Washington, D.C. – The Senate today approved the Every Child Achieves Act, containing language authored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that prevents the federal government from encroaching on individual states’ ability to determine their charter school authorizers, the entities responsible for establishing charter schools’ academic and accountability standards.

Prior to Flake’s amendment, the Every Child Achieves Act failed to recognize that some states have deliberately chosen to appoint charter school authorizers outside of the traditional education structure of a state. As originally written, the federal government would have encouraged states applying for grants to support high-quality charter schools to establish additional standards for authorizers, in many instances contradicting state practices and laws.

Flake successfully amended the legislation to ensure that those states do not have to add an additional layer of bureaucracy to receive grants under the Every Child Achieves Act.

“Washington cannot be a national school board, and that’s why it’s imperative that the federal government continue to encourage states to determine their own authorizing standards and learn what works best for students,” said Flake. “While I believe the Every Child Achieves Act did not go far enough to effectively reform the federal education system, I’m pleased to have helped ensure that the bill better protects the right of individual states to determine charter authorizing standards.”

Additional Information: A letter of support from Center for Education Reform for Flake’s charter school authorizer amendment can be viewed here.

The Senate approved a second amendment offered by Flake that requires the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to evaluate the effectiveness of Early Learning Alignment and Improvement Grants. The amendment will provide transparency in ensuring that this new grant program will improve efficiency and coordination of the use of federal funds for early childhood education programs.

Despite improving the Every Child Achieves Act during the amendment process, Flake was unable to support final passage of the bill due to concerns with other provisions in the legislation. 

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