New NJ Spotlight Column: "Don't Fall For the Opt-Out Cope-Out"

It starts here:

Upholding ethical principles in Trenton’s State House is no game for wimps. Legislators in the Assembly and the Senate are relentlessly hounded by lobbyists to sponsor and support bills specific to special-interest groups and lately it seems that much of this legislation is about New Jersey’s public education system. Certainly, our elected representatives share noble aspirations of educational equity. Nonetheless, it must be tempting to succumb to special interests. 

That appears to be what has happened with A-4165, just passed unanimously by the Assembly and now headed to the Senate floor. The proposed law, sponsored by Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) and commonly known as the “opt-out” bill, makes it easy for parents to refuse all standardized testing for their kids, including the new PARCC assessments that replace NJ’s obsolete ASK and HSPA tests.

Read the rest here.