Michigan State
Representative Harold J. Voorhees
Who will play God with
our children? Judging from his "State Of The Union Address,"
Bill Clinton apparently thinks he's already filling the role.
But what is the 105th
Congress up to? Its first action, on its first day in session was to
change the name of its Education Committee to "Education and the
Workforce." Is there now no other purpose for education in the eyes
of Congressional leaders?
When did we stop being
Americans and, instead, become "human resources" for the
workforce?
Actually one can track
that transformation to a specific date - May 4, 1994. That's the day the
104th Congress (under Republican control) passed the School-to-Work
Opportunities Act. From that day forward, education in America has not
been the same.
THE WRONG SOLUTION FOR THE
WRONG REASONS
Employers are screaming
because today's job applicants can't even fill out the paperwork. So the
education bureaucracy has sold Congress a bill of goods that says the
entire education system must be restructured to meet the needs of
business. In other words, students must use their schooling days, from
kindergarten through high school, in job-preparation training.
Big business, seizing on
an opportunity to turn schools into their own job-training facilities,
have joined forces with the Federal Department of Labor, the Department of
Education, the National Governors Association and the Chamber of Commerce,
and, of course, Bill Clinton, to push for more and more federal
intervention programs to solve the "crisis" of a dumbed-down,
unqualified job force.
The only problem is, the
real culprit in the education "crisis" is the same as the
proposed solution. Children are coming out of school uneducated, and
therefore unqualified to be employed, as a direct result of the federal
policies which implement radical behavior-modification programs instead of
the teaching of academics.
Children can't fill out
job applications or prepare for future careers because they can't read or
write. No one is teaching them to perform these simple basic skills. But
that problem, far from being addressed, is actually being compounded in
the so-called "solution" cooked up by the education potentates.
Their solution to this
supposed emergency, also promoted by industry, et al, is an atom bomb
called "School-To-Work" and it is rapidly taking over entire
school systems as basic academics are tossed out in wholesale form. As the
program is implemented, schools are changing.
Gone is the liberal arts
education that provides well-rounded academic teaching. Gone is the
freedom of choice for the student to make his own career decisions. Gone
is the student's purely American ability to adapt to new technological
developments through the shear force of his over-all academic knowledge.
Gone is American individuality and all of the creativity that goes with
it.
All of that is replaced
with a federal program that looks at students as little more than
"human resources" to fill the needs of the
"workforce." America's children are now being assessed for their
abilities, placed on specific tracking paths, licensed, checked and
registered for a lifetime of servitude in a government-controlled economy.
Their every grade,
attitude and action will be noted and placed in electronic government
records which will be used and added to for the rest of their lives. Such
information is even now being made available to potential employers,
police forces, social workers and psychologists, to be used at their
discretion.
Schools are beginning to
replace high school diplomas, which were a mark of academic achievement,
with "skills certificates" which simply imply that the student
has wound his way through the assigned training courses. There is now a
strong push on in the new Congress to pass legislation to require
employers to hire only those who hold such certificates. All others could
be left out of society.
Here are just a few of
the radical provisions of the School-To-Work Opportunities Act that are
now changing America's education system forever:
1. SHIFTS THE HISTORICAL
FUNCTION OF EDUCATION FROM ACADEMICS TO VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE
TRAINING.
This shift places the
emphasis of education, not on the individual and his or her potential, but
on what the individual can provide and produce for businesses as workers.
The School-To-Work Act requires that states provide for "all"
students' "career awareness and career exploration and counseling
(beginning at the earliest possible age, but no later than the 7th
grade)." Section 102 (1).
Each and every student is
to have; (1) a planned program of job training and work experiences that
are coordinated with learning in the school-based learning component
(classroom); (2) a school-site mentor; (3) a work-place mentor. To
participate, students must first choose a "career pathway" in
elementary school and be placed in a "career track." Sections
103 & 104, Section 3 (a) (1).
To begin the journey down
the "career path" children in kindergarten begin receiving
lectures on "career awareness" and "work values." By
high school, instruction is organized around specific career decisions
that the students must begin to make. Their "pathway" is then
integrated with limited academic curriculum that deals specifically with
their chosen career path. Basic subjects that have little or nothing to do
with the selected field are not taught to the student. Instead the student
is placed in vocational or technical classes.
Under California's
School-To-Work law, (in compliance with the federal Act) if a student does
not make a career choice by the ninth or tenth grade, the decision can be
made for him or her after a student/career counselor review. In other
words, in contrast to America's history of free enterprise and individual
choice, the law will dictate career decisions. Such compulsory labor
dictates will remove the very incentives of self improvement that have
made the United States of American the envy of the world.
2. ESTABLISHES A NEW
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THAT WILL GREATLY INCREASE THE FINANCIAL BURDEN OF
STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATION.
Section 3,(a), (4) of the
Federal School-To-Work Act states: [the purpose of this act is] "to
use Federal funds under this Act as venture capitol to underwrite the
initial costs of planning and establishing statewide School-To-Work
Opportunities systems that will be maintained with other Federal, State,
and local resources;"
In other words it will be
up to the States to create the means to implement and fund the local
School-To-Work programs and integrate them into other educational
programs. The feds will only provide the "seed" money to get
them off the ground. States are in for a rude awakening when the bill
comes due for the federally-mandated destruction of their local school
systems.
3. REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF
ACADEMIC LEARNING BY REQUIRING STATES TO CHANGE PRESENT SCHOOL CURRICULUMS
TO INTEGRATE VOCATIONAL INSTRUCTION, WORK-BASED LEARNING, AND OCCUPATIONAL
LEARNING WITH REDUCED ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION FOR ALL STUDENTS. DIRECT LINKS
TO GOALS 2000 AND OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION.
The School-To-Work Act is
the federal government's means by which "Transformational
Outcome-based Education" will become the nation's educational
methodology. Section 102 (4), Section 104 (4). OBE's behavior modification
procedures makes it the perfect tool to mold children into a "group
think" mentality rather than the old method which required individual
thought and solutions. And that's what School-To-Work must conquer in
order to produce and control a well-managed workforce.
To tie the whole
education system together with job-training programs, School-To-Work must
be tied in with the Department of Education's over-all plan. That means
that it must be tied directly to Goals 2000. Goals 2000 legislation
"promotes integrated systems of service delivery to children (from
birth to age 18) and their families, by facilitating linkages and
cooperation among...health and social services, head start, child care,
labor organizations and business and industry." (Goals 2000 Educate
America Act of 1994).
4 PLACES NEW FINANCIAL
AND ADMINISTRATIVE BURDENS ON BUSINESSES BY MAKING THEM "JOINT
PARTNERS" IN EDUCATION "AS AN INVESTMENT IN FUTURE WORKPLACE
PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS."
Employers, including
small and medium sized businesses, who participate will initially receive
some financial incentives to participate in the program. But that federal
funding will soon run out and business will be forced to pay for
work-place "mentor" training, work-place learning components,
and student work. Section 3 (a) (3), Section 3 (a) (6), Section 205 (5),
Section 215 (b) (2) (D) & (E), Section 215 (b) (4) (L).
School-To- Work and Goals
2000 create "partnerships" between schools and the business
community. But many see this as government control of free enterprise.
Some multinational
corporations have the funds and the staff to create a partnership with the
school to bring children into their facilities.
But for the vast number
of American businesses which are already ruled, regulated and taxed to the
point of suffocation, there is no room in the budget or staff-time to take
on the task. However, once fully implemented, it is obvious that the
burden of job training will be placed upon these small and medium sized
companies anyway. Such is the nature of a government-controlled market
place.
5. SKILL CERTIFICATES
WILL BE REQUIRED FOR JOB PLACEMENT
School-To-Work requires
the issuing of a skills certificate instead of a diploma. The certificate
is not based on the mastery of academics but on the mastery of
predetermined "outcomes" based on the values and attitudes of
the student. That means that the government will decide which values are
proper for students to hold in order to get a job. The requirement of the
skills certificate will, by nature, force the public school curriculum to
use Outcome-based Education methods.
In addition, it will
require private schools and home schoolers to be pulled into the system of
federal control or their students will not receive the certificate.
Once the issuing of skill
certificates has been fully implemented, new legislation will require that
businesses hire only students who hold such a certificate. That means that
those private schools and home schoolers who don't comply will see their
students shut out of society, unable to get a job and perhaps other
government services including driver's licenses and marriage licenses.
6 GREATLY REDUCES THE
ROLE OF LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS AND PARENTS IN CONTROLLING SCHOOLS BY GIVING
"LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS" THE PREDOMINATE ROLE IN THE SCHOOL
RESTRUCTURING THAT SCHOOL-TO-WORK MANDATES.
Under the Act, the
actions of state governments take precedence over local school boards.
School boards will be relegated to merely raising money to run the school.
The curriculum, teaching methodologies, standards and assessments will all
be formulated to conform to federal requirements. Section 205 (12),
Section 213 (d) (8).
Local partnerships, as
described in the Act, are the true center of control. These will consist
of the following members: employers, representatives of local educational
agencies and schools, teachers, counselors and administrators,
representatives of labor, properly-sanctioned parent organizations,
private industry councils, local government agencies and students.
These unelected
partnerships, answerable to no one but government authorities, will be in
charge of implementing all of the provisions of the Act on the local
level. This will include selecting school curriculum to obtain the kind of
workforce deemed necessary by the Department of Labor.
7. ASSESSMENT AND
LIFELONG TRACKING
Traditionally, education
has been the unbiased pursuit of knowledge and truth. Under
School-To-Work, the shift is toward acceptable behavior outcomes. The
students will be continually assessed and tracked to determine that they
are acquiring the "acceptable" attitudes through the use of
performance-based tests.
And finally the
Department of Education and the Department of Labor are busy creating
complete electronic profiles on each student which will be used as a
permanent record. It cannot be changed and nothing can be deleted. It will
contain school records, including comments and evaluations made by
teachers and counselors. It will contain personal family information,
including financial records, number of children in the family, cross
referencing of all government computer records, and records with law
enforcement, service records and so forth.
State are being
encouraged to set up systems for employers to receive this information.
The records will be tied directly to the Certificate of Initial Mastery by
account numbers. Eventually, the Certificates may be issued on a plastic
card which employers can insert into their computers in order to obtain
information on job applicants. Without it, there can be no application and
no job. Simply put, "he who controls the certificates controls the
student.
AN END TO
THIS MADNESS
"Human
resources," "workforce development," "skills
certificates," "skills standards," "career
awareness," "work place mentors," "facilitators,"
"labor market areas," "school-to-work." These are not
the words used by a free society in which individuals make their own
decisions. These are the terms used to direct a managed society and a
planned economy. This is the language of Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin and
Stalin.
In the School-To-Work
scheme where is there room for the development of our future doctors,
lawyers, scientists and entrepreneurs? Who would dare leave the
"path" to strike out on their own? And after going through the
"group think OBE behavior modification programs, who would know how?
The ability to cultivate
renegades and free thinkers is the very heart of American success. This is
what made America the envy of the world, second to none.
Compete in the
"global economy? America created the global economy. But now -
because we've abandoned our own unique system and adopted failed policies
of foreign despots, we are struggling to stay in the race.
In February of this year,
Back-To-Basics activists from across the country converged on the nation's
capitol. They met among themselves to plan strategy and they met with
their elected Representatives to deliver a message.
These moms and dads and
activists drew a line in the sand. No longer, they told Congress, would
they fight a defensive battle, hoping to slow the onslaught of education
restructuring. There would be no more waiting for the next assault on the
schools.
Those who believe in an
education system that teaches basic academics instead of behavior
modification and workforce training, those who believe in parental rights
and freedom of choice are declaring an offensive war.
Targeted for total
annihilation are Goals 2000, in-school health clinics and School-To-Work.
The activists are organized as never before through fax alert systems,
local action at school board meetings and Congressional Town Hall
meetings, national radio talk shows like The Home Education Network, Mike
Reagan and Brannon Howse, the internet and word
