Lamar Alexander

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I yield back.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, that concludes the votes for now. We are moving along very well. We expect to have votes at 4 p.m. today on amendments by Senators Isakson, Bennet, Lee, and Franken. We may have other votes. Senator Murray and I have a number of amendments that Senators have suggested to us. We would like to move through them today and tomorrow.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Utah for his comments. We will be voting on the Senator's amendment this afternoon at 4 o'clock, and I want to just make a couple of comments about it. I have a little different view of what his proposal is. He talks about our being opposed to Washington's heavyhanded approach. The way I understand his proposal, it is even more of a heavyhanded approach than the bill we are voting on today, and this is why. His proposal is that Washington tells Utah or Oklahoma or Tennessee or Washington State what to do about whether parents may opt out of these federally required tests. Now, they are not federally designed. Utah has its test. Tennessee has its test. They are designed by the States, but they are required. And there would be--since 2001, and this continues that--for example, two tests for a third grader. The testimony would be that it might take 2 hours for each test, so that would be 2 hours for a math test, 2 hours for a science test; then again in the fourth grade, 2 hours for a math test, 2 hours for a science test. I don't think anyone believes those are a great burden on students, it is all the other tests that seem to be required as schools prepared for the tests I just described. What we have done in this legislation is restore to States the power to decide how much these standardized tests count. So the legislation Senator Murray and I have proposed--and that came out of our committee unanimously--for the first time authorizes States to decide whether parents may opt out, may allow their children to opt out of these tests or not. Let me say that again. The legislation that Senators will be voting on, hopefully tomorrow for final passage, allows States to decide for themselves whether parents may vote to opt out of the No Child Left Behind tests. The proposal from the Senator from Utah is a Washington mandate that says to States that Washington will decide that. So our proposal is local control. His, the way I hear it, is Washington knows best. That is like Common Core. The proposal that is on the floor for a vote tomorrow says Washington may not mandate to any of our States what its academic standards should be. That ends the Washington Common Core mandate. In the same bill, why should we put a Washington mandate about whether you can opt out of your test? Why don't we allow States to make that decision? So I say to my Republican friends, especially, do we believe in local control only when we agree with the local policy? I don't think so. The great economist Art Laffer likes to say: States have a right to be right, and States have a right to be wrong. I have a different view. I am going to vote no on the amendment of the Senator from Utah because it takes away from States the right to decide whether and how to use the Federal tests and whether parents may opt out. Why is that a problem? Well, in the following States, States use these tests as part of their State accountability system. They don't have to do it, but they do use it. I am told by the State of Tennessee that if we were to adopt the Utah proposal Federal mandate, that the State would have to come up with a different accountability system. So which States on their own have decided to use these tests as part of their State accountability system? Florida has, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. So I urge my colleagues to vote for the Alexander-Murray proposal because it reverses the trend toward a national school board and specifically allows States to decide whether States may opt out of tests while the amendment goes the other way. It is a Washington mandate that takes away from States the ability to make that decision.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the Senator from Washington is going to speak in just a moment, but while the Senator from Georgia is on the floor, I thank him for his huge contribution to this bill that would fix No Child Left Behind. No committee member has been more valuable than he. He has worked with Senator Murray to include within a provision an important step on early childhood education. He has used his experience as chairman of the Georgia State Board of Education and as a member of the education committee in both the Senate and the House to help us know how to do a better job here. He is the champion of giving parents the right to know whether their State gives them the opportunity to opt out of the federally required tests. That is his amendment today. And he was the sponsor of the amendment that appears in the Alexander-Murray bill, which gives States the express authority to decide whether the parents may opt their children out of the tests. So the Isakson amendment says: Give States the power to provide the opt-out, and it gives parents the opportunity to know enough information to be able to do it. That is consistent with this legislation, which requires the important measurements of achievement so we can know whether children are achieving and whether schools are achieving, but then restores to States and local school boards, classroom teachers, and parents the decisions about how to help those children achieve. That is the kind of local control of education that I think most of us on both sides of the aisle--whether it is the Senator from Montana speaking this morning or the Senator from Georgia speaking this afternoon, that is the spirit of the consensus that guides this bill. Senator Isakson's contribution has been enormous to the right of parents to provide an opt-out of a federally required test for them and their children if they and their State choose to do it. I yield the floor.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I urge a ``no'' vote. This bill is about reversing the trend toward a national school board. The amendment of the Senator from Utah is about more of a national school board. The Alexander-Murray bill expressly says that a State may decide whether to allow parents to opt out of these tests. The Senator's amendment says: Washington knows best; it will tell States what the policy should be. That is like common core. Our bill says: We are eliminating the Washington mandate on common core. He would reinstate a Washington mandate on the opt-out policy. I would say this to my Republican friends: Do we only agree with local control when we agree with the local policy? Art Laffer says: States have a right to be right. States have a right to be wrong. A ``no'' vote is a vote for local control. A ``yes'' vote is a vote for a national school board.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for bringing up the amendment and for the way he has participated in our debate and worked for us to make it possible to get a result. I am going to ask for a ``no'' vote on this amendment. There is no doubt that bullying or harassment of children based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is a terrible problem and has become in some parts of our country even accurately described as an epidemic. But the question is, Is this an argument that is best addressed to the local school board or to the State board of education or to a national school board in Washington, DC? We have 50 million children in 100,000 public schools and 3.5 million teachers. No more set of issues is more difficult to deal with on an individualized basis in a rural area in Alaska or the mountains of Tennessee or the middle of Harlem than a case of harassment or bullying. Teachers, principals, and school advisors deal with those every day. We do not know more about that than they do. The U.S. Department of Education cannot make regulations for that many different kinds of instances. This substitutes the judgment of the people closest to the children, who cherish them--substitutes the judgment of Washington bureaucrats for them. It allows the Federal Government to regulate and dictate local school gender identity policies, such as those related to restrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes. It will lead to costly lawsuits. It is well-intentioned. It is a problem that needs to be addressed, but it should be addressed by the local school board, the State board of education, and not by a national school board in Washington, DC. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 20 seconds to conclude.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the question is whether difficult cases of bullying and harassment of whatever kind in 100,000 schools with 50 million children are best handled by the judgment of men and women close to the children, close to the circumstances, or by Senators in Washington and Federal employees in the U.S. Department of Education. I believe this legitimate concern should be addressed by those who are closest to the children because they cherish the children more and they will care for them. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 14, 2015 at 10 a.m., in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a subcommittee hearing entitled ``Unlocking the Cures for America's Most Deadly Diseases.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 14, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 223, submitted earlier today.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, we have had a good day on our legislation to fix No Child Left Behind. I thank the Senators for their cooperation. We have worked through most issues. I think it is important to note that in our committee consideration, we considered 58 amendments and adopted 29. So far, we have considered 22 on the floor and adopted--well, we have adopted 22 on the floor. Senator Murray--the ranking member--and I have agreed to another couple of dozen amendments from both sides of the aisle; more of them are Democratic than Republican. We are prepared to recommend them to the Senate for adoption by unanimous consent. There are another two dozen amendments; more of them are Democratic than Republican, including several which are important to the Democratic side--the accountability amendment, for example; the early childhood amendment, for example--which I think deserve a vote. I don't support them, but I think they deserve a vote. We are prepared to recommend that the Senate consider them. If we were to do that, we could finish the bill. We have one remaining issue. It is an impasse over a formula funding question, which State gets more money from title I. That is always very difficult. The disputants are two of the most distinguished Members of the Senate. I am confident that they see the larger picture, which is that most Americans expect us to finish this bill and most Senators would expect us to be able to vote on the nearly 50 amendments that I just described. So my hope is that we can come to some agreement; that tomorrow morning even before the cloture vote is scheduled we announce that agreement and we proceed to adopt by unanimous consent the amendments that remain to be adopted and then we vote on the amendments that remain to be voted on, all of which would permit us to finish the bill on Thursday. So I thank Senators for that. I continue to ask for cooperation. I think an excellent example of that cooperation was the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Franken, who withheld his amendment in committee and offered it on the floor in order to make sure the bill passed.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 15; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of S. 1177, with the time until the cloture vote equally divided in the usual form; finally, that the filing deadline for all second-degree amendments to the substitute amendment No. 2089 and the underlying bill, S. 1177, be at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I do agree with the Senator on our goal. We had a good week last week. We had a large number of amendments that were agreed to, a number were adopted in addition to ones we had in committee. We need to finish this week. We need Senators to do what members of the committee did, which is to pursue a result exercising some restraint. If we all insist on everything we have a right to insist on, nothing would ever happen. As Senator Murray said, teachers, Governors, school boards, and parents are expecting us to get this job done. We can do it. The House did its part last week. We can finish our work this week. Put it together and then she is correct, we want a result, not just a political speech, which means we need to have the President's signature in the end. So we have a bipartisan process. We are 7 years overdue. This is a bill everybody in the country who cares about education wants us to act on. We have had a remarkable consensus on what we need to do. Basically, what we are saying is that we want to keep the important measurements of student achievement so parents and teachers and communities can know how children are doing, how schools are doing, whether anyone is being left behind, but we want to restore to States and local school boards and communities and classroom teachers the responsibility for deciding what to do about the results of those tests and make sure they are appropriate and make sure there are not too many tests. We believe that is the real way to improve teaching, to improve schools, and to have real accountability. So we have taken lots of different opinions and we have put them together in a bill. I was thinking over the weekend, having a bill on elementary and secondary education is like going to a football game at the University of Tennessee. There are 100,000 people in the stands, and they all are experts on football, whether it is Iowa or Washington or Tennessee. Well, we are all experts--and so are most of our citizens experts on education--but we need to have a consensus here. We are close to one. I thank Senator Murray and the majority leader and the Democratic leader for creating an environment in which we so far have been able to succeed.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Reserving the right to object, I ask the Presiding Officer, are we in morning business?

Mr. ALEXANDER. I have no objection.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Devon Brenner, an education fellow in Senator Cochran's office, be granted floor privileges through May 31, 2016.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I see that the majority leader has filed cloture on the bill, which I understand. We have had a chance to have a good discussion and a good debate. We are getting toward the end of the consideration of our bill to fix No Child Left Behind. We have a couple of issues that we need to resolve, but there are only a couple, and for a bill this complicated, that is pretty good. So it would be my hope that we could continue on through the process, and the majority leader might even get to the point later in the week where he would be able to vitiate the cloture, and we could finish without a cloture vote. So far, so good. We have considered 58 amendments in committee and adopted 29. We have considered 25 on the floor, adopted 8 by rollcall, 11 by voice, and we have dozens more that have been agreed to by Senator Murray and me and that we would recommend to the Senate that we complete. So it is my hope that Senators will allow us to have a consensus about this bill. As was said by Newsweek magazine last week, this is the Education bill that everybody wants fixed, and we are the ones who are supposed to fix it. So while there are some issues toward the end that are a little more difficult to resolve than others, I hope Senators will agree that people have had a chance to have their say on education issues and that we can go on to the other important issues facing the country. I thank the Republican leader for giving us an opportunity to put this on the floor. I thank the Democratic leader for allowing us to move to the floor without delay. I hope we can continue over the next couple of days and finish the bill this week and get on to other important issues. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendments be dispensed with.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.