Bipartisan Agreement in U.S. Senate Drives ESEA Forward
Today, Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) released a bipartisan bill on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). A summary of the bill, dubbed the Every Child Achieves Act, can be found here. The full bill can be found here.
Chairman Alexander has scheduled a HELP Committee markup of the bill for April 14. Members of the committee will be able to offer amendments to the bill during the markup, which is expected to take several days (and perhaps even the whole week, given other scheduled hearings). Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray intend to work with Senate leadership to move the bill to the floor in the coming months.
Concurrently, the U.S. House of Representatives is working on bringing its version of ESEA back to the floor for continued consideration in the coming months.
After their work on ESEA, both the House and Senate education committees will turn their attention to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Please see this blog for the initial work by the HELP committee on HEA and how you can participate.
Tags: elementary education, federal issues, secondary education
