If you can’t persuade lawmakers with logic, use humor — and aluminum foil hats.

That’s one Missouri state representative’s reasoning for tying an appropriation for “tin foil hats” into an amendment that removed language barring the state from accepting federal money to implement Common Core standards in public schools, the Columbia Tribune reported Wednesday.

House Education Committee Chairman Mike Lair (R) allocated $8 for “two rolls of high density aluminum to create headgear designed to deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology,” according to the Tribune.

The Associated Press pointed out that Lair, a retired teacher, intended for the joke to “make a point that some lawmakers aren’t too pleased by what they consider to be paranoia about new Common Core standards for public schools.”

“Basically, when you deal with conspiracy theorists, you do logic first,” Lair told the committee, as quoted by the Tribune. “If you can’t deal with folks with logic, you use humor. This is to stop all the problems from the black helicopters and drones. This is high density foil.”

Despite some conservatives’ view that the Common Core curriculum is politically charged and teaches pornographic content, 45 states have already adopted the academic standards.

Image via Shutterstock / Suzanne Tucker