Noem Supports Legislation to Give Local Entities Greater Control of Education; Helps pass first education overhaul since 2002

noem press header kristi noem headshot May 21 2014Noem Supports Legislation to Give Local Entities Greater Control of Education

Helps pass first education overhaul since 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kristi Noem today supported the Every Student Succeeds Act, which represents the first major education overhaul since No Child Left Behind in 2002.  The legislation, which passed the House with bipartisan support, reduces the federal role in K-12 education, restores local control, and empowers parents.

“I believe those closest to our kids – parents, teachers, local school districts, state governments – make the best decisions about how to educate our young people,” said Rep. Noem.  “The Every Student Succeeds Act finally gets us away from having the federal government micromanage local classrooms.  The legislation gives states much greater flexibility to spend money in a way that benefits their students most.  It empowers parents to hold schools accountable, not the federal government. It modernizes the Impact Aid program, which many South Dakota schools rely on.  And maybe most notably, the Every Student Succeeds Act ensures the federal government can’t pressure states into adopting specific academic standards like the Common Core.”

The Every Student Succeeds Act also includes language based on Rep. Noem’s Local Taxpayer Relief Act, which modernizes and streamlines the federal Impact Aid program.  Created in 1950, the Impact Aid program provides payments from the federal government to local school districts to make up for local taxes lost on account of federal land within their school districts, such as military bases, national parks, or federal grasslands.

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24 thoughts on “Noem Supports Legislation to Give Local Entities Greater Control of Education; Helps pass first education overhaul since 2002”

  1. –“I believe those closest to our kids – parents, teachers, local school districts, state governments – make the best decisions about how to educate our young people,” said Rep. Noem.

    If true, then no more federal funding and no more federal mandates.

    1. Then cut federal taxes and allow the local governments to institute taxes to make up for the funds.

      1. Well ,there’s the REAL problem right?

        Federal funding for K-12 education was ALL BORROWED!

        Cutting federal funding only means a smaller deficit…see?

        Cutting federal taxes ad cuts in K-12 funding would simply mean MORE deficit spending.

        It’s federal SPENDING that’s the problem, not federal taxes!

  2. How can the Demosocialessives indoctrinate our youth without total control? Don’t we all want our kids to be good little drones of the government? After all, it’s the Demos that believe that the kids belong to the borg.

    1. The hell are you talking about? This is a bipartisan piece of legislation. Everyone should be celebrating the death of George Bush’s NCLB. The ESSA isn’t a panacea by any stretch, but it does get rid of a lot of the crap NCLB saddled us with.

            1. Huh. Well blow me down. So who was president for 7 of the 9 years in your date range? When did NCLB become law? How did it affect the DOE budget? Has the DOE budget significantly increased under the current administration? Which branch of govt is responsible for appropriations? Are you saying NCLB was a waste and needed to be replaced? We’re you dropped on your head as a child?

              1. -=-Are you saying NCLB was a waste and needed to be replaced?

                Not quite. Get rid go all federal funding of for K-12; don’t replace TJ, just get rid of it.

                Yes, I made that clear at 1:30.

                  1. 1. K-12 education is a STATE obligation. Let the state decide.
                    2. Leave it to the poor districts to develop economies to increase the tax base
                    3. Less funding does not correlate to less academic achievement.

                    got it chump?

                    1. 1. What state tax do you support to raise to cover the cost?

                      2. I’m sure Toyota is champing at the bit to open a plant in Todd County.

                      3. So why fund at all? Why not just give $0 if money doesn’t help achievement.

                    2. 1. Whatever tax(es) the state decides is appropriate. Sales on goods & services, income, estate, personal property, gas, use–whatever the voters choose
                      2. a. Then Todd County must either choose to make its biz climate more amenable, or suffer the consequences–that’s democracy.
                      b. Are you suggesting that Todd County residents are too dumb to know that or to vote to make their own county more livable, attractive, and educated?
                      c. Why should other counties or citizens of SD or the US subsidize ongoing dysfunction wherever it might be found?
                      3. Don’t be silly. Get serious or go way troll.

  3. 1. I’m fairly certain the voters will choose that the Fed continue to foot a sizable chunk of the bill. Free is always better.

    2. a. I don’t think the small number of folks in Todd County have the political voice to do what you suggest.

    b. Not at all. Kinda hard to do though when the playing field is tilted so strongly against them.

    c. OMG. Really? Really? While I agree with you in pure sentiment, the reality is that what you’re saying is unachievable within the framework of human nature. Cripes – you sound more idealistic than any Democrat I know of.

    3. I was serious – Your assertion that money =/= achievement is demonstrably false if we set the dollar limit low enough. So where is that bottom limit? Do you want to be the one to throw the first dart and risk the lives and minds of a generation? How do you account for factors of access, wealth, and opportunity over such a diverse landscape and population?

  4. I’m well aware the voters tend to choose Santa Claus over paying another tax. That does not mean that we should not try to educate and convince folks to get Santa to loose a few pounds.
    I still have faith that the voters in Todd County and SD and the US still have the strength to make better decisions for themselves than a pinhead in the US DOE. Why? 50+ years of living and working and worshipping with folks of all kinds from all kinds of places.
    Ah yes, the old titled playing field excuse. When one chooses to play on the titled playing field for decades, demanding others fix that playing field, yet doing little on their own to fix it, at some point, you OWN the tilted playing field. One cannot have it both ways forever.

    “Your assertion that money =/= achievement is demonstrably false if we set the dollar limit low enough. So where is that bottom limit?”

    That’s not what I wrote. The silliness after your “if” is well, silly.

    Bottom limit? Maybe we should ask successful home schoolers and parochial schools and poorer public schools on how they do. What we do know is that one size fits all (NCLB, Race to the Top, and on and on) and blanket funding increases does not fit most and does not efficiently improve academic performance.

    “How do you account for factors of access, wealth, and opportunity over such a diverse landscape and population?”

    The increasing dearth of parents in committed relationships.

    1. It’s hardly silly – SOME number of dollars are required for educating a child. So what’s that amount? You talk of differing circumstances and rail at a one-size-fits-all approach, but in the next breath you say that the numbers don’t matter, and that we should look a homeschooling and private schools. Are they free? What dollar amount is necessary for one spouse to quit a career to teach the kids, or what dollar amount is necessary to keep a private school open vs. a public school? Are the opportunities the same between public, private, and home?

      I won’t even begin to address your level playing field tripe – Todd County could easily be as wealthy as Lincoln County if they would just TRY HARDER! Never mind geography, access, social mores, culture, population, and income disparities.

      1. “So what’s that amount?”

        I’ve already stated that it should be up the state or district. I don’t know what Todd County needs any more than they know what my district needs. What do you think is the amount?

        ” but in the next breath you say that the numbers don’t matter, ”

        Well no I did not. If you wish to engage, then engage and stop trolling.

        “Todd County could easily be as wealthy as Lincoln County if they would just TRY HARDER! ”

        I’m not sure that Todd County, or any other county, would want the “wealth” of Lincoln County. Even with all its “wealth”, Lincoln County has a myriad of other problems not found or desired in Todd County. No need to “try harder”–“try different” might be the solution. Instead of looking around for solutions, maybe the solution or part of the solution is inside?

        “Never mind geography, access, social mores, culture, population, and income disparities.”

        Nor should one use those as excuses, or crutches, or explanations for the lack of success or success. Unlike you, I do believe that they are factors–not determinative factors, but factors all the same. What we do know is that DC’s cookie cutter and cut the check approach isn’t really doing much to improve K-12 education.

        1. Yeah, that cookie-cutter thing. You do understand that I agree largely with your assertion, and that’s why I am guardedly optimistic that the ESSA’s block grants to states will do more good than the NCLB mess ever did.

          1. At least the NCLB aimed for accountability.

            Like Race to the Top, which was little more than political payback, ESSA has even less accountability. You see it with GEAR UP, and on and on.

            Its time to wean K-12 off of the federal teat.

      2. “your level playing field tripe ”

        Actually, the level/unlevel playing field tripe was yours, not mine.

        Do you know what you write?

  5. If simply more money were the answer, Todd County and similar counties in SD and Washington DC would have the most successful students in the entire country!!

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