Today, the U.S. Senate passed the bipartisan Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (S. 1177). This legislation, which fixes No Child Left Behind, contained two bipartisan efforts offered by U.S. Senator Dean Heller. Background information on each provision as well as PDF copies can be found below. Following Senate passage, Senator Heller offered this statement:
“Ensuring that our nation’s youth have access to a high-quality education and are prepared to compete in the 21st century is a priority of mine, which is why I was proud to contribute to this education bill. My wife Lynne has been a teacher in Nevada for many years, and I have seen firsthand the hard work she and her colleagues put in to improve the educational environment for Nevada’s students. My bipartisan provisions help our students by keeping them safe and preparing them to succeed in higher education and the workforce,” said Senator Dean Heller. “With passage of this bipartisan education reform legislation, the Senate has proven yet again that it is back to work – this time providing Nevada’s teachers and their students with the tools they need to succeed.”
Heller Provisions Included in Final Passage:
· Senator Heller teamed with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) on an amendment to require governors of states to be consulted during the development of a state education plan to improve education and workforce readiness. The amendment also includes a 30-day “shot clock” for a state’s governor to approve the plan before it is submitted to the Secretary of Education. Last week, Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NV) applauded the amendment with this statement.
· Senator Heller joined Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in introducing legislation to equip local school districts with the resources they need to develop or enhance child sexual abuse awareness and prevention efforts.
· Senator Heller also cosponsored Senator Pat Toomey’s (R-PA) amendment, which prohibits federal funds from going to schools that help an employee or contractor get a new job when there is credible information that the individual engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor.
Thank goodness something is getting done in Washington! I now live in Nevada, and while I am a Democrat, I applaud Senator Heller on his work on the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (S. 1177). It is great to see this bipartisan action, finally. I have contacted Senator Heller on many issues and, while we disagree on a lot of them, he always answers me with a letter. It is appreciated.
Why are we messing around with education reforms constantly? I am a former teacher in Washoe County and cannot understand why so many layers of bureaucracy keep being stacked one upon the other. Too many regulations do not fix the problems – the system becomes more complex. Now the schools are saddled with having portal systems implemented in schools for safety. Is this really going to fix anything? How wonderful it was when I taught to be able to walk into the campus without heavy security – this is heavy for young children to always be on guard. We felt safe – is that not an option anymore?
It is annoying that those in Washington only count doing something as passing a bill, even when the bill is in violation of the Constitution. There is no authority in the Constitution for the congress to pass any law regarding education.
The Federal Government of the United States is a LIMITED Government bound by the Constitution to only that which the Constitution authorizes. This is made very clear in the Tenth Amendment which states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
From the 9th grade forward we need to replace a high percentage of the curriculum with vocational courses that will prepare our youth to walk into a job out of high school without going on to college.
When I was a CFO for a machine tool company we signed up as many students from a local Catholic High School that took machine shop and multi-axis machine tool programing for high paying jobs as fast as they graduated. We need a whole array of vocational courses that identify with the future workforce needs as jobs are brought back to America with American progressive economic policies that put Americans back to work as opposed to their alien counterparts. Bringing back a fair balance of trade and jobs will reduce our national debt and smack of trying to bring back the manufacturing base that won WWII. To heck with the “new world order” boys and their anti-American agenda.