Education Bill: Parents Cannot Opt Kids Out of Federally Mandated Tests

Specifically, the Lee amendment would required schools that receive federal Title I money to notify parents in advance of the planned administration of any standardized test, including the subjects covered by the tests. Once they received the information, parents could then keep their kids from taking the federally-mandated “assessments.”

 

Undeterred, Senator Lee took another shot at returning power to parents over education of their children.

 

The measure was included in the final version of the bill passed by the Senate and it prohibits schools (or the federal Department of Education) from restricting parents’ right to decide how their kids get to school. Here’s the exact language:

 

Subject to subsection (b), nothing in this Act shall authorize the Secretary to, or shall be construed to (1) prohibit a child from traveling to and from school on foot or by car, bus, or bike when the parents of the child have given permission; or (2) expose parents to civil or criminal charges for allowing their child to responsibly and safely travel to and from school by a means the parents believe is age appropriate.

 

You read that right. The federal government actually debated a provision to a $23 billion nationalized education bill about how whether parents should be allowed to decide how their kids get to school.

 

Believe it or not, such a measure was necessary as government has grabbed kids who were walking home and punished their parents for neglect. Here’s a story of one such encounter as reported in April by The New American’s Warren Mass:

 

Ten-year-old Rafi Meitiv and his six-year-old sister, Dvora, were picked up by police while walking home from the park in their Silver Spring, Maryland, neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, April 12. The children were about a third of a mile from home when the police intercepted them.

 

Read More: Education Bill: Parents Cannot Opt Kids Out of Federally Mandated Tests