Sen. Bennet Puts Students & Families First During ESEA Reauthroization

Blogs, Letters & Testimonials

July 7, 2015

DFERCO

 

Major federal education policy hasn’t been passed in 14 years, since the writing and passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and today marks the start of the debate in Congress re-writing this law, which actually expired eight years ago. NCLB passed in 2001 with bi-partisan support, but its done very little to improve public education and our schools.

Since his election in 2009, Sen. Michael Bennet has served as a critical education reform voice. He has managed to work with both sides of the political aisle in DC and in his home state of Colorado to make sure policymakers put the needs of students and families first.

Bennet Family

 

It was great to see the op-ed yesterday penned by Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the wise approach to this important discussion, they argue—let’s examine what works for our kids and invest in such work. Hatch and Bennet do more than just talk—both Senators sit on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which passed a bill to update the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA). With their bi-partisan amendment, they have created an evidence-based innovation fund that will try new ideas, and then invest in scaling those ideas that have demonstrated success. Sounds easy. Well, we know it isn’t and we know these discussions will take a long time to come to an agreement through the process. But with Senators Bennet, Hatch, Murray and some other key voices, DFER-CO is hopeful that this re-write of our nation’s main federal K-12 education law will go as fast as Congressman Frank Underwood got his education bill passed in season one of House of Cards.

Stay tuned as the debate roars on. We will have updates along the way.

Thanks for your support and thank you Senator Bennet for doing what’s best for our kids.

Jen Walmer
DFER-CO State Director