The act, which works to replace No Child Left Behind, was passed in December.
“You now have this new opportunity, and really, this is terribly important responsibility to improve our education system for a 21st Century world,” Rokita said in a copy of the speech prepared for delivery to the media.
The act aims to do several things: ensure states set high standards, maintain accountability when students fall behind, empower state and local decision makers to develop their own systems for improving schools, preserve annual assessments to reduce the burden of excessive testing, provide children access to high-quality preschool and establish new testing resources to drive opportunity, according to the White House website.
Rokita described himself as being “intimately involved” with the education initiative and insisted the act would prohibit the Department of Education from influencing or forcing a state to adopt specific standards, including Common Core.
In Congress, Rokita serves on the House Education and the Workforce Committee as the K-12 education subcommittee chairman.
He said he and his education subcommittee were able to “gut the most egregious parts” of No Child Left Behind, stop Common Core from being federally mandated, expand states’ rights and make it easier for Indiana to receive funding for schools.
“By anyone’s observation, we really moved the ball downfield,” Rokita said in a copy of the speech. “The entire theme of the work here is New Federalism: transferring authority, responsibility, and yes, money, from Washington to here — a government closer to the people — especially in areas like education.”
The law authorizes Indiana school districts to combine their local funds with federal funds, Rokita said in a copy of the speech. This means federal funds would follow children to their respective schools, which would reward high-performing schools. This pilot program is initially limited to 50 school districts nationwide, but after three years, the cap will be removed.
“Now as you might imagine, not everyone in Washington D.C. agrees with this, and perhaps that’s the case with some of you on this floor,” Rokita said in the copy of the speech. “But here’s the truth: you and your elected school board members working directly with teachers, parents, voters, and taxpayers know what serves Hoosier students best, and you are the most concerned — certainly more than any federal bureaucrat in Washington D.C. — about our kids.”
Alexa Chryssovergis
