Kathy Perez has been an activist and a friend of MORE for some time. I have a great deal of respect for Kathy and glad that I can call her a friend.

Kathy took the lead herself several years ago in opting her children of testing. In fact, Kathy's daughter Elizabeth, who is now 15, has refused to test since 5th grade and in fact was the first student to opt out ever in the Baldwin, LI school district.

With that in mind, Elizabeth now 15 and a freshman at Calhoun HS in the Bellmore-Merrick school district, is still a leader in the opt out movement. She can see clearly through all the BS.

Elizabeth took the time to share her thoughts with The Crack Team on what opting out has meant, and still means, for her. We need to hear from more student leaders like Elizabeth and take comfort that we know that we who advocate for opting out are passing our beliefs and core principles down to a younger generation.

We here at SBSB wish to thank Elizabeth for sharing her words and are proud to share them here on these pages.

For the first few years that I opted out of the New York State tests, people looked at me funny, asked me why I wasn’t taking them, and I was pretty much the only one to be reading a book rather than filling in a scantron, being sure to not make any stray marks. But as the years went on, the number of kids not taking the tests increased, and we eventually were taken into the cafeteria while the tests were being taken. I almost looked forward to testing week, even though everyone else was stressed. I got to spend a few hours taking naps, reading, or doing homework rather than sitting in class. All throughout elementary school and middle school I opted out of the tests, turning in my refusal letters on the first day like it was routine, and never did my parents or I think it affected my grades or my chances of getting into college, as some people claim it does. 

Now, I’m an honor roll high school student, with a plan to go to college, become a psychiatrist and an advocate for human rights, and I’ve refused the New York State exams. So, I’m pretty sure that my opting out of the tests hasn’t taken a toll on my education. I never really understood why these tests were even administered in the first place, considering the fact that they hold no benefit to anyone who takes them, and all they do is somehow display a teacher’s effectiveness through a student’s test grade. I know that I’m more than an ID number or test score. I don’t need a rigged exam to tell me what I’m capable of, or how effective my teachers are and hopefully, when I’m older, I won’t have to write refusal letters for my children at all.

Great words from a future leader.

Over the course of the course of the last week or so there has been a tiny, whiny background noise asking "what does MORE do?"

In reality it's an insignificant noise more akin to the buzz of a gnat flying around your head. You want nothing other than to swat at but you know that will give the gnat the attention it wants. Soon, the gnat will lose it's energy and drop to the ground where it will soon be back to serving it's purpose. Just being walked over, no one knowing it's there.

But we know MORE is there. We know what MORE does. Yes, MORE doesn't send a bunch of people to protest a principal on a side street somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens where there is no foot traffic or cars driving by. MORE doesn't send threatening or intimidating emails to principals. MORE doesn't habitually send text messages or emails obsessively to other UFT members. Or go to PEP meetings to kvetch, alone, about some injustice (I did this twice. It was a waste of my time. I might have just as well read The Great Gatsby).

I mean I guess this stuff can be considered being "active" but it doesn't accomplish anything. If you think about it nothing changes. Nothing has been accomplished. This stuff is all on the micro level. What about macro?

Last night on WNBC-4 news we saw what MORE does, how MORE operates, what MORE believes in. Three teachers, all MORE members, all teachers with true core beliefs appeared on the 6 PM news and shared what they did, what they are doing to affect change when it comes to testing.



Jia Lee, Lauren Cohen, and Kristen Taylor drew a line in the sand and dared Chancellor Fariña to cross it. Basically they told parents to opt their children out of the state tests.

According to the WNBC website;

“Parents should definitely opt out,” said Jia Lee, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at The Earth School in Manhattan. “Refuse. Boycott these tests because change will not happen with compliance.”

“I want to tell parents that I’m not going to get anything out of the test. Their kids aren’t getting anything out of the test,” said Lauren Cohen.

Kristen Taylor added that the tests are “fundamentally harming the education system”.

Think about this. Is this not what, and whom, we want as teachers and leaders? The energy that Jia has put into the Opt-Out movement shows how much of a leader she is. What she can bring to the teachers and communities of New York City.

There are no gimmicks or illusions such as some app that sends a form letter (and probably exists just to gather email addresses. I mean, seriously, how is that helping the cause? It's nothing other than just a bogart of the Opt Out movement. Micro.

Another gimmick is sending out an email to the Chancellor that one will not participate in proctoring or anything when it comes to the tests. Yeah, big whoops. It's all micro.

Just this past Sunday, Jia was featured in the New York Post as a teacher that has...

"...been sending emails to parents the past week encouraging them to boycott the state English and math Common Core exams being administered citywide starting Tuesday."

Oh, and while we are at it, a contingent of MORE members were out in Chicago on April 1 to support our CTU brethren in their one day strike. This is bridge building, not bridge burning.

Thin about it. From Chicago, to Long Island, to Upstate and Western New York Jia Lee and MORE are not only recognized as leaders, but game changers as well.

Watch the last few seconds of the report. Chris Glorioso says;

"They are members of the UFT and vying for leadership positions"

MORE builds. MORE looks long term. MORE leads. 

Oh, Francesco Portelos is at it again. Crossing that line between reality and Portelos reality. Soon the two reality's will merge and as mentioned on Star Trek, or Back to the Future, time will cease to be. Or something like that.

As mentioned on these pages on February 21 Portelos had a vast increase of usage of his app for parents to use to opt their child out of state tests. In just 72 hours, the app had gone from 400 parents accessing and using the app to 500 parents. Supposedly. he just got caught with knickers down not being able to keep up with his story.

So it makes one wonder, question, and wish to verify when this claim comes in the email this morning;

WOW! Almost 3,000 mommies and daddies, as well as guardians, signed up to use this groundbreaking app in just 16 days! How could this be?

The Crack Team did some research. The Crack Team Googled several variants of "Opt Out New York State/Long Island/New York City/Western New York" (Here, here, here, and here) and not once did the Portelos thingy appear on either the first or second pages of Google.

Only when we Google the name of the app, or website, or whatever, "opt them out" does the website or app or whatever appear in the search results and not even as the top hit.

So The Crack Team decided to check some of the leading website/groups that are actually doing something about being in the forefront of the Opt Out movement in New York State. We checked NYSAPE, NYC Opt Out, United Opt Out, Western New Yorkers for Public Education, and found not a link to the website/app or henceforth known as the Portelos Thingy. Even checking the NYC Opt Out Facebook page there are only two mentions, March 1, and  November 10, of the Portelos Thingy with no comments or no likes.

We need check the Long Island Opt Out page and did find a mention on February 26 how the Portelos Thingy has 700 parents, and one yesterday. But again, something is giving off a bad odor in Denmark.

Are these over 3,300 parents real? Conjured up in Portelos' mind? The pieces of the puzzle don't fit so a visit to the Portelos Thingy was in order.

The Crack Team nailed it. It's so easy. One does not have to fill out any fields. Just click on the "Preview refusal letter" and a preview will appear. Click the "Create Opt-Out Email," and presto! The counter goes up one.  Do it enough times over the course of several weeks and playing with the Portelos Thingy enough suddenly gives it the appearance of being much bigger than it really is.

The numbers, The Crack Team believe, are a phfallacy. Someone, as usual, is trying to make something that is tiny seem to appear bigger than it really is.

I'm really confused I don't know what to do.

I'm in a grumpy mood today. Vacation is over and I am hitting a new school tomorrow. I needed a pick me up, something to get me laughing.

I decided to head on over to the UFT Solidarity Facebook page for some humor and boy did I find it but it left me so confused.


UFT Solidarity was having a happy hour/recruitment drive for all it's followers and future devotees on February 12. But something strange occurred. Not many people showed up.

In fact by the looks of things Abe Vigoda and Bozo showed. Well, not really. There is a policy here not to show the faces of UFT members so we decided to redact those mugs with Mr Vigoda and Mr The Clown.



Notice anything strange? Other than Abe Vigoda's face and the fact that he can't possibly be in Brooklyn because he is dead?

Yeah, all of the pictured (See original) are UFT Solidarity members as well as the officers running and hoping (PRAYING?) to get on the ballot. As we can see with the looks on Abe Vigoda's face this was not a very happy hour.

We here at SBSB have heard that UFT Solidarity is growing exponentially through the roof that UFT members are clamoring across the city to get some of that UFT Solidarity action and mojo.

Could it be that we heard wrong? We are so confused. The number of parents opting out through UFT Solidarity are mind boggling!!!

Just a little over a week ago on the UFT Solidarity Facebook page this was posted;


Four hundred parents is quite a lot. But just three days later it was reported on the ICE blog by Francesco Portelos himself (In what many are calling a major meltdown) that 100 more (Pardon the pun!) parents have signed onto the UFT Solidarity Opt-Out Nebulizer special thingy thing (Click to enlarge).


WOW! A 25 percent increase in just 72 hours. Using that math as well as pattern, and I am no math major, in 9 days that would equate to over 200 more parents signing up on the Special Super Duper UFT Opt Out Thingy. Wouldn't it? Let's do the math. What are today's numbers? Should be over 700 hundred, no? Ringo, Drum roll please.......





Dang. Still 500 members. We will give Portelos some kudos to sticking to his new story, but demerits on the reality his story entails.

This is just par for the course with Portelos and UFT Solidarity ends. The creation of their own reality in which their truth differs what from is happening around them. Those affiliated with Portelos and UFT Solidarity, it is not too late to break free and open your eyes. Think it out. Where does truth and make believe become the same? We here at SBSB understand that you might be scared to leave seeing what Portelos has done to others who have dared to question him.


To those on the fence and thinking about following UFT Solidarity, be wary, keep your guard up. As you can see above not many people care, or in particular, know about UFT Solidarity. You need to not only do what is best for yourself but for that teacher coming in after you. UFT Solidarity is not the way.

It can't be the way when it relies on one person, one mind to lead it and to make decisions. It can't be the way when people are too frightened to speak up and it certainly can't be the way when their is misinformation and fuzzy math.

A UFT caucus should not be dependent on any one personality, it should be dependent on it's members, it's ideas, it's principles,  and it's humanity.

Sadly, UFT Solidarity comes up empty time and time again. 

We here at SBSB have met with Senator George Latimer several times. We can honestly and proudly believe that not only is the good senator a friend of The Crack Team but families and educators statewide as well.

Senator Latimer gets it. He gets how frustrated the parents are. He gets how frustrated the teachers are. He gets how frustrated this state is. We believe he understands that the the Opt-Out movement was not a protest but rather a rebellion.

Watch these two videos. One, was on the Senate floor before the budget vote and the other is an interview he did in Albany on Time-Warner Cable News.

A couple of takeaways on his budget speech:

Senator Latimer compares the rolling out of constant new evaluations and testing and what not to New Coke. 

Says we are down this path becuase of the power of the all mighty $$$$.

Tax caps and unfunded mandates have hurt.

Believes the perception that public education is failing is faulty.

We need to fix where the problems are and poverty is the main culprit.

Anyway see for yourself.



From the video with TWC one thing that really hit home is how the senator again hit the nail on the head with poverty but knows that poverty is just not limited to urban areas. There are rural parts of this state that are just as poverty stricken as the inner city. The Crack Team has asked in the past where are the hedge fund managers pushing charters in rural New York?

Click here for the TWC interview.

We as teachers, as parents, as communities need to start building and cultivating strong personal bonds with state legislators such as Senator Latimer. Senator Latimer truly stands on the right side of history (Unlike others who talk a big game then wimp out) in this educational farce being put upon us by clowns in Albany.

Senator Latimer is running for re-election in 2016. Rest assured The Crack Team will be supporting and voting for him.

Come 2018, we hope Senator Latimer will consider running for Governor.

WE CAN ALL HOPE AND PRAY

So Governor Crazy (Andy) came out last week and shared his thoughts on the opt out conflagration that was thrust upon his education policies that occurred in New York State the last two weeks.

In essence what we got from Governor Andy's mouth was that the math and ELA tests that children across this state take so we can collect data and help the students was, "It just doesn't matter." Well, not really.

He did say that the the tests, "Don't count against the children." But what he didn't say and continues to believe is that the tests count against the teachers across New York.

We thank Governor Andy for letting us all see that his slip is showing and wonder of another time when someone came out and said, "It just doesn't matter," and if there are any parallels.

What came to the mind of The Crack Team was 1979's hit summer camp movie "Meatballs" starring Bill Murray. In a scene before the camp faces the children of the one percent from Camp Mohawk Murray's character John Tripp, implores the camp that they can beat Mohawk in the Olympics and that nothing matters. We here at SBSB believe that this scene was the impetus for Governor Andy's decree which he first presented to his hedge fund buddies.

Scene: Governor Andy back from his trip to Cuba meets with Chancellor Tisch, his hedge fund buddies, Lt Governor Hochul, and Senator Skelos in his Mount Kisco home. First Girlfriend Sandra Lee is in the kitchen baking brownies. All are dejected that the parents of New York have thus fare beaten this motley crew of parents and educators to beat back the tests.  

Eva Moskowitz runs into the meeting in a panic.

Eva: Hey, gang, come on. Look it, just 'cause we're losing, doesn't mean it's all over.

Tisch: Cut the crap, Eva. I mean, the parents have beaten us in the court of public opinion the last 12 months, they're gonna beat us again. 

Governor Andy: That's just the attitude we don't need, Meryl. Sure. The parents have beaten us Sure, they're terrific moms and dads. They've got the best integrity that money can buy. Hell, every Tweet they're sending over here to us does not have their own public relations person. Not PR, public relations. But it doesn't matter. Do you know that every parent has an tweet, FB post and blog posts every 48 hours, to ensure that their message gets across? Do you know that they use the least sophisticated social media methods from the Finland, Singapore, and the newest education power, Trinidad and Tobago? But it doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!
And even... And even if we win, if we win! Even if we win, even if we somehow think so far over our heads that our noses bleed for a week to ten days, even if God in heaven above comes down and points his hand at our side of the education debate, even if every man, woman, and child held hands together and for some reason prayed for us to win, it just wouldn't matter, because all the really good-looking girls would still never go out with me, 'cause they got all the money and they are not donating it to me!
It just doesn't matter
if the students of New York State take standardized tests!
It just doesn't matter. It just does for the teachers!

Thank you Govenor Andy for putting your foot so far in your mouth that there is no way to remove it.

Governor Andy said today he is running in 2018 and thinks he can win. Do the math.

In 2014 Cuomo received 2,069,480 votes. His opponents received 1,749,606 votes including my write in vote for Babaooey. He won by only 319,874 votes. Do the math.

With, I would say about 225,000 students opting out of math and ELA and let's use the math and say each kid has about 1.5 parents that comes to; 337,500 votes against Andy in 2018. Of course we know that most of these kids are siblings and the parents who opted out probably didn't vote for Andy in 2014, but... It is now a runaway train against Andy. All these people have friends, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. And we know Andy will screw up more between now and 2018 and hopefully get indicted before that.

So basically it is bye-bye Governor Andy in 2018.

Time to be an Amway salesman.


And don't forget to listen to me on WFAS tomorrow morning, April 28, at 6:30 AM. Find it at 1230 on your AM dial or listen on WFASam.com. You can also download the WFAS app. The call in # is 914-693-5700.

You know who are the biggest losers in this opt-out movement? The so-called "(de)reformers" and their faux grassroots organizations like StudentsFirst, Education Reform Now, Success Academy, Educators4Excellence and Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).

The irrelevance and slow death spiral of DFER was seen by all last week when DFER New York director Nicole Brisbane was quoted in the Journal News as saying;

"Schools are one of the biggest differentiators of value in the suburbs. How valuable will a house be in Scarsdale when it isn't clear that Scarsdale schools are doing any better than the rest of Westchester or even the state? Opting out of tests only robs parents of that crucial data,"

It really is quite simple. Look at SAT scores. Number of students going on to 4 year colleges. Number of students going to Ivy League colleges. Visit the school. Ask neighbors. Graduation rates. Teacher turnover. Home values. Really, there are so many reasons. In fact Nicole fails to grasp what did Scarsdale do before there were high stakes exams?

But please, don't listen to Nicole. Nicole claims she was somewhat misquoted and only using Scarsdale as an example, that her real thoughts were in a blog post on DFER that she had written ;

"Part of the draw of the suburbs is the high performance of local schools. How will suburban communities maintain their draw if there isn’t a measure of how the schools are actually doing in comparison to those across the state?"

Nicole, see above. But we here at SBSB suggest to Nicole that if she is really concerned about how others can measure up to one another to take Chevy Chase's advice.

Nicole does decide to deride the parents of not only Scarsdale, but of all affluent communities as well when she says on the DFER blog;

"The same parents are opting-in for other standardized tests like the ACT (not mandatory), the SAT (also not mandatory) and the Specialized High School Admissions Test (also not mandatory but absolutely necessary if you want your kid to go to a “choice” high school in New York City). Affluent parents aren’t opting out of optional tests, so why opt out of the state exams? Maybe it’s because the results aren’t what they wanted to hear."

See Nicole does not understand something here (And of course we can go into the the multitude of flaws with testing but we shan't tonight). These tests are a choice one makes for their child. These tests are not forced upon parents by a bully governor, a clueless chancellor of the Regents, or a faceless bureaucrat. The parents have ownership of their child's education. Such as my son made a choice to continue his Jewish education after his bar mitzvah after telling me and my wife for years he will stop once he became a bar mitzvah. HE HAD OWNERSHIP!

However after the missed opportunity at a testing analogy Nicole decided that it would be best to charm the parents of Scarsdale and all affluent communities by sharing;

"That their kids, or their kid’s teacher or their beloved (Emphasis by The Crack Team) neighborhood school isn’t performing as well as they expected."

What Nicole fails to realize, as the Journal News as reported, is that the vast majority of affluent communities (For this post will use Westchester County), Scarsdale, Chappaqua, Irvington, Bronxville, Ardsley, had quite low opt out numbers. WAY TO WIN OVER PARENTS NICOLE! KUDOS!

If you are left wondering who is this expert in education that is gracing the pages of this award winning blog we will share what The Crack Team has learned.

Nicole Brisbane is a former teacher, now a lawyer, and shared with The Crack Team that she was a reading specialist for 5 years at Allapattah Middle School in Miami.

Oddly, according to this link she only taught two years at Allapattah before entering law school. Only two years? Well, if you read the headline of that link she was with Teach for America.

So how can we believe anything she says, even when she told The Crack Team she won Rookie Teacher of the Year at Allapattah and in fact raised the grade level of her students (Who were 4 grades behind at the time of her ascension at Allapattah 2.5 grades in the very short time she was there?

We can't believe her even though we requested several times for some kind of verification or conformation to her outstanding teaching and her award. Is her story truth or fiction?

But according to Nicole, the affluent, or shall we stray into reality, the "regular people",  or strating from the test because,

"The people who are opting out of tests are largely those who already feel like their child has access to a high-quality education, and are doing so in a way that directly harms poor and minority students throughout New York. We should be supporting students and teachers throughout New York, whether they are in Scarsdale or the Bronx, and making sure all students have a fair shot at a quality education. Rather than maintain the status quo where wealth determines a quality education, data can and should highlight where the gaps are so we can invest in schools that need it the most. High property values shouldn't determine the quality of education for the neighborhood--and the way we are going to change that is through access to data that will allow us to make investments where they are needed"

 And she shares some links here, and here. Big deal. Hey Nicole, let's see how the students from Success flame out when they hit college, much the way they flamed out on tests for the NYC specialized high schools.

Nicole this is why the opt out movement is picking up steam. We are fed up. We are fed up with Albany and Washington DC deciding what is best for our children and our school districts. We are fed up with millions going to testing companies like Pearson. We are fed up seeing our babies go through 8 hours of testing when a bar exam is only 3 hours. We are fed up seeing our children stress out. We are fed up with the narrowed curriculum. We are fed up with teaching to the tests. We are fed up with our narrowed curriculum. We are fed up with Common Core. We are fed up with a governor that pockets $4.8 million from DFER and others like it instead of fixing our poverty and having the state pay its fair share to ALL school districts.

Mostly we are fed up with people of your ilk. You and yours are the modern day carpetbaggers, just this time it is education that you and yours needs to control. You truly believe that since you taught for two years this gives you some kind of street cred when it comes to education and the welfare of our children. You feel that you must share "stories" on how you raised students 2.5 grades and were Rookie of the Year. Guess what? Joe Charboneau was AL Rookie of the Year in 1980. What did it mean in the long run? Nothing. At least Charboneau can prove he was ROY.

Put your skills to good use. Sell Amway.

The latest numbers The Crack Team has gotten via the Journal News is that 155,000 students across New York State have opted out of the ELA exam. Many parents have been cajoled, bribed, pleaded with, and have had major guilt trips thrust upon them. No where as The Crack Team seen anything worse than those parents of the Greenvale Elementary School in Eastchester, NY.


Knowing of the strong surge of parents not wishing for their children to partake in such tests the Eastchester Schools Superintendent Dr Walter Moran III tried to lay on some Jewish guilt to the parents of Greenvale.

In a nutshell he warned parents that the New York State Education Department had notified him that because the amount of students taking the exams will fall below 95 percent that Greenvale's application to be a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence will be denied. Even though one would be hard pressed to find such a reason to disqualify Greenvale here. Having won this award in 2009 the parents of Greenvale are going boo-hoo-hoo.

This is akin to Dean Wormer punishing Delta House by not allowing them to have a float in Faber College's Homecoming Parade (About 39 seconds in).

Whilst examining the qualifications for being a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence The Crack Team was unable to find nary a word that a school with less than 95 percent participation will lose out. In fact The Crack Team came across this little known codicil (With apologies to Dean Wormer).

The performance of all tested students in the school in the most recent year tested in both reading (English language arts) and mathematics must be in the top 15 percent of all schools in the state when schools are ranked based on the performance of all tested students. 

Seems they base the performance only on tested students. So who is fibbing? Who is truly doing the guilt trip? The SED or Dr Walter Moran III?

Anyway the letter from Dr Walter Moran III is just below and to the parents of Greenvale, you deserve a blue ribbon, but a different type of blue ribbon as you can see up in the right hand corner.

Keep up the struggle!

Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 10:55:09 -0700
From: [email protected].ny.us
To: [email protected]
Subject: Greenvale Blue Ribbon Status - IMPORTANT UPDATE

I did it today! It was not the first time. Last year I did it for the first time and I never felt so good and free about doing something.

Early this afternoon I emailed my son's principal and officially opted my son, and 8th grader in Harrison NY, out of the New York State ELA exam. Just as he was last year my son is again delighted to having been opted out. Sadly there is no opting him out of the math exam. He is taking Algebra I this year and instead he is taking (And there is nothing we can do) the Regents exam for Algebra I.

Last year my son reported back to me that there were about a dozen or so student who did not take the ELA exam in his school (Grades 6-8) and about double that for math. That is not enough.

In the middle school in Harrison there are about 900 students in the entire middle school. There needs to be 900 students not taking the exams this year. That many students opting out, as well as all the students in the 4 elementary school in Harrison will be just one link in the chain across the state of parents saying, "enough is enough," and deciding that they will not allow their children to be pawns and victims in Governor Andy's vendettas.

Each and every parent in Harrison has the power to stop testing in New York State and our schools back in the control of Dr Louis Wool and the board president, Abby Mendelsohn. We are the parents, families, guardians of our children and the decisions that most effect our children should be made on Union Ave and not on Albany. We can not sit by any longer and let a bought off governor decide what is best.

Does Governor Andy have what is best in mind for the students in Purchase? In West Harrison? Downtown? No. We trust our administrators, we trust our teachers, we trust ourselves, we can;t trust a politician who has received over $4.8 million from hedge fund managers.

As a parent or guardian you have every right to now allow your child, your most precious asset not to take the test. The madness must stop now. Don't wait to long. The ELA exam starts next week with the math exam the following week.

If you need guidance or advice on how to do this please check out these websites;

CHANGE THE STAKES

NEW YORK STATE ALLIES FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION 

And don't forget to listen to me on WFAS-AM 120 tomorrow morning as we discuss opting out.

This can be done. This should be done. Parents of Harrison NY, Westchester County, and NYC,
please read. This is important. You can take back control of your child's education.

I have been wanting to opt out my son of the NYS exams for a number of years. Actually every year since he started testing. He is in 7th grade now and I have finally decided that enough is enough. This year he is not wasting his time taking the state ELA and math exams.

The people it took the most convincing to opt him out have been my wife and my step-mother, a retired (13 years now) AP in the Bronx. For those who are of the Jewish persuasion you know with Jewish mothers you kinda don't have much of a say at times. But I digress.

After last years ELA debacle in which not one student in his class finished the exam on any of the 3 days testing a stand had to be made.

Both my wife and step-mother had serious preconceptions to what not taking the exams meant. One argument from both of them was that this would be a great way for him to learn and feel comfortable taking tests when he gets into high school.  Of course the NYS Regents exams and the SAT's are two totally different beasts compared to these so called tests. My wife and I, and certainly my step mother, never took high stakes tests such as these and we, well maybe I should say just they, did fine in high school exams. As for me, well, I took my PSAT's and then lost interest.

But of course my son over the years, and even now in 7th grade, has had to take tests in class. Wouldn't these tests which are teacher created better and more relevant to what he is actually learning? So I think he is pretty comfortable with test taking and at the age of nearly 13 (in June) I am confident that he can take a #2 pencil to a little circle and fill it in properly, which actually is the only skill one gets from standardized exams.

Another reason that my wife and step-mother gave for him taking the exams is that he not only would be ostracized by the other students and friends in his grade, but he will feel singled out being on the outside looking in.

On Thursday night I decided that a scientific experiment was in order to test the above hypotheses. I called him into the bedroom while my wife and I were watching the NCAA's. I asked him would he feel bad if he didn't take the exams and would the other kids make fun of him. His reaction was that he would not feel bad and that the other kids would want to know where they can sign up to miss the exams. In fact as this is being written he is texting his friends telling them he is not taking the exams. His friends are way jel.

My wife and step-mother also claimed that the tests are used to place my son in the proper classes next year in 8th grade. Immediately, I cried bullocks.

My son has consistently made honor roll (Not being a braggart here). Besides, if the teachers and guidance counselors in his middle school don't know where to place him next year, well, they ain't doing their jobs.

Now my wife brings up an interesting point. She (and remember the all encomposing Jewish neurosis) claims that the administration will seek revenge on my son and keep him from participating in school events or make him stay in at lunch and other kinds of punitive measures.

I can't believe for a second that any administrator in Harrison NY will ever stoop this low. Maybe in cities with over 1 million in population, but not Harrison.

And my wife is concerned with what the teachers will think. So am I. That's another reason why I am opting my son out. I will not allow my son to be used as a pawn to damage or end a teacher's career.

Think about it. Our children, the very same children that Governor Andy claims he is the chief lobbyist, are pawns used by politicians and the Corporatists, and the testing companies such as Pearson.Why? So someone can pocket some cash, make up for some Freudian physical shortcoming, and to screw and privatize a noble profession. That's it and nothing more.

It's time parents of New York State fight back against the Corporatists and their pawn Governor Andy and what has been done to education in this country.

For those that want more information, follow NYS Allies for Education for how the "How to Opt Out" primer. It can be done, it should be done!