The more things change, the more nothing changes. Through Governors Ritter and Hickenlooper, and now Jared Polis. Through a decade of evidence that standardized testing does not demonstrably improve public education, the so-called education reformers persist and win. This year, roughly 800,000 students, a decrease of 30,000 from 2020, are the losers. 

HB21-1125 to cease and desist all standardized testing in the year of COVID was postponed indefinitely in the House Education Committee.

The testing demagoguery promoted and underwritten by Wall Streeters, anti-teacher unionists, foundations such as the Gateses – Bill and Melinda and the family – business associations, and for-profit charter school aficionados will once again deprive public schools and the children they’re supposed to educate of resources they need to move forward from the huge backward created by years of underfunding and now the COVID pandemic. 

Arguments for standardized testing go like this: the governor, the State Board of Education, and legislators need to know how much kids have fallen behind. Let’s make a wild guess. Most kids have fallen way behind, probably at least a year. Some kids have surely fallen even further behind. Regular school assessments will make that clear. Do we really need to take two to three weeks of in-school time for testing just when children are returning full time to the classroom?

If some parents feel their kids haven’t fallen behind and want tests to prove their belief, let those kids be tested, as the bill offered. Every other student deserves a year off from the ridiculous and repetitive testing oppression.

How is it that we’ve arrived at this point? We’re in this plight because, according to reports, the governor wants students to be tested. As a supporter of the Democrats for Education Reform crew sponsored by the smartest men in the world who work on Wall Street, he said he wouldn’t support HB21-1125 to eliminate tests this year. He’s backed up by the Biden administration that said it won’t give waivers for schools to eliminate testing.  

So what! Let’s test the Biden administration’s assertion. Some state, and it may as well be Colorado, needs to stand up to the testing demand that started under President George W Bush, was affirmed under Barack Obama, was pushed harder under Donald Trump, and now, at the most perilous time in recent education history, is pursued by the current president and our governor.

Women in the legislature unite! Women and men who have children in public schools unite! Women and men teachers unite! Women and men education administrators unite! Tell the governor and the Biden administration they’re wrong. Tell the Senate President Leroy Garcia, the Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, the Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, the House Speaker Alec Garnett, the House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, and the only woman in senior leadership, Daneya Esgar: Don’t compromise on testing. 

The bill sponsors of the no-testing HB21-1125 comprise three women and a man, Sen. Don Coram. Good for him. Two sponsors are Senate and House Education Committee chairs, Sen. Rachel Zenzinger and Rep. Barbara McLachlan. The fourth sponsor, Rep. Emily Sirota, is an education activist. 

When the governor said “no” to HB21-1125, the four sponsors retreated to HB21-1161 that reduces testing in math, English and science depending on federal waivers. That’s not good enough. 

The committee chairs and sponsors should stand up for the thousands of Colorado children in school who’ve struggled through hybrid and online education for a year. They should stand firm to get rid of all testing for Colorado’s students who will lose two more weeks of school, either for testing or by opting out of the testing.

Of course, opting out of testing is the option to tell the governor, the Wall Streeters, the foundations, business associations, for-profit charter school aficionados, and the Biden administration to take a hike. 

If every Colorado public school student and their parents say NOPE – NO to Politics in Education – the testing mandate will fail. If they opt out of the tests, they will send a message to the governor that this is not the time to pursue his testing political agenda. So Colorado’s parents and schoolchildren, make the right choice. If testing is mandated, opt out and just say NOPE, we’re not going to take CMAS tests anymore.