Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

438 Tennessee to hear U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley participate in a town hall discussion on three important topics: family involvement in education, school safety, and preparing young people for college and careers. Programs that support these initiatives were presented in small group gatherings where participants could speak to practitioners from Tampa, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; and Louisville, Kentucky. A materials fair featuring model programs, community services, information about the public schools in the area, and materials produced by the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education was open throughout the summit. The goal of the Religion and Education Summit was to bring together leadership repre senting faith communities and elementary, secondary, and higher education to discuss issues of concern to the community and to build partnerships to bring about changes needed for the benefit of all children. Previous summits were held in Lawrence, Massachusetts; Wilmington, Delaware; and St. Petersburg, Florida. Partnerships formed at these summits have continued to work together to improve education and strengthen family and community involvement in local schools. To obtain information on how to plan and hold a Religion and Education Summit, email partner@ed.gov. [Ed. Note: The writer suggests that parents involved in such partnerships re-read “Little Red Riding Hood” and retrace Little Red Riding Hood’s steps to Grandma’s house in the woods. Par ticular attention should be given to Red Riding Hood’s finding The Big Bad Wolf in Grandma’s bed wearing Grandma’s night cap!] S PEAKING OF “L ITTLE R ED R IDING H OOD ,” THE J ANUARY 24, 1999 ISSUE OF T HE G WINNETT Daily Post of Lawrenceville, Georgia contained an article by staff writer Laura Ingram entitled “Clus ters Promote Community Growth.” This article describes a second-step phase of a “systems change” effort outlined in a joint publication from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Together We Can . The article, which illustrates the shift from representative (elected) governance to regional (unelected) governance with its “Big Bad Wolf” use of partnerships to accomplish its goals, is included in its entirety below: Unique groups called Community Cluster Care Teams were born last April, comprised of 12 Gwinnett communities, and have taken their first steps toward uniting sections of the county into neighborhoods. “The entire community needs to get involved,” said Suzanne Brighton, coordinator for the teams. “We need to look at the environment we’re raising our children in. Everybody has a responsibility to create a healthy environment where children can grow.” Parents, teachers, senior citizens, clergy, business people, school officials and social service workers first met this new creation April 15 at a conference called “Together We Can,” sponsored by the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services and BellSouth. The 200 participants split into 12 groups based on high school clusters and came up with particular ways to improve each cluster/community. But they did not stop at just a sketch. The 12 teams continued meeting throughout the year, drawing more community mem bers and resources into their group, and creating strategic plans to accomplish their goals and shrink scary statistics that show children finding their way into drugs, pregnancy and violence. This fall, their imperative to heal and unite their neighborhoods took shape as tree plantings, youth dialogues, new youth basketball teams, grandparent adoptions and bilingual services. Metro United Way’s vice president of community investments, Geralyn Sheehan, calls