OPPOSING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOL TO WORK ACT IN TEXAS:

Many of us in Texas tried to stop the implementation of this law in our state.  We can thank Governor George W. Bush for accepting it and making it part of the educational system.

People in Katy were at the forefront of fighting this Act.  Dave Mundy at the Katy Times wrote articles that filled an entire issue of the Katy Times, and we took copies of the paper to the SBOE meeting and handed them out to everyone there.  I wish I had a picture of everyone there reading the Katy Times while people were testifying.  It was a sight to behold!

Mr. Mundy wrote this article as the lead OP-ED piece:

'GOOD DEAL' HAS A FEW DRAWBACKS

February 5, 1997

By Dave Mundy

For several years now, just about every time the Katy ISD Board of Trustees meets, they get an earful about "Outcome-Based Education this" and "OBE that" in the local schools.  It can get numbing at times, to be truthful.

Yet the word is now out:  they've been right, all these years.  In fact, it's worse than they've been saying.

Boiled down to the basics, here's what we've got, folks:  an element in this country --for ease of identification I'll call them New Utopians -- thinks they can top Plato, and create a wonderful world where everyone has a job and lives in peace, happiness and harmony.

We will all have jobs; in the event we are skilled for one job, but there aren't any in that field, we'll be retrained for the jobs that ARE available.  We will have access to free social services and health care through the schools, from birth to grave.  There will be a "seamless web" of support for every person in this country who wants it.

Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it?

There are, however, a few drawbacks.

First of all, we don't get a choice about it.  The entire program has been set up to operate without us getting a vote on the matter.  Instead, the New Utopians use carefully-controlled "forums" in which people are "invited to respond."  People are asked carefully-chosen, loaded questions which, just about no matter which way you respond, winds up supporting the concept they're trying to foist on you.

Secondly, the concept of the "American family" will disappear.  The new agenda calls for a system which (to quote Marc Tucker's "vision") "...begins in the home with the very young..." In other words, we're going to be told how to raise our children.  Do it in any fashion other than those set forth in the "national standards," and kindly ol' Uncle Sam will step in and do the job "right."

Nor will our children get much of a chance to have a vote on the matter.  Sometime between kindergarten and sixth grade, they'll be tracked toward a "career" field.  Much will depend on whether or not they've learned to read; the 20 percent of kids who can learn [to read well and with comprehension] under the new system will be allowed to advance to higher-level education.  The other 80 percent will be fodder for industry.

Let's see.. who's the more intelligent voter:  someone with a bona fide education, or someone whose education effectively ended in the fourth grade?

Can you spell M-A-N-I-P-U-L-A-T-E?

Big business isn't spared.  If the new agenda is allowed to follow the plan currently stream rolling through Texas, business will be bullied into compliance and into financing the whole scheme by the threat of "business taxes."  D'you know of anyone who would NOT support "taxing business" instead of "taxing people" to pay for "education?"

For those of us in Texas, it all comes down to Thursday's meeting of the State Board of Education in Austin.  The SBOE is scheduled to vote on a format for the state's new curriculum.  One format is "mush" --the Governor himself said so -- and the other calls for clear standards.

In the event you don't believe anyone could possibly be so daft as to give the go-ahead on the "mush," be advised that the "mush" draft is expected to pass as presented.

Years from now, when you and me are chained to our beds in the Jobs Development Skills Center for Overage Global Citizens, we'll remember that we were warned. 

The Germans thought they were getting a "good deal" back in 1933, too.