The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, a bipartisan bill to revise and replace No Child Left Behind.
Regardless of race, income, or zip code, all of America’s students deserve a chance to go as far as their dreams and effort will take them.
Today, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, a bipartisan bill to revise and replace No Child Left Behind. This new law helps states and districts reduce unnecessary standardized tests, gets rid of one-size-fits-all mandates on our schools, ensures that our education system will prepare every child to graduate from high school ready for college and careers, and provides more children access to high-quality state preschool programs.
Shortly after the signing, President Obama took to his Facebook page to talk about what this means for teachers, students and parents across the country:
As President – and as a parent – I want to ensure that every young person in America has access to quality schools that will enable them to fulfill their potential. That's why I just signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, a bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support to fix No Child Left Behind and improve opportunities for the nearly 50 million children in our nation’s schools.
Posted by President Obama on Thursday, December 10, 2015
If you want to know more about how this new law affects our schools and communities, join us for a Facebook Q&A at 5:45pm ET where we’ll be taking your questions here.
Since President Obama took office, we've made historic progress: More high school students are graduating on time than ever before, and dropout rates have hit historic lows. This new bill will cement the progress we’ve made and better position students to be college and career ready.
Also under the President, we’ve made strong investments in student aid for college with a far simpler Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and the new College Scorecard are helping to give all students the opportunity to go to college by providing them with the right tools for success. In October, the First Lady launched the Better Make Room campaign to leverage traditional and new media platforms to inspire and help students take the next step to pursue and complete some post-secondary education.
And today, the First Lady Michelle Obama, Saturday Night Live’s Jay Pharoah and College Humor came together to share why college is so important:
Laura Miller is Deputy Director of Online Engagement for the Office of Digital Strategy
