MrEdCoPAC This page last updated:  January 12, 2007 12:45:52 PM Internet news sources — Getting rid of SATs won't help minority students By Linda Chavez Who Decides What Drugs Are Forced on Children? The Phyllis Shlafly Report February 2001 Goals 2000 Meet 2000 Debra J. Saunders San Francisco Chronicle April 23, 2000 Goals 2000 -- its $2.6 billion cost over the past 10 years, and the negative progress toward it's original eight goals.  Education Reform? The Devil's in the Details By Phyllis Schlafly CNS Commentary 12 April, 2000 "Congress is about to pass legislation that will federalize every local school district and spell the end of local and state control of America's public school classrooms. Mindful of Ronald Reagan's words, "You can't control the economy without controlling the people," Bill and Hillary Clinton have found the way to control the economy by controlling America's schoolchildren." Children of the therapeutic society by B.K. Eakman, 1999 School to Work's Missing Piece: The Workforce Investment Act Karen Holgate March 1, 2000 "Sold to Congress as an adult only, job training 'consolidation' bill, HR 1385, the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), passed Congress almost unanimously. However, the WIA does far more than just consolidate duplicative programs. Like School to Work (STW) nationalizes education, and like the government tried to nationalize health, the new Workforce Investment Act will nationalize job training. It has far reaching consequences that will eventually affect every man, woman, child, employee and business owner in America." School Choice 2000 Annual Report Heritage Foundation March 30, 2000 Though MrEdCo takes no position on school choice, this report give a thorough update on its status.  The Law of Unintended Consequences February 23, 2000 By Kenneth F. Boehm This article is not about education, rather it illustrates how the federal government tends to worsen the very problems it intends to solve.  That tendency toward unintended consequences ought be remembered when considering federal involvement in education. The Schools Are Drugging Our Children By Tom DeWeese CNS Commentary from the American Policy Center March 29, 2000 "Americans have still failed to make the connection with the rash of school killings by school children and the fact that the young killers were all either on Ritalin or another behavior-altering drug such as Prozac or Luvox." Parents, Are You Ready To Teach Your Kids Arithmetic? by Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Forum March 29, 2000 Informative update on the controversies about how to teach math. New Hampshire towns begin tax revolt March 16 (UPI) -- "In a sweeping state-wide tax revolt, 14 towns in New Hampshire have refused to pay their share of a property tax to finance public education. They are now in violation of the law." Students boycott Massachusetts's Comprehensive Assessments March 14, 2000 We do not know the specifics of the Massachusetts assessment tests, and this article paints a somewhat confusing picture.  But the article nonetheless shows the unrest and resentment about the new system, which is happening all over the country.  A student boycott of the assessment is one example of a response.  The volunteerism of conscription and pomp By Marianne M. Jennings Jewish World Review March 14, 2000 A mother discusses first-hand how the new education system assaults and devalues academic achievement in favor of coerced "volunteerism".  She sites her daughter's experiences as an example.  This example occurs in Arizona, showing again that this phenomena is occurring all over the United States (driven from the national level).  Idaho buries School-to-Work? March 3, 2000 Idaho recently signed into law their resolve to eliminate the School-to-Work system from their state.  Unfortunately, that won't accomplish it.  Though MrEdCo takes no position on vouchers, the following article shows the failure of public schools. Study: Private Voucher Students Outperform Peers By Justin Torres CNSNews.com 28 February, 2000 "A Harvard University study released Monday finds that African-Americans who receive private educational vouchers perform better in elementary school than their public school counterparts." The following three articles involve libraries in conservative towns.  They show a remarkable contrast - banning the Bible, a reluctance to eliminate pornography from public schools (even when the means is freely available), and actually voting for pornography. They show the reigning political Will of our times, and the need for parental involvement.  Library System Sued for Banning Bible By Susan Jones CNSNews.com 24 February, 2000 A public library system in Georgia faces a lawsuit for banning the display and distribution of small paperback Bibles in designated "free literature" areas.  Internet Filter Proposal Defeated in Conservative Michigan City CNSNews.com Feb 23, 2000 "Voters in Holland, Michigan Tuesday defeated a proposal to install Internet filters on computers at the local library - the first proposal of its type to come before voters. The ballot measure called for cutting off funding to the library unless the filters were installed to prevent kids from dialing up pornography. "I think free speech brought out a number of voters," said Shannon Garrett, who heads a group opposed to the Internet filters. Holland, a city of 31,000 in western Michigan, is described as staunchly Republican and conservative. Supporters of the ballot measure say they'll keep trying to get those Internet filters installed on library computers. The Mississippi-based American Family Association contributed $35,000 to the campaign to have the filters installed, and some people apparently resented the fact that an outside group was using Holland to promote its national agenda. "I think human supervision is the answer," said one woman who voted against the Internet filter proposal."  Porn Blockers Being Offered to Schools for Free By Lawrence Morahan CNS Staff Writer 16 February, 2000 In a move remarkably overdue, legislators are now interested in blocking Internet porn from the public schools. As the problem has been widely recognized for quite some time, companies that manufacture "porn blockers" are already standing by to offer this service for free.  STW Harms Students, Businesses Eagle Forum February, 2000 ST. CLOUD, MN - A small manufacturing firm has been fined nearly $59,000 for federal child labor law violations after a 17-year-old student lost his arm while applying himself toward the state's School-to-Work program. States move to soften new testing standards Eagle Forum - Education Reporter February, 2000 "States move to soften new testing standards. Following widespread student failure on new "high stakes" reading and math tests, some states are responding to pressure and retreating from their recently-adopted standards. Arizona's Board of Education will revisit and possibly revise a new 10th-grade math test which only one in 10 students passed last year. New York, Massachusetts and California have relaxed or delayed new standards, and Wisconsin has withdrawn a test that every student would have been required to pass in order to graduate from high school." Communities forbidden to name their own schools. Eagle Forum February, 2000 "Maryland communities are forbidden to name their own schools. Citizens in Montgomery County must instead choose from an approved list because too many "dead white males" have been accorded the honor. The list includes locals Thomas Henry Andrews Jr., a murdered cab driver, union leader Vincent T. Foo, janitor Lee Jordan, and the left-wing author James A. Michener. Some citizens blame the Clinton Administration's policies on "diversity" for fostering the notion that too many public schools have been named after America's founding fathers."  Centralized versus local control The following article argues that the major cause of public school failure is the NEA. However, we suggest the issue is local control (by parents & teachers) versus centralized control (by distant centralized powers, be they government or unions).  Our Ruined Educational System By Alan Caruba CNS Education Commentary from the National Anxiety Center 11 February, 2000 "There is a reason why our educational system produces students who have not mastered the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. It is the National Education Association, a union with some 2.4 million members."  Plano Parents Litigate to Disconnect from “Connected Math” By Bob Melvin CNSNews.com February 8, 2000 "Parents in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, are disturbed over what they call the Plano School District's usurping of their parental rights, free speech and equal protection. Those parents are so upset that the matter has gone to court over an issue involving mandated "Connected Math" in the Plano school system." Experts, parents fault Education's math curriculums By Andrea Billups THE WASHINGTON TIMES February 3, 2000 "The Department of Education was criticized yesterday before a House education subcommittee for its endorsement of 10 controversial math programs that parents, mathematicians and others have called unproven."