Senators Lynne Pancrazi, David Bradley, and Barbara McGuire shocked constituents on Monday when they reversed their opposition to high-stakes testing and joined a handful of Republicans in killing Sen. Sylvia Allen’s “opt out” bill. The chambers of commerce were the primary opponents to the bill that would have affirmed a parent’s right to opt their children out of high-stakes testing.
The senators supported parents and classroom teachers last year, when they voted in support of Rep. Chris Ackerly’s “opt out” bill.
Sen. Bob Worsley, Steve Pierce, Jeff Dial, and Adam Driggs are the chambers’ go-to-crony capitalists and they held sway over Sen. John Kavanagh, a former police officer who is best known for his strident opposition to civil liberties, and Sen. Debbie Lesko, best known for being a stooge for anti-corporate tax lobbyists.
Although teachers’ unions across the country support “opt out” legislation, the unions in Arizona ignored their membership and at first claimed neutrality on the bill. It is well-known that the unions have been gutted in Arizona, and have become the tools of the Arizona School Board Association, which is essentially controlled by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Sen. Allen implored her fellow senators on behalf of parents across the state. Her impassioned plea for the mothers she represents did not fall on deaf ears, and many believe that her colleagues will ask that the bill be returned for reconsideration.
During the vote, Pierce, an unpopular figure who is termed-out of office and will not return next year, smiled broadly. Sources say he appeared to enjoy the “pain he was inflicting on the peons.” Kavanagh strutted around the floor in a pompous fashion as Senate President Andy Biggs urged the senators to support parents.
Immediately after the vote, Biggs told his fellow senators that it “was a bad day” for the Senate. He stated that he was “bummed.”
“Senator Biggs was “bummed”? I suppose he still had a better day than the parents who have been threatened and intimidated by teachers and school officials in to taking a test they know is invalid, unreliable, and has very little to do with academics. I suspect he also had a better day that the parents who called the Department of Education looking for support and were told, in essence, at the school house door they lose their parental rights. If any of the senators who voted no on this bill would like supporting documentation about these incidents, we’re happy to sit down with them and go over them in explicit detail. We’re happy to share. In the interim, I’d suggest all of the no votes re-read Meyer v. Nebraska, and all subsequent SCOTUS decisions since 1923, on the issue of parental authority. They might also like to take a peek at the Arizona State Constitution, if they know how to find it,” said member of the Mommy Lobby, Lisa Hudson.
“Every single one of those “no” votes comes at the expense of parental rights and parental authority over our children. What the legislature just told us, in no uncertain terms, is that the government has as much right to your child as you do. That’s an incredibly slippery slope. But the Chamber of Commerce and all the other edu-crats in this state who see education as profit are blind to that. They’re blinded by money. Parents don’t fit into their equation. But parents vote and this is an election year with every Senate seat up for grabs. We’ll make sure those same parents get to the polls,” continued Hudson.
“I heard a great quote the other day. “Those who can, teach. Those who can’t, make laws about teaching.” Hudson concluded, “The same can be said about the outcome we saw in the Senate yesterday and what happens when you let uninformed people make decisions of this magnitude. It’s just embarrassing.”
Last spring, Facebook pages were filled with posts by parents, who were mistreated by school administrators, when they objected to having their children participate in the hasty rollout of the untested AZMerit test.
Vicki Alger, Ph.D., addressed the abuse of parents and children in her article Sick Days are No Cure for the Assessment Opt-Out Blues. Alger, an author of a forthcoming book on the history of the U.S. Department of Education, predicted before the vote that “affirming parents’ opt-out rights could be sidelined because some senators think it’s unnecessary.”
Senators like Martin Quezada have argued that parents, who object to the data-mining testing, can keep their kids home from school on testing days.
Alger points out the impracticability of such a proposal when she writes, “These days, parents and students are lucky if they’re even informed about the testing dates far enough in advance to stay home “sick,” since assessment periods can span as much as 6 weeks. So there’s no practical way for parents to simply opt-out in absentia.”
Alger also reports that “many parents were intimidated into having their children take the AzMERIT…” Parents were also told untruths as part of that intimidation according to Alger.
| Member Name | Vote | Member Name | Vote | Member Name | Vote |
| Sylvia Allen | Y | Nancy Barto | Y | Carlyle Begay | N |
| David Bradley | N | Judy Burges | Y | Olivia Cajero Bedford | N |
| Lupe Contreras | N | Andrea Dalessandro | N | Jeff Dial | N |
| Susan Donahue | Y | Adam Driggs | N | Steve Farley | N |
| David C. Farnsworth | Y | Gail Griffin | Y | Katie Hobbs | N |
| John Kavanagh | N | Debbie Lesko | N | Barbara McGuire | N |
| Robert Meza | N | Catherine Miranda | NV | Lynne Pancrazi | N |
| Steve Pierce | N | Martin Quezada | N | Andrew C. Sherwood | N |
| Don Shooter | Y | Steve Smith | Y | Bob Worsley | N |
| Steve Yarbrough | Y | Kimberly Yee | Y | Andy Biggs | Y |
To learn more about the abuses, read Sick Days are No Cure for the Assessment Opt-Out Blues here.
Both the Houston Federation of Teachers and the New York teachers union, New York State United Teachers (NYTSUT)
have endorsed parents’ right to opt their children out of standardized exams, joining a national movement against high-stakes testing.