By Don Perl

COLORADO. “Parents: We _Can_ Do Something about this Injustice. Opt out letters at www. thecbe. org .” Twenty bus benches in the Denver metro area and five in Greeley, 60 miles to the north, carry this critical message of parental rights in the face of the furor over CSAP, the Colorado version of high stakes standardized testing.

The bus-bench campaign this year begins, symbolically enough, on January 16th, Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday-celebrated. Amidst the bureaucratic snow job, the news broadcasts and telecasts throughout the state and the pages of graphs and more pages of newsprint devoted to school rankings on CSAP scores, these simple 25 signs invite parents to speak out and take the courageous stand to exempt their children from this inhumane testing program now in its ninth year of failing our children.

How did our cause evolve into these bus benchmarks? The seeds were planted on August 2, 2004. Some thirty teachers, students, parents and four of their children gathered at the Secretary of State’s Office at the State Capitol that day to present our signed petitions demanding that the November ballot carry a resolution calling for the elimination of CSAP testing. We knew that we didn’t have even 20% of the required signatures. (We ended up having about 18% - 12,485 out of 68,000 - a pretty substantial feat accomplished on the threads of a shoestring.)

But we wanted to make a statement and get acquainted with each other since so many of us had met only via e-mail.

There came a moment in the office hallway after we had delivered the petitions when some of us looked at each other with empty palms raised and the unspoken, but mutually understood question, “What now?” Someone said, “Maybe we can advertise.” “Yeah, what would that cost?” “Well, newspaper ads are outrageous.” “Let’s think about some options and stay in touch.”

In early September, 2004, educational psychology professor *Laura Manuel* forwarded the idea of some sort of outdoor advertising. She contacted VIACOM Outdoor in Denver, and their representative contacted our Coalition for Better Education’s revolutionary headquarters at the University of Northern Colorado. We talked about costs for bus benches (about $50 each) and two mall posters ($300.)

Then we set on a course to raise funds. We used our subscriber list which had been growing since the ballot initiative was approved in early March, 2004. We accepted donations for our bumper stickers. *Carol Carminati* of Boulder provided anti-CSAP political buttons, and folks made contributions in return for the buttons. Undergraduate and aspiring teacher, *Elizabeth Gallegos* took charge of two bake sales on the UNC campus. After three months of these fundraisers, we collected $1,950 — enough for twenty bus benches and two mall posters for one month of advertising.

Now, what should the ads say? The bus benches were small, so the message had to be concise. We could all agree on something simple: “Just Say No.” Then our logo, CSAP in black letters, circled and lined through in red, and then, “Opt out letters available at www.the cbe.org <http://www. thecbe.org>.” The mall posters gave us more space, and thus were more problematic. Headquarters sent out requests for ideas.

After much e-mail chatter and several revisions, we finally reached consensus with a jingle:

Restore the Joy
Remove the Fear
Save $16,000,000.00 a year
CSAP opt out letters are here: www.the cbe. org .

We had a similar jingle in Spanish at the Aurora Mall, east of Denver.

Channel 9 News and the Denver Post took an interest. Mom, teacher and writer, *Angela Engel, *conducted an interview with a Channel 9 News crew on January 20, 2005 while seated at a bench with the opt out message well displayed. Fifty-nine parents, outraged at the loss of their dual language program at an Aurora elementary school, decided to take our message to heart, and opted their children out of CSAP. Other parents called or wrote, surprised, even elated, that they could take this action. According to an article in the Denver Post on March 30, 2005, 3,200 children across the state did not sit for the tests.

Goliath, in the form of the Colorado Department of Education and local school boards, roared its displeasure. The CDE website now boldly displays the message that CSAP testing is REQUIRED of every public school student between third and tenth grades. Local school boards resorted to draconian measures to force compliance. One school board in Bennet threatened to require a ninth grader to repeat ninth grade if she refused to be tested. In Greeley, a memo from administrative offices reads as follows: “If the child needs to throw up in the middle of the test, pull the trash can by his/her side, let them do their thing, and encourage the child to finish the test.” Just this past October in our Greeley district, the school board adopted a resolution that states that any student who refuses to take the test shall have a “‘no score’ reported on said student’s final report card and shall be made a part of said student’s permanent record.”

So, this mid-January the dance will begin again. Will parents feel empowered, or will they bow to the punitive, inhumane consequences that school boards shamelessly mete out at the CSAP altar? The members of our coalition are convinced that the louder the goliath’s roar, the stronger are the voices of parental will. After all, the schools are there to serve our children; our children are not there to serve our schools.

How long will we permit this insanity to continue? I think that we all hear at some level the answer that MLK would propose.