Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

300 it, following certain leaders. John Chubb was at the top of the sales team.... [John Chubb is also a supporter of the Skinnerian DISTAR/Reading Mastery program developed by Siegfried Engelmann and thoroughly discussed in this book, ed.] LAYING THE GROUNDWORK: Regional strategy meetings on choice in education were held in the fall of 1989, fol lowing the White House Workshop on Choice in January, where John Chubb, Dennis P. Doyle, Joe Nathan, Governor Rudy Perpich of Minnesota, Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, and then-Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander were speakers. At the strategy meetings, research papers, position statements, and policy analyses were presented and the information compiled in a large notebook entitled, Choosing Better Schools: Regional Strategy Meetings on Choice in Education. The notebook contained two “Education Policy Papers,” from the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI), a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The list of CEI Executive Committee members included John Chubb, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, and Joe Nathan, Senior Fellow, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Among the CEI supporters were... The Chase Manhattan Bank, Exxon Education Foundation... The Rockefeller Foundation.... (THIS ISN’T GRASSROOTS CONSERVATISM, FOLKS!) CEI’s Education Policy Paper #2, “The Right to Choose,” contained presentations by John Chubb, Joe Nathan, Chester Finn, Jr., and James S. Coleman. James S. Coleman has been busy, too. His work penetrates the entire educational en vironment, including restructuring. He’s been quoted in educational materials for at least 25 years. Recently, a paper by Coleman, entitled “Parental Involvement in Education,” was included with the America 2000 issues paper, “What Other Communities Are Doing, National Educational Goal #1,” distributed after the third America 2000 satellite town hall meeting (7/28/92).... Coleman gives yet another reason for approving “choice,” one less publicized. He said that the “choice system” would give the school more authority, making it possible to require more of parents and children by having them accept and obey a set of rules as a condition of entering and continuing in the school.... PRIVATE VOUCHERS: Does the information just presented tell us something about the evolution of arguments for vouchers; from one of assisting those in private schools to that of aiding the poor who can’t afford a private school? Does it explain why all voucher legislation/amendments are directly or indirectly connected to Title I, Chapter I of ESEA, which addresses the “Disadvantaged”? Does it suggest that the purpose of the whole scheme is “homogenization” through more integration, economically and socially... for total equality through redistribution of wealth and children, via vouchers?… G.I. BILL FOR CHILDREN, OR INTEGRATION BY VOUCHER? Recall these statements: Albert Shanker, American Federation of Teachers—”It may be that we can’t get the big changes we need without choice.” President George Bush—”Choice is the one reform that drives all others.” Former U.S. Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos—”President Bush and I are deter mined to use the power of choice to help restructure American education.”

A MESSAGE FROM P RESIDENT G EORGE B USH WAS DELIVERED REGARDING T HE N ATIONAL Youth Ap prenticeship Act (House Doc. #102–320, The Congressional Record ) on May 3, 1992. Excerpts follow: