WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today called on Senate appropriators to prohibit federal interference in determining state education standards and curriculum.

“The federal government should not be using enticements, grants and waivers to influence state decisions on academic curriculum,” Roberts said. “Those decisions are best made by state and local governments without interference from Washington.”

Roberts joined Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo) in sending a letter to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, requesting language in the Fiscal Year 2015 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill to limit such federal interference.

The following is the text of the letter, sent Friday, April 4, 2014:

Dear Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Moran:

We ask that the Fiscal Year 2015 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill include language to restore state decision-making and accountability with respect to state academic content standards. The decision about what students should be taught and when it should be taught has enormous consequences for our children. Therefore, parents ought to have a straight line of accountability to those who are making such decisions. Those decisions should be made at the state or local level, free from any pressure from the U.S. Department of Education.

We support eliminating further interference by the U.S. Department of Education with respect to state decisions on academic content standards by including the following language in the Fiscal Year 2015 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill:

(a) In General.—Funds appropriated under this Act or any prior Act shall not be used by the Secretary of Education—

(1) to require a State or local educational agency to develop or implement any set of academic content standards common to multiple States, including the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, or any other specified set or type of academic content standards selected by the Secretary, or assessments aligned with such standards, including as a condition of approval of a State plan submitted to the Secretary, an application for a waiver issued by such Secretary under section 9401 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7861), or as a condition of approval or competitive preference for an award of Federal funds under any grant, contract, or cooperative agreement;

(2) to establish any criterion that specifies, defines, or prescribes the standards or measures that a State or local educational agency uses to establish, implement, or improve academic content standards, academic achievement standards, academic assessments, accountability systems, systems that measure student growth, measures of other academic indicators, or teacher and principal evaluation systems; or

(3) to award any grant, contract, or cooperative agreement to a consortium of States that requires or specifically authorizes the development of assessments aligned with any set of academic content standards common to multiple States, including the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, or any other specified set or type of academic content standards selected by the Secretary.

(b) Rule of Construction.—Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to limit the discretion of an individual State or local education agency to use funds provided through a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement that does not otherwise violate subsection (a) for any purpose consistent with the terms of the grant, contract, or cooperative agreement, including the development or implementation of any set of content standards, assessments, or curricula that the State or local educational agency chooses to develop or implement without regard to a Federal requirement or incentive.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

The following groups support the letter: Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America, Home School Legal Defense Association, Family Research Council, American Principles Project/American Principles in Action, Bill Evers, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, Research Fellow with the Hoover Institution, Campaign for Liberty and Truth in American Education.

In January, Senator Roberts introduced a bill called the Learning Opportunities Created At the Local (LOCAL) Level Act that 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. For more on the bill and bill text, go here. The legislation is endorsed by Kansans Against Common Core and FreedomWorks. It has received a positive response from Americans for Prosperity, Kansas.

Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.  

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