July 2, 1997

"Bartender! I'll have what the gentleman on the floor is having!"

I recall scribbling a column a couple of weeks ago which warned that the PR machine is cranking up to numb the public about the national education agenda being foisted on Texas.

It appears the education "reform" marketers aren't going to limit their misinformation campaign to the state's big daily newspapers.

This week's "Duh! Award" has to go to Mark Jones, a staff writer with the Sun newspaper group, for his lengthy piece in the June 26 Katy Sun headlined: "Spring ISD administrator says new curriculum not a problem."

In the piece, Jones quotes Spring ISD assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Rob Smith as saying that parents needn't be concerned with the furor which has arisen over the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

"Most of the arguments are not of immediate concern (to parents)," Jones quotes Smith. "It doesn't change course offerings, but some of the context of courses."

Parents shouldn't be concerned about what their children are learning?

Such an arrogant statement serves as confirmation of the premise that our education establishment is actively engaged in misleading the public concerning the national agenda being pursued in Texas. Jones' blind acceptance of such a statement — and the TEA propaganda which comprises the rest of his story — is, sadly, typical of the laziness which has infected journalism.

There's a lot going on which our friends in the mainstream media are ignoring, either purposely or through lack of initiative.

The Texas Education Agency, for example, had TEKS training videotapes ready to go — BEFORE the TEKS were ever "officially" approved by the rubber-stamp majority on the State Board of Education. Kinda confident there.

Our esteemed Governor is twisting every Republican arm he can twist to squelch opposition to the social-engineering agenda of his predecessor, which he has adopted as his own. Some folks are courageously opposing him.

The State Board members who have stood fast against the TEKS received some visitors a couple of weeks back and were effectively told to hush up and support the Guv. They refused.

Suddenly the Houston daily newspaper is detailing their large-but-perfectly-legal phone bills in front-page stories, in an effort to discredit them. Coincidence? Maybe.

The disinformation campaign is hitting on all cylinders.

The Texas Business and Education Coalition's monthly "Highlights" newsletter notes that Commissioner of Education Mike Moses invited "nationally-known experts and trusted Texans" to review the TEKS. Alas, it fails to mention that most of those experts SLAMMED the state's proposed new curriculum, and that those "trusted Texans" were primarily TEA personnel or others ordered to give the document glowing praise.

The "Highlights" also includes results from a survey on education put out by Public Agenda, which it calls a "nonpartisan, nonprofit" organization.

I'll accept "nonprofit" — but Public Agenda is about as "nonpartisan" as sleepovers at the White House.

Public Agenda is an affiliate of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which underwrites Marc Tucker's National Center on Education and the Economy. Tucker even mentions, in his outline of how to implement his social-engineering agenda, that Public Agenda would serve as the key communicator to the public of the "crisis" his agenda would appear to "fix."