CLAS Response

As a concerned parent, I have noticed that the people who spread the malicious rumors and misinformation regarding our school district’s sex education curriculum are also the same people who are now spreading the same type of distorted information concerning the CLAS examinations. Who are these people, anyway?

CHARLENE PIZZADILI

Simi Valley

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I am calling on all you liberals out there to take a closer look at the CLAS test. It is time for us to band together with the conservatives who have good reason to be hopping mad. This whole deal sounds like a chapter out of Orwell’s 1984.

It is more than just the content of the stories, it is the questions. They are subjective and personally intrusive, designed to psychoanalyze the students, pick their brains, as it were. Names are on the tests, along with the parents’ occupation (which the elementary teachers are required to write in). In this manner, CLAS solicits permission from the students to use their answers somewhere else. For example, to give info to potential employers. They are not paying the students for this service. The students, who are minors, waive their rights without fully understanding them. The test scores are put on a statewide database without the permission of the parents.

Why has the state Department of Education threatened teachers and administrators with pulling their credentials? Why are the rights of parents and taxpayers being threatened? This test costs millions. There are schools in need of textbooks, school supplies, computer equipment, more teachers and smaller classes, but there is no money for these necessities.

There is an Assembly Bill 2637 and a Senate Bill 1788 that will extend parental rights as per Education Code 60650 beyond the Jan. 1, 1995, cutoff date. If these do not pass, that portion of the parental rights will be gone. The Senate Bill 1788, in fact, has already been killed in committee by state Sen. Gary Hart.

I urge you to contact your legislators to let them know how you feel about this legislation. Also, let your school board know as soon as possible before it’s too late.

JUDITH SCHAEFER

Simi Valley