Mercedes Schneider transcribed key portions of the debate about the Lee amendment. This amendment would have given parents the right to opt out of federally mandated annual tests.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah explains why he proposed the amendment. Senator Lamar Alexander explains why he opposes it. Senator Patty Murray does as well.
The amendment was defeated, with all Democrats and some Republicans voting it down.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane and Mercedes
I am a bit confused. Parents can and will opt out no matter what Feds or states say, but now states cannot use the Feds as the reason why their child must take the test and they cannot use the opt outers as a reason why they will not receive federal funding. States must also inform parents.
Am I understanding that correctly?
Everytime I read it I am confused.
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Linda, I hope Mercedes will chime in. As I understand it, the feds mandate annual testing, but do not mandate sanctions or punishments. That is the job of the states. The Congress decided not to mandate the parents’ right to opt out, treating that as a state issue. The fact remains that parents can and will opt out no matter what the Congress or state legislatures say. If they do, there will be no federal punishments. Under the status quo, Duncan has the power to withhold state funding if too many students opt out. He hasn’t done it yet but he has that power. If ECAA passes, he will no longer have that power.
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Thank you. Sharing with all here in CT.
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Removal of the threat of using that power may be enough to encourage more opt out support at state and local levels.
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Diane, if that is true about Duncan and company not having the power to withhold federal funds if ECAA passes, then my question to you and Mercedes, or anyone one else out there reading this is this:
Will the states, which are holding the federal funds and are the possessors of the funds, be able to withhold funding from the schools?
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Robert, states have a lot of leeway to write their own laws, but I find it hard to believe that any state would defund any district. ESP if many districts have high opt out numbers
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They want the Feds to punish the school if it doesn’t get 95% participation with the tests. Keep in mind that opting out of testing data collection doesn’t (yet?) keep businesses and governments from obtaining other data such as medical records from school districts.
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“I say to my Republican friends, do we only agree with local control when we agree with the local policy?”
The answer is “yes”.
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Will these legislators insist that the private schools to which they send their little geniuses require these kids to take the tests? No? How come? Won’t poor kids be hurt by them not taking these tests? (Oh, poor kids get hurt because national economic policies privilege these legislators, and their wealthy friends, while doing little to stop discriminatory housing and hiring practices….Oh, that.)
And, since Elizabeth Warren is on the wrong side of this issue, while Ted Cruz is on the right side, you know the gods are having a good laugh at our expense.
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This speaks to why politics creates strange bedfellows, Steve. As a trained mediator of many decades, I have learned that there is an advantage to coalescing with the perceived enemy. Tea Party legislators who abhor Common Core for their own anti-government reasons, are ripe to bring into the ‘saving public education’ tent, and perhaps when they hear our views, some may act more in the real interest of inner city and other poor children than they do for Wall Street and Rheeformers.
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High stakes testing is junk science. Democrats have lost the high road relative to the Republicans that deny evolution and other mainstream science. Pres. Obama campaigned on a platform of sound science.
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Democrats don’t have anything else for public schools other than testing. Their entire education platform consists of tweaking the George W Bush approach. Al Franken’s big contribution was suggesting children just be tested constantly but in an unobtrusive way. He sees ed tech as providing the platform so they won’t know all they do is test! Genius.
I gave up on DC. The best we can hope for is less outright hostility towards public schools – benign neglect. I’d take it.
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You qualify, quantify and stereotype Republicans based upon their views on evolution yet you believe in campaign promises?
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There’s evolution, then there is Donald Trump.
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Trump is a Chump. But he is no better and no worse than the other moronic GOPs running.
Scott Walker looks like a neglected science experiment . . . . and thinks like one as well.
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I will take Trump over Clinton any day. I have had it with the Democrats. Haven’t you learned anything from this Obama era? Are you really going to jump back on and watch public schools disappear? Vote Republican, and hope that they will leave the states alone. Hope that they will get rid of the Department of Education. This marriage between teachers and Democrats is over, as far as I am concerned. I don’t care who the union endorses, and I am not alone. But if you need your illusions….
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No illusions about Republicans here. I live in Ohio.
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Yes, Steve, the Democrats are horrific. You are right.
But be careful about the GOP, because they really will leave the states alone and almost never talk to them, keeping all their time tied up with the Koch brothers, and Eli Broad, just to name a few from a very long 1% list.
And when the GOP leaves us alone, they will make more deals with the overclass to screw the rest of us. Just think about what Paul Ryan wants to do to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. It’s diabolical.
The Democrats are pure phonies, but the GOPs are pure extremists, and they make Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon look like communist hippies.
Of course, there a a handful of decent people on both sides of the aisle; most are garbage.
If you would take Trump over Clinton any day, I would take Sanders over everyone else.
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Robert,
You said :”The Democrats are pure phonies, but the GOPs are pure extremists, and they make Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon look like communist hippies.”
I am old enough to remember both of those guys, and I can say with confidence that Obama is the most anti-labor president we’ve had since Reagan. And Nixon was friendlier toward labor than Obama. In fact, I would say it’s Obama who makes Nixon look like a communist hippy. And I’m old enough to remember the communists and hippies too.
I plan on voting third party; but if I had to choose between the Dems and Repubs, I’d choose the latter only because they’ll get the federal government out of education, and hopefully abolish the Department of Ed. Regarding issues touching on education or labor, there is really no other difference between the two parties.
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The Republicans want to get the federal government out of education only because they control most states. Remember NCLB was Bush’s accomplishment. If Republicans control the federal government, you can be certain USDOE isn’t going anywhere.
Republicans no longer resemble the party I grew up with. They now lack any moderation and seek to dismantle all safety nets and reduce the middle class to rubble. They are not interested in governing, only ruling.
Ohio is a great example. Kasich was re-elected with only 25% of eligible voters. In reality, Ohio is a 50-50 state. But Democrats have no voice in government due to voter suppression and gerrymandering. The first thing Kasich’s far right administration did was purge the GOP party of moderate Republicans or terrorize them into submission. Ohio has been steadily declining, adding only lower wage jobs and, even then, we are almost 3 years where our job growth is below the national average. Kasich responds by giving tax breaks to “job creators” while the true builders of society – teachers – are demonized and destroyed.
Democrats are bad, Republicans are worse. Unless you are one of those trust fund babies or 1%er who teaches for fun, Republicans dismantling of America is a case of be careful what you wish for.
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MathVale,
I get what you are saying. This is why I am voting third party. But Obama has done more damage to public education than any other president of either party. I recall Diane herself writing that in the comment section of one of her posts a couple of months back. She can correct me if I am wrong.
The reality is, we need to get the Democrats to start supporting their traditional base again. They’ve abandoned us completely, and as long as we continue to vote for them without them supporting us in return, they’ll continue to destroy public education. Why should they start supporting public education if teachers and parents will continue to vote for them no matter what? If Hillary is given eight years–and she probably will be–I don’t think public education will survive.
I don’t like the Republicans any more than you do, but in the unlikely event that the Democrats lose in 2016, perhaps they’ll do some soul searching and reach out to their base again.
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Teacher unions should reach out to the Republicans. They should promise support if
A. they get rid of the Dept. of Education and B. they give power back to the states. We have to think differently about all of this. Let each state decide. If you live in a Red state, then you are out of luck, but for those of us in Blue states, it would be much better. The way we are going now means destruction to all states. Think about it.
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Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t politicians be reaching out to voters? I thought they worked for us. If Republicans have better ideas, I’ll listen. But all I’m hearing is the same old “government’s not the solution, government’s the problem” rhetoric.
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Steve,
Can you get rid of the NJDOE while you are at it?
Thanks!
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It just sounds like there is a lot of one-issue voting behavior here. What about SS, Medicare, and Medicaid? Remember those?
Or is it only and exclusively about public education?
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Robert,
I hate to be uncharacteristicly negative here, but it looks to me like it is only a matter of time until the whole safety net is destroyed.
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I understand how you feel.
We will fight all injustices and we will prevail. We are greater in numbers, even if the overclass’s money is greater than ours.
Support Sanders for a start . . . .
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If we want to save public education, teachers and parents need to become one-issue voters.
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IMHO, what is at stake here is far bigger than “just” public education.
It is democracy itself.
It is the ultimate irony that a party that calls it self “Democratic” has been essentially imposing this stuff on people — by decree, as a king would do.
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Incidentally, I don’t get the impression that even Sanders appreciates the critical importance of public education in the grand scheme of things.
If he did, he would not have voted the way he did on the Warren (testing) amendment and the parent opt out amendment
I am confident that he would listen and could be helped to understand, but someone needs to educate him.
I wish I could say the same for Warren, but unfortunately, she reminds me too much of an earlier Obama.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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This is typical behavior for the Democrats.
They do what the party “officials” (President, leaders in House and Senate, governors) tell them to do.
A just-found concern for “states’ rights”? By Democrats?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Good one.
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