TALLAHASSEE — If parents don’t want their children to take standardized tests, they should send them to private schools, the chair of the House education committee said on Friday.
“In public school … you cannot opt out of the tests,” Rep. Marlene O’Toole, a Republican from Lady Lake, told reporters after a committee meeting on Friday morning. “Every child must have a test. As a parent, if I don’t want to do that … I have the option to take my child and put them in a private school.”
Both O’Toole and education commissioner Pam Stewart, whom the committee interviewed during the meeting, stressed that opting out of taking the tests is illegal.
