Students Suspended for Attempting to Opt-Out of Common Core Testing

It's happened in Alabama, New  York.  Would it come to this HERE?

Fox News is reporting Tuesday an Alabama middle school student has been suspended after attempting to opt-out of taking Common Core standardized tests.

Common Core is generally thought of as the "fix" for the failed No Child Left Behind program.   Pushed and funded by Bill Gates -among many - Common Core in a nutshell is a federally-mandated program that treats all students the same nationally, regards all students as being at the same learning level.  Critics say it won't prepare them for numerous careers or college.   Some states that have adopted it will actually have to LOWER their current standards of achievement to meet it's requirements.

Even Mid-Columbia teachers are advising many students to opt-out of the assessment tests being administered as part of the trials of the program here in Washington state.

In Alabama, Alyssa McKinney, an 8th grader in Huntsville, was suspended after telling school officials three days in a row she was opting out of the tests. She was then given in-school suspension.  School officials claim parents can write a letter to school officials asking their child not take the tests.  They did not say if McKinney's parents had done so.

But more alarmingly, a student at the Orange-Ulster BOCES New York school was suspended from school for "insubordination"after reportedly telling her classmates they could op out of the English portion of the exam.  It's not known if Seirra Olivero, the student, has been reinstated.

In Arkport, New York, school officials came under intense fire from parents and the community after "rewarding" sixth-graders who took the tests with ice cream, while denying it to students who opted out.  School administrators defended the decision saying students have been rewarded for taking such tests for years.

But it's never been used as an outright bribe or coercion.   We certainly hope this kind of thing never makes it's way to the Mid-Columbia.