Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

433 but still insists that the methodology should not be rejected just “because standardized tests showed no significant differences.” Instead, the answer is to use this unconfirmed technology to accomplish limited learning tasks in an attempt to convince the reader that this “new” type of “education” should be embraced by all.] R OSIE A VILA , A SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER IN THE S ANTA A NA U NIFIED S CHOOL D ISTRICT , Santa Ana, California, wrote an interesting but frightening article entitled “Parent Report Cards” regarding the implications of parent education programs which was included on an education website on the Internet January 10, 1999. Some excerpts follow: The Noxious Nineties : c. 1999 As a school board member I have discovered just how they will implement the U.N. Con vention on the Rights of the Child , the new global parenting code.... I noticed every time they talked about parent involvement (a goal of Goals 2000 ) it was in the context of parent education, what parents need to do at home to help their children succeed in school. Parents are called partners with the schools.... Federal funding mandates parent education. Every one of our schools has a parent education program; 300–400 parents at a time are going through these.... All parents are required to sign a Parent Compact, agreeing to do certain things at home, “provide a study space, put the kids to bed on time, read with them,” etc. So, parents are trained, then have to sign an agreement. Then I saw a bill pass in Sacramento at the State level. It was first described as a “par ent report card,” but I understand there was objection and so it was redefined, but passed anyway.... I read an article in the Better Homes and Gardens Magazine describing the new “parent report card.” It said students would give information to their teachers, and parents [would be] graded on students’ grooming, sleep habits, and attendance at school meetings, etc. The article said, “Students would be empowered by signing off on their parents’ report card,” and that “Children knew when their parents were flunking.” Our school district received a $1.1 million dollar grant under “safe schools,” another goal of Goals 2000 . It said we would not have any violence or drugs in schools in the new century and that prevention was the key. Quoting Janet Reno, “Students acted up when they had neglectful parents” and that we could spot them in the early grades. So, if a parent was deemed to be neglectful (failed on their report card, was what I figured), they would have to go through the SARB (Student Attendance Review Board) and have a meeting at the police department with someone from the District Attorney, Child Protection Service, Social Services, School Counselors, etc. Here they would be given their court-ordered program to improve their parenting. So, there it was. A global parenting code: the Convention on the Rights of the Child , federally funded parenting courses with a required Parent Compact through Chapter One, a State Parent Report Card, and a local punishment or coercion policy redefining the role of the SARB to include neglectful parents. They have most of the system in place here in California. They just need that ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child . [Ed. Note: The above information regarding report cards for parents should come as no sur prise given the following recommendation made by neo-conservative Chester E. Finn, Jr., in an article condensed from the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Review ; Summer 1986, No. 37, pp. 58–61 (reprinted in Education Digest on January 1987, p. 4).]