GOP candidates join testing opt-out movement
Conservative presidential hopefuls in the Senate are trying to keep their talking points on education trendy.
Republican presidential hopefuls in the Senate have joined the fast-growing movement encouraging students to opt out of the standardized tests that have become a part of everyday life in American schools.
The emphasis on testing has only been been ratcheted up in the era of Common Core, the education standards backed by Jeb Bush but vilified by most other Republicans. The new national political interest in testing could give even more momentum to the calls from thousands of parents and state lawmakers for students to skip the tests, despite threats from the federal government to cut off federal dollars if too few kids show up on exam day.
Story Continued Below
In a twist, the issue is putting conservatives on the same side of the issue as teachers unions and parents and even some Democrats, all of whom have called for cutting back on testing and the consequences that can result from the scores.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) concentrated on opt-out issues last week during their chamber’s debate on No Child Left Behind, rejecting the standardized tests mandated by the George W. Bush-era law. Cruz, Paul and others offered amendments designed to ensure the government keeps its hands off of students’ opt-out rights.
In April and May, thousands of students skipped testing in states including New York and Pennsylvania. In Washington state, preliminary results showed fewer than half of high school juniors took new Common Core-aligned tests this spring.
State legislatures are responding. The Oregon state legislature passed a bill in late June, for example, to ensure parents can easily choose to keep students from being tested over objections from the Obama administration. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill, while pledging to protect federal dollars. In Delaware and New Hampshire, opt out bills have cleared the state legislature but were vetoed by Democratic governors.
Opponents say opting out of standardized tests destroys the ability to get an accurate read on how students are performing in school and where achievement gaps between disadvantaged students and their peers lie.
Last week, the Senate passed a version of the No Child Left Behind education bill that includes a compromise on the opt-out issue. But for the presidential contenders in the Senate, the compromise, compounded with other provisions in the bill, wasn’t good enough.
The Senate bill “retains some of No Child Left Behind’s biggest flaws,” Paul said in a statement, which are “a lack of adequate parental choice, a federal testing
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/gop-candidates-join-testing-opt-out-movement-120318.html#ixzz3gRoOslnq
