartisanship just brought us horrible education policy that has no sunset date. Gee, thanks.