"Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer"

By Amanda Teegarden, Co-Founder, Oklahomans for School Accountability
September 10, 2005

The "Renewing Our Schools, Securing Our Future" National Task Force on Public Education, a "Revitalizing Education Project", recently released the results of their "Revitalizing Education Project". (Oh, swell.)

The Task Force members, at the conclusion of their eighteen month project, released a report called "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer", during a Press Club meeting covered by C-SPAN August 23rd, 2005. The 88 page report is available in PDF form (the whole PDF is 104 pages in total), as well as the C-SPAN broadcast, at this link:

The website, at Campaign for America's Future, covers the agenda of the 'reformation' of the education system in America, and includes an outline of their recommendations, as well as the projected cost of this grand idea.

Recommendations:

The presentation by Philip D. Murphy of the Goldman Sachs Group, during the August 23rd, 2005, C-SPAN broadcast, covers the major recommendations of the Task Force and contains the 'meat' of the report - describing the four parts, the so-called 'buckets', proposed to 'renew our schools and secure our future'.

The Buckets:

Bucket #1 - More and Better Use of Learning Time - extending the school year; pro-viding pre-school and full-day kindergarten; school-to-work programs in H.S.

Bucket #2 - National Accountability Standards. (More Federal involvement!)

Bucket #3 - Aggressively Mentoring New Teachers and future Superintendents.

And in Bucket #4 - Connecting Schools with Families and Communities (Community Schools).

NOTE: This 'renewing and securing' of education, Bucket # 4 'Community Schools', is what the charade called 'Tulsa Talks' was the cover for the already planned Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, Union and Tulsa school districts' Community Schools Initiative. (What a coincidence).

How much do they project that all four of these 'buckets' will cost?

Try $325 billion dollars over a ten-year period, with an initial $7 billion dollar investment to get this started, followed by $35 - $39 billion/year for the remaining nine years. (see page 67 of the report)

That is what the 'buckets' must be for... to carry the money away from taxpayers wallets for the government to 'renew and secure' the future for them.

All this money for AN EXPERIMENT... None of what they have proposed has any track record of success. Excuse me, yes it does; in communist countries, where it SUCCEEDED IN PROMOTING COMMUNISM. IT SUCCEEDED IN FAILING. However, we must not get 'bogged down in the minutiae of facts' of history. We must be progressive, mustn't we?

Progressive? Guess who supported this Task Force to 'renew our schools and secure our future'?  The progressive left.

·  The Center for American Progress

·  The Institute for America's Future

·  The Public Education Network

These, and more left leaning groups, with a few RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) thrown in for good measure, were sponsors and Task Force members of the "Renewing Our Schools, Securing Our Future" National Task Force.

Based on who sponsored this year long project, it will be no surprise, then, what programs, policies, and initiatives will be pursued:

• Children in the government schools at an ever earlier age, for more hours of the day, more days in the year. (The better to influence them).
• More federal involvement with the so-called 'National Accountability Standards';
• More dependency on the 'State' and it's agencies: more Medicaid, Title I, Title IV, and Title X monies;
• More DHS and 'social justice' programs; more Planned Parenthood and Family and Children's Services participation; more assessments, home visitations, mental health screenings, and 'counseling';
• More partnering with agencies like the United Way, C.A.P. and T.A.F.
• More community policing. (Neighbors telling on neighbors).
• More public/private partnerships with businesses and 'mush god' religious organizations;
• More 'job training skills' and plugging kids in to a pre-determined 'career path' to fit the 'new economy' (Just what the Dept. of Labor ordered).
• More 'environmental' training.
• More 'aggressive mentoring' of new teachers, via "Professional Development" and embedded testing of potential teachers, to fit the new 'requirements'.
• More pluralism, diversity, and tolerance.
• More acceptance of homosexuality as normal.

· More destruction of the autonomous family.

· More destruction of an independent and sovereign America.

· More of everything but academics, freedom, individuality, and natural law.

· More of everything but God.

Government funded public schools in Oklahoma have started initiating some or all of these programs, in one form or another, in most school districts in the state. These programs and initiatives come via the strings attached to the federal monies the school districts accept, by liberal socialistic school superintendents and principals, and via objectives agreed to by the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Please get with your state representative and encourage them to halt these initiatives.