WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a senior member of the Senate education committee, today praised Senate passage of the Every Child Achieves Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Language that Roberts fought to include in the legislation will permanently end the administration’s use of waivers or any tool of coercion to force or incentivize states to adopt Common Core standards – or any future set of standards. For audio of Senator Roberts’ remarks, go here.

“I’m pleased the Senate has passed this bill that will permanently end Washington’s Common Core mandate and give decisions about what children are taught back to the local and state level,” said Roberts. “This legislation will restore the responsibility of decision-making back to states, local school districts, superintendents, principals, teachers, local school boards, parents and especially students. We can finally say goodbye to federal interference in what we teach our children in school.”

The Every Child Achieves Act passed the Senate by a vote of 81-17. This is the first reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act since 2001. The House passed its own version of the bill last week, which will now go to conference with the Senate bill, before heading to the president’s desk for signature.

Roberts commended education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) for his work on the bill and “for including my language because it will prohibit the administration from finding additional ways to promote a state’s adoption of Common Core.”

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 explicitly prohibiting the federal government from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core.