Aug. 27, 1997

It's pointed out quite often that those of us opposed to the direction this state is taking in education are in a distinct minority. I can't say I could argue with that; were we in the majority, this wouldn't be happening.

At the same time, I'll make the contention that those who are pushing through this social-reform agenda are in the minority, too — a somewhat larger minority than ours, but a minority nonetheless. The majority consists of those who either don't care or are too lazy to bother to find out what the argument is about.

I stumbled across something on the Net the other day which illustrates brilliantly why a small, extremely liberal element of society has taken control of our educational system and is rapidly assuming control over our economic system. The message came to me forwarded from several different sites, so I'm unsure of the name of the true author, save that he or she is a parent in the Plano school district.

The message is this person's two cents about why so few parents get involved in opposing the "reform" agenda in Texas, and in Plano in particular.

Plano is very similar to Katy in both population and demographic makeup — both far-flung suburbs with a high percentage of affluent residents, both performing well on statewide and national assessments.

"I could give you a long list of names of people who were once reliable stalwarts in our efforts here in Plano, but who now have no interest whatsoever" the author writes. "Why? Their kids have graduated. Or their kids are on a sports team/band/honors English, and they just don't want to rock the boat."

The author notes that people can get charged up over small issues, but rarely see those small issues in a larger context.

"A lot of parents get involved emotionally when something specific affects their kid's class or school, then pull right back in their shells," the parent writes. "The educrats' advantage is that they can concede on every occasion when a large group shows up in protests ... They know that the large group will dissipate, satisfied with the temporary concession, and then they can begin to shuffle two steps forward.

"Parents weary of the fight. Bureaucrats do not. Why should they? It's their job," the author continues. "...So many parents I have known, who were once active, simply got tired of losing all the time."

The parent notes that teachers are willing to express their reservations — but never publicly.

"The bureaucracy goes on and on. Teachers here are very intimidated," the author writes. "Many have been told in fairly explicit terms that their jobs depend on toeing the line. With some 3,000 teachers in the district, there has never, not once in the seven years I've lived here, been a single voice of dissent raised by any district employee about any policy or curriculum. Think about that.

"Personally, I've never been in a group of more than three that could agree unanimously more than once in a row," the parent continues. "A number of teachers write to me, through the web site, but always ask to remain anonymous. What good is that? It's nice for me to know about the good intentions of these teachers, but I don't know of a way to use it in which my credibility quoting 'anonymous' teachers won't become the issue."

How well I know that one: It's been noted before in this space how many "anonymous" messages I receive about "what's going on in the schools." Most of the message-senders refuse to give me a name because they say they're afraid of "retaliation."

The sad part of it all is, too many people refuse to take the time, review the evidence, and see the larger picture — or they give up just when their knowledge could be of the most use.

"And remember, they don't have to satisfy parents forever — just until they go away, like they always do," the Plano parent writes. "The next group of parents will be seeing it all for the first time next year, and it'll take them a while to see that there's a problem, and then, well, two steps forward, one step back."

Perhaps that's why the Texas education bureaucracy was willing to weather the bitter battle over the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills this spring and summer, making small concessions to the most ardent objections — adding phonics instruction in the English/Language Arts/Reading curriculum — while ignoring the larger issues of the socialist School to Work system and the engineering of feelings, attitudes and beliefs.

That might explain why Texas remains an active member of the Education Commission of the States, and through that, the National Alliance for Restructuring Education. We've been told time and again that Texas will "never" adopt a CIM (Certificates of Initial Mastery) system, nor Outcome-Based Education.

Yet the Education Commission of the States web site proclaims boldly that Texas is an active participant, and that "schools, districts and states embrace the idea of the CIM ... schools are driven by standards — specifically, the standards needed to achieve the CIM."