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Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
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August 4, 2000

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Federal education system drives forward
under newest proposed federal legislation

HR 4875 - Scientifically Based Education Research, Statistics, Evaluation, and Information Act of 2000

HR 4875 now before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has already passed the House Early Childhood, Youth and Families Subcommittee.

Since 1995, parents across the country passionately made their case to U.S. Congressmen and Senators, opposing the new radical system of education that has been driven upon all 50 states through Goals 2000, School-to-Work and the 1994 re-authorization of the ESEA (HR2). For five years this case has been made. Now we have new legislation (HR 4875) which aggressively carries on the new system. This is an analysis of that bill. HR 4875 must be stopped in committee. New legislation that reins in the federal bureaucracy must be submitted.

Many education activists were disturbed by what they witnessed at the Republican National Convention Platform Committee because of the red flags raised concerning the direction Republicans appear eager to take on education. Opposition to School-to-Work was eliminated from the platform and Platform Committee co-chair Republican Governor Tommy Thompson proudly stated that "[STW] is alive and well in the states, and we are very proud of it in Wisconsin."

Rep. Charles "Chip" Pickering from Mississippi, Assistant Majority Whip, announced that Goals 2000 and STW had been sunsetted in federal legislation, and that seemed to end that debate. In truth, only the names have been eliminated, a familiar shell game played by the architects of the new education system.

(See how Goals 2000 and STW are mandated upon all states through the new ESEA re-authorization, HR 2 and S 2.)

The platform hints at the determination on the part of the Republican Party to push forward the Goals 2000/STW agenda in federal law. HR 4875, which House Republicans intend to pass with the help of House Democrats, is proof of that.

HR 4875 combines various functions from within the Department of Education into a new bureaucracy, called The Academy. This Academy -- an expansion of federal involvement and oversight into the business of education within the states -- collects, assesses and archives individual student data, test results, and research on various programs. It researches, evaluates and disseminates information about the national "school reform" (Goals 2000/ STW system), closely tracking student, teacher, school, district and state compliance with the federal education mandates.

Education and privacy expert Beverly Eakman, author of "Cloning of the American Mind," after being warned of the bill, said in a letter to education groups, "My 'quick and dirty' first impression of the bill is that it will institutionalize the invasion of privacy of students and their families. In so doing, it could well jeopardize the employment prospects of home schoolers and some privately schooled children because a prospective employer who cannot access all of an applicant's student records (which by definition will include personal, medical, psychological, and family data) may find that government regulations make it cumbersome to hire someone with non-accessible, integrated records."

Five new agencies are created in this new bill, each with its own staff and boards.

A new office is created under the Department of Education that creates a national governance structure (appointed regional boards) to oversee and direct the education "reform" system [Goals 2000/STW] mandated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Federal grants from Goals 2000 (which we are told is "sunsetting") and from the ESEA, continue to be dispensed to the states in the form of technical assistance to schools in their efforts to implement the new system (the "challenging state academic content standards" that are defined and mandated for every state by federal law, the ESEA, now being reauthorized as HR 2 and S 2.)

See a detailed analysis of HR 4875 by Dr. Karen Effrem

Polling data shows that education is a powerful issue in this year's election. People do not want "accountability" to the federal government to get use of their hard earned tax dollars for the bureaucratic programs like Goals 2000 and School to Work that teach job skills instead of academics. They want locally controlled, liberal arts academics and true academic achievement.

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