Senate ESEA Reauthorization Update for July 15, 2015
On July 15, 2015, the Senate voted by roll call on five amendments related to the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, the Senate’s version of the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.
The first roll call vote concerned cloture, which was proposed on July 13, 2015, and which might be thought of as a proposal to move from green light to yellow. Filing for cloture sets a deadline for filing new amendments. Motions for cloture are generally voted on two days following filing, after the Senate has been in session for one hour on that second day. On July 15, 2015, the vote for cloture regarding the Senate’s ESEA reauth was taken. A three-fifths majority is needed for cloture to pass. The final vote was 86-12.
The passage of the cloture motion means that consideration of amendments will also proceed more quickly.
Four additional amendments were voted on in roll call on July 15, 2015. All were rejected:
Senator Murphy’s (D-CT) amendment 2241, which at this time is only generally described as “to amend accountability provisions.” However, pro-testing organizations like Education Trust, Stand for Children, Teach for America, and Democrats for Education Reform supported it. Here is part of their promo:
States must be required to identify schools where all students or any group of students are not meeting goals and to intervene in ways that raise achievement for students not meeting state standards. We need accountability for schools where groups of students are not making progress, for the lowest performing schools, and for schools with very low graduation rates.
Amendment 2241 was rejected by a vote of 43-54, with 41 Democrats, one Republican, and Sanders (Independent) voting in favor; 51 Republicans, two Democrats (Tester and Shaheen), and King (Independent) voted against.
Senator Kirk’s (R-IL) amendment 2161, “to ensure that States measure and report on indicators of student access to critical educational resources and identify disparities in such resources, and for other purposes,” was rejected 46-50. Democrats and Sanders wanted it; only two Republicans voted in favor, and one of those was Kirk, Senate ESEA Reauthorization Update for July 15, 2015 | deutsch29: