WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a senior member of the Senate education committee, today spoke on the Senate floor on the Every Child Achieves Act emphasizing that the legislation will “once and for all, end the Obama Administration’s use of waivers to force or incentivize states to adopt Common Core standards.” As a result of language Roberts fought to include, the legislation will permanently end the administration’s ability to use any tool of coercion to force states to adopt Common Core – or any set of standards at all.

To watch Senator Roberts’ comments

“Decisions about what children are taught are best made on the local level as close to parents as possible. The federal government should not have overriding influence over state and local education decisions. Unfortunately in recent years, this has not been the case,” Roberts said.

“We have the first opportunity in 25 years to restore decision-making back to states, local school districts, superintendents, principals, teachers, local school boards, parents and especially students.

“We need to get the federal government out of the classroom, and return community decisions back to where they belong – in the community. If the Every Child Achieves Act becomes law, we can finally say goodbye to federal interference in what we teach our kids in school.”

The Every Child Achieves Act reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which has been due for reauthorization since 2008. Roberts’ legislation, the Learning Opportunities Created At the Local (LOCAL) Level Act introduced earlier this year, was included as part of the Every Child Achieves Act. The legislation would preserve state education autonomy by prohibiting the federal government from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core.