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Opt Out Testing Bill Passes Delaware House of Representatives

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The Delaware state House of Representatives has given its blessing to a measure that would allow parents to opt out of standardized testing without their children suffering any disciplinary or academic consequences.

The vote was 36 to 3 with two lawmakers absent.    

Governor Jack Markell has said that he opposes the legislation.

Fellow Democrat Representative John Kowalko who sponsored the bill said that this was not meant as any criticism of the governor’s record on education.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that the vote represents the divide between state education officials who want accountability from the schools and parents and educators who say the First State is too focused on testing.

The Delaware State Education Association, the dominant teachers union in the state, supported the bill saying that testing is taking too much away from instruction time and producing too much stress.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.