Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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The Noxious Nineties : c. 1998

plement special curricula, and work increasingly with law enforcement and other community agencies. 3. Assuring a sound infrastructure for education. A growing student population is on a collision course with an aging and inadequate physical and fiscal infrastructure. 4. Strengthening the connection between education and work. Relationships between education and work are being re-examined and restructured…. [M]arketplace requires workers with higher levels of complex skills. 5. Garnering support for education reform. Education reform, like all change, is gen erating anxiety and opposition. Educators are increasingly attempting to involve parents and community members in open, honest discussion. 6. Changing expectations for education decisionmaking and governance…. [I]ncreased community collaboration, school site councils, and service integration efforts are altering and redefining many traditional governance and decisionmaking processes. [No approval of voters, ed.] 7. Using standards as a means to systemic change. Consensus that piecemeal changes in schooling are not adequate to meet the challenges of the future is giving rise to a growing emphasis on standards and assessment at all levels of the education system. 8. Strengthening support and respect for teachers…. [T]eachers are the critical element in providing quality education, and that their task is becoming more complex and dif ficult as they face increased expectations in teaching a more diverse student body. 9. Supporting young children and their families. Educators are defining their role in working with families to ensure the healthy early development of children…. [Does their role include interference in family life? ed.] 10. Increasing community collaboration and service integration…. [C]hange occurs only with the full commitment of the community, schools are getting involved in collabo rative efforts with many other types of organizations. [This collaboration, integration, etc., represents a change in governance without approval of the voters, ed.] 11. Harnessing new technologies…. [C]omputers in schools are putting technology in the forefront of efforts to fundamentally change the role of students from passive to active learners and the role of teachers from information givers to facilitators and coaches. [Clearly a shift from academic education to performance-based workforce training, ed.] 12. Shifting the focus from risk toward resiliency. Realizing that the vast majority of children develop into successful adults, educators and other service providers are shifting their attention from deficit program models that address specific risk factors toward program approaches that focus more on enhancing positive factors. [If the reader understands #12, please contact the writer, ed.] “C HARTER S CHOOLS B ILL N OW L AW ” REPORTED T HE A RIZONA R EPUBLIC IN AN AP REPORT appear ing in its October 23, 1998 issue. Excerpts from this news item, which identifies the Democratic Party with a Republican initiative, follow: President Clinton on Thursday signed the Charter School Expansion Act of 1998 to speed the development of high-quality charter schools, a key element of his education agenda. The law authorizes up to $100 million a year over the next five years for the planning and expansion of charter schools. Clinton cited the charter schools legislation as an example of bipartisan cooperation....