WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, the United States Senate passed a major education reform bill that includes provisions authored by U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) to grant states greater opportunity to pursue innovative testing systems, provide students across the country with greater access to the Internet and other digital learning tools outside of the classroom, and promote local governance in education.

“Decisions about what happens in the classroom should be made at the local level – not by someone behind a desk in Washington,” Senator King said. “Maine’s parents, teachers, and local school administrators understand what their students need to succeed, and this bill rightly returns control to them. By easing testing requirements, we’re giving our teachers the power to focus classroom time on the things that truly improve student learning, and by bringing the Internet to students, we can close the homework gap and ensure that the next generation of learners – particularly those in rural America – aren’t left behind. At the end of the day, Washington should be a partner in education, not a roadblock, and this bill is a concrete step in that direction.”

The Senate this afternoon passed the Every Child Achieves Act. The bipartisan legislation reauthorizes funding for early and secondary education while making significant reforms to the previous reauthorization from 2002 known as No Child Left Behind. Senator King secured the following provisions in the bill:

• An amendment that would allow states like Maine greater flexibility to develop and test out proficiency-based assessment systems in lieu of federally-mandated statewide tests. Senator King successfully advocated for a pilot program that grants states greater flexibility related to federal testing requirements. As Senator King has seen first-hand while touring schools in the state, Maine is a leader in advancing a proficiency-based learning model and this pilot program will provide states like Maine the opportunity to innovate and advance more robust assessment systems in the years to come.

• An amendment – inspired by an innovative educational initiative in Washington County – that would ensure digital services or devices that help students access the Internet outside of the school day, like mobile hotspots, are eligible for technology funding under the bill’s I-TECH program. The amendment is based in part on the Digital Learning Equity Act of 2015, introduced by Senator King and Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) earlier this year.

• An amendment, also based in part on the Digital Learning Equity Act, that would direct the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to conduct a national study of the data associated with the barriers to students having Internet access at home, how educators are adjusting classroom instruction to cope with this challenge, and how a lack of home Internet access impacts student participation and engagement.

• An amendment, cosponsored with Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), that would promote greater local control in the classroom by encouraging the Secretary of Education to receive greater input from local stakeholders like school boards before developing any new regulations or guidance.

The legislation, which passed the Senate by a vote of 81-17, is the first time in thirteen years that the Senate has acted to pass a bipartisan K-12 education bill. It will now proceed to a conference committee with the House of Representatives.

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