The never-ending saga of House Bill 50 and opt out marches on. Since a couple of days before Christmas, it has grabbed a lot of headlines. When the US DOE issued letters to states about potential funding cuts for opt-out, I knew the conversation would heat up fast. Here is a chronology of links to the latest on the override of Governor Markell’s veto of House Bill 50 in Delaware, with a few other kernels thrown in:
12/23/15
12/24/15
12/29/15
12/30/15
http://www.doverpost.com/news/20151230/update-opt-out-supporters-rally-jan-14–to-override-veto
12/31/15
1/1/16
http://www.sussexcountian.com/article/20160101/NEWS/160109972
1/2/16
1/3/16
1/4/16
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/education/2016/01/04/opt-out-veto/78270050/
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/opt-out-heats-up-again-during-arctic-chill/
1/5/16
http://elizabethscheinberg.blogspot.com/2016/01/dear-rep-jaques-youre-wrong-but-its-not.html
http://delawarestatenews.net/schools/15006/
1/6/16
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/my-daughter-is-not-a-widget/
1/7/16
http://delawareway.blogspot.com/2016/01/will-legislature-stand-up-for-their.html
https://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/warning-gates-is-infiltrating-opt-out/
1/8/16
1/9/16
1/10/16
https://www.facebook.com/GovernorMarkell/?fref=ts
1/11/16
1/12/16
http://www.wrdetv.com/index.cfm?&ref=60200&ref2=3461
http://www.wboc.com/story/30948519/2016-legislative-session-begins-in-delaware
1/13/16
http://www.doverpost.com/article/20160113/NEWS/160119913
The Season Of Myths 
Unless I am missing something along the line, there are 2 key things, which are part of this Bill, that are not addressed by simply allowing SATs to replace existing testing for 11th Graders & giving the Districts some latitude in elimination other “non-essential” tests, which is the largest justification being given for opposing the veto override of House Bill 50.
The first is the mandate for Districts to provide alternate activities should a parent choose opt-out. Lack of this language could result in the District relating children to other activities or non-educational work during this time.
The second, & in my mind larger, issue is the language preventing “academic or disciplinary repercussions” resulting from a parent choosing to opt-out. Without this language, the school Districts will retain the ability to indirectly retaliate against those who are opted out. Examples could be: preventing students who do not take the assessment from being placed in Advanced/AP courses, reporting the assessment on report cards (and ultimately college transcripts) as a line item being 0 or incomplete, seeking a way to incorporate it into a student’s GPA, or even creating a Policy which would prevent a child from participating in extracurricular activities for lack of taking these assessment. While these may, on face, appear farfetched, School Districts have some latitude in creating Policies which could indicate that certain criteria are met to, say for example, participate in positive behavior activities. Could a District say that participation on a sports team or in a club require acceptable grades & a certain test score, or even participation on a test itself, as a prerequisite? Ultimately, may make such decisions, not necessarily the examples given based on other potential Policies, Regulations, & the like, to ensure that the participation level does not fall below the level at which funding would be reduced, since it would obviously result in a detrimental impact District finances. I know there may be an opinion of “my District would never do that”, but ultimately we are talking about money based on participation levels. If that money is lost, a Superintendent will be asked a lot of questions & could see negative consequences from a Board. These two factors, alone, provide Districts & high level administrators the motivation to make sure EVERY effort is made to ensure students are not opted out.
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