Markell vetoes Delaware testing opt-out bill

• Gov. Jack Markell has vetoed a bill to let parents pull kids out of standardized state testing.
• It is the first education-related bill that Markell has vetoed.
• Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, the bill's sponsor, said he would push for an override.
• PTA officials want lawmakers to pick issue back up when session resumes in January.

Gov. Jack Markell has vetoed a controversial bill that would allow parents to pull their kids out of Delaware's standardized test. Lawmakers and parent groups who supported the bill are furious and demanding the General Assembly override the action when it returns in January, which would require a three-fifths majority in both chambers.

In the session that just ended, both houses approved the bill with such majorities — 31-5 in the House and 15-6 in the Senate.

Markell has opposed the bill since its inception and rallied business and civil rights leaders against it.

The legislation "would undermine the only objective tool we have to understand whether our children are learning and our schools are improving," Markell said in his veto message to lawmakers. "It has the potential to marginalize our highest need students, threaten tens of millions of dollars of federal funding and undermine our state's economic competitiveness – all without adequately addressing the issues that motivated many to support the legislation."

This is the first education-related bill that Markell, who considers himself an "education governor," has vetoed.

Terri Hodges, president of the Delaware PTA, called Markell's decision a "slap in the face to Delaware parents."

"I'm deeply disappointed," Hodges said. "I say that on behalf of the PTA and the thousands of members who rallied around opt-out during the last weeks of the [legislative] session and advocated tirelessly."

PTA officials are calling for lawmakers to pick the issue back up when the session resumes in January and override Markell's veto.

"We need the General Assembly to stand by the parents, their constituents and do the right thing and override what the governor did," said Yvonne Johnson, the group's vice president for advocacy.

Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, the bill's sponsor, said he would push for an override.

Markell "is just flying in the face of what parents want in the state of Delaware and what they deserve and what they should get," Kowalko said. "I will certainly challenge this when we get back."

The wide margins by which the bills passed are large enough to override a veto, but it's not a sure bet that every lawmaker who voted for opt-out would vote to over-rule Markell.

"I hope we have the votes," Kowalko said. "I think those people who voted for the bill were very sincere. They supported this because parental rights were being demanded and should be given to them."

The Legislature has never taken an override vote during Markell's tenure.

Opt-opt was one of the most emotionally charged debates of the legislative session. Though originally framed simply as a parental rights bill, it soon spurred a larger discussion about the role of standardized testing in education.

While state and federal leaders say standardized tests are a vital tool to make smart education policy, many teachers and parents feel scores are being unfairly used to "label and punish" schools, teachers and students.

Those concerns only heightened when Delaware moved to a complicated, tough new standardized test this year called the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Some parents already chose to remove their kids from the test this year, and those parents argue there's nothing in the law that explicitly prevents them from doing so. But they have supported Kowalko's bill to make sure that their students and their teachers don't suffer consequences or intimidation should they opt out.

Acknowledging widespread parent concerns about over-testing, Markell has proposed a statewide inventory of standardized tests that would eliminate any exams that are redundant. He signed a bill that would start that process.

That has done nothing to placate opt-out supporters.

"To say that somehow this task force somehow negates the necessity of this is quite frankly disingenuous," said Kowalko, who frequently clashes with Markell.

Markell is not alone in opposing opt-out.

In a press release, a group of Wilmington civil rights advocates praised Markell's decision. They included Deborah Wilson, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League; Maria Matos, president and CEO of the Latin American Community Center; H. Ray Jones Avery, executive director of the Christina Cultural Arts Center; and New Castle County Councilman Jea Street.

"We strongly support Gov. Markell's decision to veto House Bill 50 because we must know if our children are learning, and we cannot fix what we cannot measure," the group wrote. "If too many children opt out, we'll lose perspective on how our children are doing with achieving the proficiency most important to succeeding in today's world. We'd risk being unable to make meaningful demographic comparisons and track progress in relationship to other schools, districts, states and countries."

A group of business leaders from the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable also issued a statement supporting the decision.

"We must have a way to determine how our children compare against others in their school, the state and the world," the statement said. "Opt out would damage that process. It signals to business and the families that we shouldn't strive for all of our students to graduate ready for college or the workplace."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.