Arizona Attorney General Says Parents Have No Legal Right To Opt Children Out Of State Standardized Tests

From the Arizona Capital Times:

Parents of students in public schools have no legal right to withdraw their children or opt out of statewide standardized tests, Attorney General Mark Brnovich concluded today.

In a formal opinion, Brnovich acknowledged that state law does permit parents to exempt their children from certain learning materials and activities they find objectionable. That even includes keeping them out of a class or lesson where the material is being used or discussed.

But Brnovich, in response to a question raised by state schools chief Diane Douglas, said standardized tests are “separate and distinct” from such materials or activities. And he said nothing in the exemption law specifically includes a right to withdraw from standardized tests.

The attorney general also rejected Douglas’ suggestion that parents gained new rights in 2010 when the Legislature passed a “Parents Bill of Rights.”

That law, he said details the obligation of local school boards to ensure they inform parents about their rights to opt out of certain assignments. It also includes the ability to refuse to have children immunized and the right not to have children taught about AIDS.

But nowhere in that law, Brnovich said, did lawmakers include testing.

“The Legislature’s failure to include such a right is especially telling because the statute specifically mentions the ‘right to review test results’ and the `right to receive a school report card,’” he wrote.

Yet Brnovich pointed out that, even in amending the law in 2010, the Legislature did not see fit to include opting out of testing in that list. And he said that when lawmakers make an extensive list like this, it is presumed they know what is not on it.

So in Arizona a parent has a right to opt their children out of immunization and AIDS education but not the state tests.

Think about that - think about the values inherent in such a "law".

Arizona Changes Name Of Common Core Standards

I posted earlier this week about a movement across the country, from Arizona to Maryland, to rename the Common Core State Standards something else in order to try and quash the political controversy that is arising around the implementation of the standards.

It seems Common Core proponents think Common Core critics and opponents are too stupid to figure out that all education reformers are looking to do is change the name Common Core State Standards to something less controversial, not actually change the standards themselves to something less controversial.

The Arizona Daily Star reports the great state of Arizona has gone ahead with name change:

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer ordered her agencies to stop using the term “Common Core’’ when referring to new education standards, in response to hostility from critics over what they see as a federal intrusion.

In an executive order, the governor said she was “reaffirming Arizona’s right to set education policy.” Her order spells out “no standards or curriculum shall be imposed on Arizona by the federal government.”

But it concedes the standards adopted by the state Board of Education in 2010 already are being implemented. And Brewer herself referred to them as Common Core in her State of the State speech and her budget request to the Legislature.

Press aide Andrew Wilder said the order changes nothing except the name, which going forward will be “Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards.’’

The move comes amid mounting opposition by some, notably tea-party organizations, to what members contend are standards being imposed on Arizona by those outside the state. State Rep. Carl Seel, R-Phoenix, one of the foes, said he believes Brewer is trying to blunt the opposition by confusing the issue.

He said people now call state agencies to ask them the status of Common Core standards. With Brewer’s action, he said, callers will be told that Common Core no longer exists, lulling them into believing the new standards have been scrapped .

“This is just changing the window dressing,” said Diane Douglas, a Republican running for state school superintendent. She remains convinced that, whatever the name, the standards being implemented are essentially being forced on Arizona by the federal government.

If you tried to make this stuff up in a novel, you'd get criticized for dealing in caricature, not real characters and events.

But no, this is real.

The state of Arizona now says the Common Core State Standards "no longer exist" in the great state of Arizona, that Governor Jan Brewer has reaffirmed "Arizona’s right to set education policy" and made explicit that “no standards or curriculum shall be imposed on Arizona by the federal government.”

Except that the Common Core does still exist in Arizona, it is still being implemented in Arizona classrooms, and even the governor's press aide admits that the executive order signed by Brewer changes nothing about Common Core except the name.

Do these people really think critics and opponents are going to be thrown off the trail by a name change?

It's like they think critics and opponents are all Elmer Fudd's asking a disguised Bugs Bunny which way the wabbit went.

That this is the strategy these so-called Best and Brightest have come up with to push back against Common Core opponents shows you just how much damage the attacks against them have done and how bereft of ideas the reformers are to defend their own agenda.