SCPIE urges parents to sign refusal

Dear Editor,

United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) along with local chapter South Carolina Parents Involved in Education (SCPIE), is encouraging parents across the state to boycott South Carolina’s Common Core-aligned standardized testing beginning April 19, 2016.

In order to gain attention of the School District of Pickens County’s board of trustees for its decision to close two proven effective schools, and to rein in the negative impact of high-stakes testing on children, their families, teachers and society as a whole, USPIE and SCPIE encourages parents to fill out the test refusal form which can be found at scpie.org.

All over the country, parents are fed up with being ignored by the government education system, and parents are being driven to civil disobedience, or as some claim their civil duty to take a stand for the children and future of the United States.

Furthermore, USPIE and SCPIE call upon the School District of Pickens County to accept parental decisions to refuse the standardized tests and ask the school district to provide educationally appropriate, non-punitive responses, including alternative settings and activities for the child whose parents have refused the test. Just recently, S.C. Rep. Rita Allison, chairlady of the S.C. House Education and Public Works Committee stated, “Right now, if a parent chooses for their child not to take an assessment, there are no ramifications.”

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents “possess the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and that the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”

Johnnelle Raines

Board member, SCPIE

Pickens