WASHINGTON — Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Tuesday led several of his colleagues in the House and Senate on a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, calling on him to issue a national waiver on standardized testing in schools this year.

Citing the ongoing trauma and confusion of the pandemic for students and educators, as well as the questionable reliability and value of institutionalized tests, the letter argues that the Department of Education, state governments, and school districts should focus on providing the resources for a safe school reopening, rather than shepherding students through a stressful and complicated testing process.

Bowman was joined on the letter by Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Thomas Suozzi (D-NY), and Mark Takano (D-CA).

“Recent guidance maintaining the federal testing mandate will undermine our ability to best serve students,” the members wrote in the letter. “With students suffering through a once-in-a-century pandemic, we must do everything in our power to heal the wounds of the last year and prepare our students for future success. Students have fluctuated between in-person and remote environments as educators have been forced to adapt on the fly, continually disrupting learning for all children. During this critical time, we must dedicate all of our efforts to a return to safe, in person learning, and we cannot divert our time and expenses to ‘teaching to,’ implementing and administering federally mandated testing.”

Click here to read the full text of the letter.