WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today introduced a bill to preserve state education autonomy by prohibiting the federal government from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core. (Audio and video from Senator Roberts HERE)

“Setting high standards for our schools, our teachers and our children is the right thing to do, but those standards should be decided in Kansas, without bribes or mandates from Washington,” Senator Roberts said. “We need to get the federal government out of the classroom, and return community decisions back to where they belong - in the community.”

Kansans Against Common Core leaders Kristin George and Megan King applauded the legislation saying, “We support efforts to stop Common Core, and reclaim local control of education in Kansas.  We appreciate Senator Roberts introducing legislation to limit the federal overreach in education, and we urge Kansas legislators to follow his example in restoring local control.”

Designed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2007, Common Core was an effort to raise math and reading standards for students across the country. States could adopt Common Core voluntarily.

In defiance of federal law, the Obama Administration began coercing states to implement Common Core. They required states to adopt Common Core standards to receive federal funding under the Obama administration's multibillion-dollar Race to the Top (RTT) program and used federal funds to develop Common Core-aligned tests.

Roberts’ legislation, the Learning Opportunities Created At the Local (LOCAL) Level Act would strictly forbid the federal government from intervening in a state’s education standards, curricula, and assessments through the use of incentives, mandates, grants, waivers or any other form of manipulation. Text of the bill can be found here.

The legislation also includes a Sense of Congress that states and local educational agencies should maintain the rights and responsibilities of determining educational curricula, programs of instruction, and assessments for elementary and secondary education. 

“Unfortunately, it is evident that certain waivers from onerous education requirements have been granted only to those states that agree to implement the White House’s preferred education policies,” Roberts said. “In fact, The New York Times has referred to the waiver process as ‘the most sweeping use of executive authority to rewrite federal education law since Washington expanded its involvement in education in the 1960s.’ My bill ensures States retain their authority to determine the curriculum and standards that are best for their students.”

Senator Roberts is an outspoken opponent of the RTT grant program, a main vehicle the Obama Administration uses to force states to adopt Common Core. In June of 2013, during the Senate  HELP Committee’s consideration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Senator Roberts introduced amendments to end RTT.

In April of 2013, Roberts joined nine Senators in sending a letter to the Appropriations Committee to prohibit federal funds to be spent developing education curriculum or standards including Common Core.

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