ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Much of the information contained in this section about the various laws was obtained from the Pacific Research Institute.
The "Flim Flam" man and his carnival continue to entertain and baffle. For over five years the American people have been witness to one of the most amazing and spectacular political carnivals the world has ever seen. The "Flim Flam" man has once again diverted the attention of the media and the American people away from the real issues. The latest victim, The Tobacco Industry, follows a long line of assaults on Industry. Smoking has nothing to do with a person's character. It may be offensive to some and may cause a 1 in 8 chance of dying prematurely (statistically somewhere between age 75 and 80 as opposed to over 80 for non smokers), but it is not really a major concern, unless you make a living by opposing it. What is this smoke screen really about? Remember the attacks on the Pharmaceutical Industry and Insurance Companies in 1993? Well, while our attention was diverted several major Education Bills were passed by Congress that places children under the control of the "State" and subordinates their parents to the "State".
| GOALS 2000 | SCHOOL-TO-WORK LAW | IMPROVING AMERICA'S SCHOOLS ACT | ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT | COMMENTS |
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The "Flim Flam" man's Goals 2000: The Educate America Act, passed in 1994, is being implemented incrementally across the country.
Goal 1: "By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn." School readiness includes; the child's health, the home environment, and preschool education. The government will determine what is and what is not an appropriate home environment.
Goal 2: "By the year 2000 the high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent." Schools will teach down to the lowest common denominator in order to accomplish this goal. Students will not be allowed to choose from a wide array of curriculum and program options, therefore, this goal could homogenize all students and discourage healthy diversity.
Goal 3: Student achievement and citizenship. Does this stuff sound familiar to anyone? This goal mandates community service for each student.
Goal 4: Teacher education and professional development. The National Education Association and other teacher unions added this goal to insure increased funding from the government.
Goal 5: "By the year 2000 U.S. students will be first in the world in math and science." This hardly seems likely since correct computational answers are downplayed in the laws that were passed in '93 and '94 in favor of answers based on feelings and sincerity. Note: There were numerous education laws passed in '93 and '94, Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), School-To-Work Opportunities Act, National Skills Standards Act, etc.
Goal 6: "By the year 2000 every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy." In order to accomplish this lofty goal a new public school system will have to be installed just for adults.
Goal 7: Safe, discipline, and alcohol and drug free schools by the year 2000. Right, and look whose going to be in charge, people like Jocelyn Elders.
Goal 8: Parental participation. Parents will be required to participate in Government programs on parenting and if some social type worker thinks you are not doing a good job, well you get the picture. Some of the criteria that determine if you are a bad parent are: inability of a parent to relate to or connect with the child, overindulgence, undue spoiling on the part of the parent, low functioning parent (don't get sick, illness limits a parents ability to function properly as defined by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act).
The Goals 2000: Educate America Act also establishes numerous bureaucracies and panels to oversee compliance and issue "Skills Certificates" which will do away with private schools and home schooling. ".... The Secretaries (of Education and Labor) shall jointly provide for, and shall exercise final authority over, the administration of this Act, and shall have final authority to jointly issue whatever procedures, guidelines, and regulations, in accordance with section 553 of title 5, United States Code, the Secretaries consider necessary and appropriate to administer and enforce the provisions of this Act."
Please read some of these Bills and decide for yourself. Or, just wait around.
The "Flim Flam Man" is a 1967 movie starring George C. Scott.
"The School-To-Work Opportunities Act (STW) of 1994 establishes:
A national framework within which all States can create statewide School-To-Work Opportunities systems that -
(A) Are part of comprehensive education reform;
(B) Are integrated with the systems developed under Goals 2000:
(C) Offer opportunities for all students to participate in a performance based education training program.
In addition, STW explicitly states that another of its purposes is: To further the National Education Goals set forth in Title I of the Goals 2000 Educate America Act.
One of the principal tools used by STW to ensure that the ideology of Goals 2000 becomes part of both school and workplace is the creation of a so-called "skill certificate."
A portable, industry-recognized credential issued by a School-to-Work Opportunities program under an approved State plan, that certifies that a student has mastered skills at levels that are at least as challenging as skill standards endorsed by the National Skill Standards Board established under the National Skill Standards Act of 1994.
What does this mean? Those school systems that do not participate in Goals 2000 will be at a disadvantage because they will not receive Federal monies. Students from private schools and home schools will not receive "skill certificates". Industry/Businesses will be coerced into hiring only people with "skill certificates". The National Skills Standards Board will determine the criteria for getting a "skill certificate". Participating States, which will be all of them, are required to establish:
"a program of study designed to meet the same academic content standards the State has established for all students, including, where applicable, standards established under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act."
I have to go "spit-up". I'll be right back.
Here's the kicker. This bill opens the door for unlimited Federal regulation of education.
"Even though compliance with Goals 2000 is "voluntary" for states, the law holds disadvantaged children hostage to it dictates. Goals 2000 requires states that receive federal money under the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) to align state assessments, curriculum, and professional teacher development programs with the standards contained in the Goals 2000 law.
The linkage between Goals 2000 and the IASA permits the philosophy behind Goals 2000 to permeate the more than thirty programs authorized under IASA. Example: Goals 2000 money can be used for elementary school counselors to assist in meeting the supposed emotional and social needs of children.
"Wellness" manuals are issued as part of these counseling services. These manuals, used without parents' knowledge or permission, contain questions and techniques to get children to reveal private feelings about their family. Questions and techniques include "Do you feel that no one at home loves you and cares about you? Yes or No?" and "As bonding and trust evolve, the [counseling] group becomes a safe place where youngsters talk openly about their lives, sometimes sharing secrets they've never talked about before."
The promotion of "CORE" values is another part of IASA. What are these "CORE" values?
All students learning.
Parents as Partners.
Competent and caring staff
Staff participation in decision making.
Safe, orderly, and attractive environment.
Effective management of resources.
ANALYSIS OF "CORE" VALUES
Notice that none of the "CORE" values focus on academics.
All students learning means that classes will progress at the level of the lowest common denominator. In other words no student will be allowed to excel.
Parents should be friends and "Buds" to their children. The Government, school, will take over the role of parents.
Teachers can be dumb as a rock and do not have to be qualified to teach but they have to be touchy, feely good with the students. The basic tenet of teaching and students learning is to have someone there to correct your mistakes. This type of implied teaching does not follow the basic tenet.
If staff participation in decision making means listening to staff inputs then there is no problem. But this is about removing direction and decision making from the local school systems. In schools, like businesses, there is a division of labor and there is a leader, principal or school administrator. Someone has to steer the boat. Yep, this part of IASA will relinguish the authority to the "STATE".
A safe, orderly, and attractive environment. This really sounds good and perhaps it is. However it is more bothersome than the rest of the "CORE" values for some reason. Suggestions?
The effective management of resources means a paperwork nightmare.
The insertion of the IASA "CORE" values into the school system will mean a significant expansion in the areas of school management and school environment leading to a decline in student performance and quality of classroom instruction.
The IASA reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), "a powerful administrative instrument for fundamentally changing America's public schools". It is an all-encompssing authority of a planning process aimed at comprehensive goals for all schools.
State Responsibilities under ESEA:
Title 1 - Compensatory Education
Develop content and performance standards and assessments to evaluate school performance in mathematics and reading. States are required to use the standards and assessments developed under Goals 2000 if they are participating in that act.
Title - 2 Professional Development
Develop a plan to provide teachers and administrators the skills to help students meet Goals 2000 performance standards.
Local applications must be focused on the training needed to meet Goals 2000 standards when applying to the state for Title 2 grants
Align teacher training and licensing with Goals 2000 curriculum and performance standards.
Title 6 - Innovative Education Strategies
Develop a plan for the use of funds that helps the district meet the Goals 2000 standards.
Further, under ESEA Title V, which is designed to promote equity of magnet school assistance, priority funding is given to magnet schools that propose to implement approaches that are consistent with Title III of the Goals 2000 Act.
Title III - Goals 2000 Act
Each State must develop and implement a plan for the improvement of elementary and secondary education that must include;
Strategies for meeting the National Education Goals by improving teaching and learning and students' mastery of basic and advanced skills as stated in the Goals 2000 Act.
A process for aligning State or local curricula, instructional materials, and State assessments with the State content standards and State student performance standards.
A process for developing, selecting, or recommending instructional materials, including gender equitable and multicultural materials, and technology to support and assist local educational agencies and schools to provide all students the opportunity to meet State content standards and State student performance standards.
Assess the effectiveness and equity of the school finance program of the State to identify disparities in the resources available to each local educational agency and school in such State and how such disparities affect the ablility of the State educational agency and local educational agencies to develop and implement plans under Title III.
The Federal Government needs to be removed from the Public School System. This includes abolishing the Department of Education that was established in 1979. We need to support school vouchers??, (PELL GRANTS), in-home schooling, and enable schools and teachers to have the use of discretionary discipline. Our schools have become a Socialist playground. Schools should be a place for learning and not a place to indoctrinate children to a Socialist agenda. It is the responsibility of schools to teach reading, writing, etc. It is the responsibility of parents, churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., and each of us to teach social values and morals. This is not a job for the Government. There should be a witty saying here about Government and morals but I can't think of one.
The School System is currently required to adhere to over 760 Federal Programs administered by 39 Federal Agencies. It is time to get this paperwork nightmare off the backs of the local and state school systems. It is time to return the money that it costs to maintain these Federal bureaucracies to parents and teachers. All that these programs do is give Washington the power to interfere in our lives. They have done absolutely nothing to improve education. How could they, most of the money sent to Washington to fund these programs never gets back to local school systems.
To members of the U.S. Congress:
Does anyone in Washington read History books?
Look at some of the Education bills that you have passed in the past five years. Read them. I realize that you do not read every bill that you vote on, there just isn't enough time. However, the Education bills that have been passed since 1993 have headed this country towards pure socialism. Let's repeal these bogus attempts to teach the "children". Start with "GOALS 2000", Outcome Based Education, and move on to "The Careers Act", and on down the line. The reason I want you to read some History is because none of the education bills are new. There are no new words in any of them. They have all been written before and passed into law before.
Yes, they have. Read some of the education bills that have been passed in China, Russia, and Nazi Germany. We are heading down a perilous road and if you do not get rid of these bills then soon your children will be coming home claiming that you are some kind of hideous monster who opposes the state. You have already allowed and encouraged teaching children that parents who smoke are drug addicts and parents who have a beer are alcoholics. In addition parents who want to discipline their children no longer can for fear that their children will turn them in to some Social Service's idiot for abuse. You claim to be for family values. Whose family values?
If you want to help education then let teachers teach. These bills have made social workers out of our teachers.