- My goodness! Where were all these people when the feds
started funding textbooks and programs in the late sixties? As if this
wretched civics textbook is the first federally-funded textbook!!!!!!!!!
How about the Skinner/Bruner MACOS: Man A Course of Study(mid-seventies)
and many others? Talk about a global education program if there ever was
one, teaching little children how to put their grandparents out on the
ice when they get old?
-
- And what about the National Diffusion Network which spread
all the federally-funded values destroying programs across the country,
into every school district? Have any of these groups ever taken a look
at "Pacesetters in Innovation", the cumulative volume of all
ESEA Title III projects in operation as of February 1969 which is 585 pages
long and includes thousands of programs? It is impossible to find one
program in that catalog that deals with traditional academics.
-
- Oh my, is it possible people have such short memories,
and do these people really believe they will be able to stop such funding
while the U.S. Dept. of Education which is in partnership with UNESCO exists?
-
- Why not go for the throat and call for getting rid of
the Department of Education and resuming the abruptly terminated (1953)
Reece Committee Investigation of the Tax-Exempt Foundations which fund
the development of the global education materials. Why not call for cancellation
of the U.S.-Soviet Education agreement?
-
- Why do these conservative groups so carefully avoid doing
the necessary...OR...Are we just looking at another fund- raising issue
for groups whose funding is dwindling due to people waking up to their
inaction on important issues?
-
- Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
- http://www.deliberatedumbingdown
- http://www.americandeception.com
-
- End Federally Funded Textbooks
By Henry Lamb
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
1-15-6
-
- Why did the federal government give $25,511,064 to a
non-government organization last year to prepare the textbooks for teaching
civics to schoolchildren? Since 1997, the Center for Civic Education has
received at least $110,418,717 from the government and has succeeded in
essentially taking over the supply of materials for teaching civics in
American schools.
-
- Of the many questions that surround this program, the
first to be addressed must be the appropriateness of government funding
of any textbook. Public education is not among the enumerated powers of
the federal government. But, of course, the feds long ago discarded the
notion that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people."
-
- President Bush eliminated this funding in his 2006 budget,
but 38 senators, led by Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa,
joined 98 representatives, led by Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and David Obey,
D-Wis., to have this funding restored.
-
- Public education has historically been a responsibility
of state and local government. In recent years, however, the federal government
has taken control.
-
- Proponents of the CCE program agree that the federal
funding is, indeed, appropriate and necessary. Even if there were universal
agreement on the appropriateness of federal funding, should there not be
competitive bidding? Should local school boards not be able to choose from
among several possible texts? Government funding of textbooks is bad enough,
but when the money is specified to go to a single non-government organization
without competition or bids to produce materials for a subject
as important as civics education, it causes a very bad smell to surround
the entire project.
-
- One might suspect CCE gets this special funding treatment
because someone, somewhere, wants to be sure that the content of the material
says what the funding source wants said.
-
- The content of the material raises another set of questions.
CCE provides basic textbooks, "We the People: the Citizens and the
Constitution," in three versions, for early grades, for middle school
and for high school. The organization also maintains a nationwide network
of supporters who conduct seminars for teachers to encourage the use of
CCE's materials. Many people believe the government is perfectly justified
using tax money for this purpose, because the material teaches about the
Constitution and the foundations of freedom.
-
- Or does it? The material titles sound impressive. All
would agree that students should learn about the Constitution and the foundations
of freedom. CCE's literature sounds as if it does just that. But a growing
number of critics who actually read the literature are crying foul.
-
- One very thorough reviewer is Allen Quist, adjunct professor
of political science at Bethany Lutheran College. He is a former three-term
member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota House
Education Committee. He is author of three books and numerous articles
on education policy.
-
- Among Quist's books, is "FedEd: The New Federal
Curriculum and How It's Enforced." Quist analyzes the material in
CCE textbooks. Here is a sample:
-
- "In the past century, the civic mission of schools
was education for democracy in a sovereign state. In this century, by contrast,
education will become everywhere more global. And, we ought to improve
our curricular frameworks and standards for a world transformation by globally
accepted and internationally transcendent principles."
-
- Quist and many other reviewers are convinced that CCE's
educational materials strive to transform American students into "global
citizens." American principles of government, such as the Bill of
Rights, are minimized, and global values are promoted. CCE's material diminishes
the notion of "inalienable rights" and suggests that rights guaranteed
by the Constitution reflect 18th century ideas, which should change with
time to reflect global values.
-
- Why is the federal government spending so much money
to have this material published and pushed in American schools? By subsidizing
the publication costs, these materials can be made available to schools
free of charge. School boards that may wish to use other material are forced
to pay market prices for it.
-
- EdWatch, of Minnesota, Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America,
the American Policy Center and other groups are working to get the "We
the People" textbook out of the public classroom and stop the globalist
curriculum.
-
- These groups are promoting legislation called "The
Freedom in Education Act," which clearly states:
-
- "... [N]o federal funds shall be used to develop,
publish, advertise, promote, support, or distribute textbooks or curriculum;
that competitive bidding shall be required for all education-related federal
grants to non-governmental organizations; all questions in federally funded
education assessments shall be released to the public within three years
of being administered; and no federal funds shall be used for cooperative
education activities between the Department of Education and UNESCO."
-
- Enactment of this bill will end federally funded textbooks.
-
- Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental
Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.
-
- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news
- /printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48336
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