Below you will find the specific, exact, word for word language from Wisconsin state legislator Jeremy Thiesfeldt’s opt out amendment. Please read the excerpted passages below and feel free to read the legislation in its entirety.
Once you’ve completed your reading, please conduct a thorough analysis of the language and then use the comment box to explain just what the hell is actually being proposed. I will also attempt to interpret towards the bottom of the blog.
Upon the request of
a pupil’sthe parent or guardian of a pupil enrolled in any grade from 3 to 12, the school board shall excuse the pupil from takinganany examination required under state or federal law…No school board, school district administrator, principal of a public school… may encourage or counsel a parent or guardian to make a [opt out] request to excuse a pupil from taking an examination.
Ok. Here’s my take. If there is a state or federally mandated test offered in grades 3-12, a student does not have to take any of those tests only if “the parent or guardian” asks permission from the local school board. However, if a parent or guardian asks a school board member, school administrator, or school principal how to opt out of state and federally mandated tests, the school board member, school administrator, or principal has to say,
“I’m sorry Mr. and Mrs. Parent or Guardian. I am not allowed to tell you that the only legal way to opt out of state and federally mandated tests is to ask the school board . You see it’s against the law for me to encourage or counsel you regarding opt out policy.”
Really? Opting out is legal. Counseling opt out is illegal. This legislation makes absolutely NO SENSE! I’m serious. Remember my last post about mandatory civics testing for legislators. Can we at least force Representative Thiesfeldt to pass it?
Oh and for the close observer, it appears as if your child’s teachers are perfectly acceptable as encouragers and counselors regarding opt out! WOO HOO!
FOOTNOTE. As an opt out parent it doesn’t matter if it’s legal or illegal. We don’t opt out to get out of tests! We opt out in an act of defiance and to shine a spot light on politicians like Jeremy Thiesfeldt and his donors as they actively strangle and starve public schools.
You can’t legalize civil disobedience and you can’t stop the revolution. The time has come for the “schools our children deserve.”
“Cause we are the rust upon your gears
We are the insect in your ears
We crawl
We crawl
We crawl… all over you”
