WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, joined the majority of his House colleagues in voting to advance S. 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act. S. 1177, which would replace No Child Left Behind, was approved by a bipartisan vote of 359 - 64.

“This long overdue bipartisan bill puts parents, teachers, and students first,” said Upton. “It provides our education system a certainty that has sorely been missing in recent years. I’ve heard from countless Southwest Michigan stakeholders that they wanted the federal government out of the classroom and more flexibility for our local educators – that’s exactly what this bill does.”

Among other bipartisan, commonsense reforms, The Every Student Succeeds Act would:

·         Reduce the federal role in K-12 education by giving local and state officials more flexibility to define what it means for a school to be successful, and how to intervene in schools that continue to fail to live up to expectations.

·         Enable States to determine which standards are best for its schools and prevent the federal government from incentivizing or requiring states to make certain education choices like adopting Common Core.

·         Provide individual school districts more funding flexibility.

·         Remove the high stakes federal consequences for annual assessments. Instead, individual states will now be allowed to determine how those test scores factor into their accountability or funding systems.

·         Empower parents by providing information about local school performance and promoting school of choice options.