Representatives from the National Education Association, including current NEA president and past Utah Education Teacher of the Year Lily Eskelsen Garcia, gathered at the White House Thursday to watch as President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA.
NEA's Director of Government Relations, Mary Kusler, has been working with lawmakers in Washington, DC to lobby for the ESSA that she said will give states more control over how public education is monitored and improved.
“It has been a busy day but a wonderful day,” said Kusler. “Not only for myself, who has worked on this for many years, but most importantly for Americas children.”
Now that the act has been signed by the president Kusler is pushing for the public to move away from what she said are the side effects of the No Child Left Behind law which has directed education policy since 2002.
“This will ensure that all students will have an opportunity for a great public education regardless of their zip code,” she said.
One of the major provisions of the ESSA includes a repeal of the annual federal yearly progress reports. Kusler and others from the NEA are providing tools to they said will be needed to assist state education association leaders, including those from the Utah Education Association, to create a state-designed accountability system.
“To remove the Federal Government from making decision in Americas classrooms and instead puts it back into the hands of the people in Utah who know the names of the students in the classroom…the educators, communities, local school boards, school administrators, even state legislators,” she said.
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