[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 135 (Friday, September 23, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    CONCERNS WITH SYSTEMIC EDUCATION

                                 ______


                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 23, 1994

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, one of the most important issues facing 
parents and lawmakers today is that of education. Providing for the 
proper education of our Nation's youth is of the utmost importance to 
maintaining a stable, effective democratic society. I feel that the 
Goals 2000 Program poses a serious threat to the pillars of our 
educational system: Choice and diversity.
  Under the Goals 2000 Program, the Federal Government would assume a 
role more properly filled by parents, not bureaucrats. Instead of 
educating the student, this outcome-based education [OBE] would mold 
our youth into homogenous workers indoctrinated with OBE's political 
correctness. This Nation needs highly motivated and literate 
individuals, not politically correct students being told what to think 
and how to feel.
  Those concerned with education desire choice and variety in 
academics. Systemic reform is just the opposite, and if passed will 
surely spark an uproar among those trying to provide for truly helpful 
reform.
  I urge my fellow Members of Congress to read the following article, 
written by Robert Holland and published in the August 3 issue of the 
Richmond Times-Dispatch. In order to avoid harming the future of our 
educational system, I believe that systemic reform must be avoided.

            [From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 3, 1994]

    ``Systemic'' Education Plans Run Roughshod Over Free Individuals

                          (By Robert Holland)

       The Allen administration has been giving thought to 
     rejecting $14 million in biennial Goals 2000 money being 
     dangled by the feds as an inducement to sign on to a 
     totalitarian form of school reform accurately called systemic 
     by its advocates.
       Unfortunately, the decision is more complicated than that. 
     The pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary 
     Education Act (now running to more than 900 dreary pages) 
     could cut Virginia out of another $140 million in aid, 
     largely to high-poverty schools, if it balks at buying into 
     Goals 2000--national school board, national curriculum, and 
     all.
       Meanwhile, there is the question of Virginia's 
     participation in the federal School-to-Work Opportunities 
     Act, which Congress quietly passed last spring. Millions more 
     will be at stake. School to Work constitutes the third leg of 
     the triad of national systemic reform; indeed, all three of 
     these measures are cross-referenced and tightly wired 
     together.
       An example: Goals 2000 sets up a National Skills Standards 
     Board whereby Robert Reich's Labor functionaries can define 
     the skills necessary for every job in the country. School to 
     Work will specify how the schools are to inculcate and 
     certify those workplace skills (like the notorious SCANS 
     ``competencies'' of self-esteem and sociability) in children 
     and will begin tracking them early on (through ``career 
     majors'') toward employment in specific industries. 
     Counseling would begin ``at the earliest possible age, but 
     not later than the seventh grade.'' (Title I, Sec. 101).
       The Allen administration has accepted a $330,000 School-to-
     Work planning grant, and Cynthia Taylor, a Wilder holdover 
     who heads this initiative, has announced a series of 10 
     community meetings in September. She plans to hire 
     ``professional facilitators'' to conduct the sessions, which 
     are to help develop a plan she says will reflect Virginia's 
     own ``interests and needs.'' But the Labor Department already 
     has volumes of specific School to Work guidelines for 
     Virginia and other states. It is possible to tap into those 
     plans via computer by dialing 800-767-0806 with a modem.
       Were this simply an effort to keep education abreast of 
     workplace changes in a technological era and to enhance 
     students' career options (as a product of their own free 
     will), then there would be much to commend in School to Work. 
     Unfortunately, however, a strong element of government 
     coercion permeates Labor's files. A 1991 Virginia proposal, 
     for instance, envisioned that persons under 18 who had left 
     school without ``establishing their competencies'' under the 
     Virginia Assessment of Critical Knowledge and Skills would be 
     required to enter government Youth Work-Learning Centers. 
     They would not be allowed to hold a job until they had 
     mastered the so-called competencies.
       Philosophically, School to Work resolves by fiat a long-
     running debate between the liberal arts and applied 
     education. Workplace know-how would replace Cardinal Newman's 
     idea of knowledge as a valuable end in itself. No longer 
     would education be about producing well-rounded individuals; 
     instead it would be about well-socialized workers for the 
     global economy.
       Governor Allen, who won election as an opponent of state-
     mandated Outcome-Based Education, has tried to keep faith 
     with concerned citizens who want choice, variety, and strong 
     academics--not one-size-fits-all systemic reform. In a recent 
     letter, he explained to them that while a Governor who 
     believes in local control cannot zap by decree all remnants 
     of OBE-style affective education in certain localities, he 
     stands by their right as parents to have an impact on local 
     policies.
       That such everyday parents and taxpayers--the army OBE 
     created--are winning battles not only in Virginia but across 
     the nation greatly offends the powerful establishment that 
     deems its systemic reform the one model for all. Any doubt 
     about that should have been erased by a recent alarm from the 
     Alexandria-based National Association of State Boards of 
     Education.
       NASBE director Brenda Welburn lamented that ``systemic 
     education reform'' is experiencing ``setbacks in many states 
     due to the well-organized opposition which has waged a 
     relentless campaign of rallies and sound-bites.'' She said 
     the Business Roundtable, the organization of big biz CEOs, is 
     organizing a coalition of ``national education associations 
     and businesses'' to thwart this opposition.
       Interestingly enough, one of the touted benefits of joining 
     the coalition will be ``tool kits'' including ``materials on 
     opponents.'' Totalitarian reform, totalitarian methods.
       Among the groups joining so far: the Council of Chief State 
     School Officers, National Alliance of Business, National 
     Association of Secondary School Principals, National 
     Association of State Directors of Special Education, National 
     Middle School Association, National School Public Relations 
     Association, and the New American Schools Development 
     Corporation. These worthies plan to pool their money--ours?--
     to hire a fancy political campaign consultant to turn public 
     opinion their way.
       These elitist pooh-bahs just don't get it. The problem is 
     that their statist scheme stinks, and all the PR in the world 
     won't make it smell sweeter.
       In the 1980s, the idea of ``outcomes'' in education 
     appealed to bottom-line business thinking, as well it should. 
     Solid results should be expected, indeed demanded, from 
     government schools. But as Bruno Manno points out in a 
     trenchant briefing paper on OBE for the Hudson Institute, the 
     outcomes concept was ``hijacked'' by the education 
     bureaucracy, and the process turned on its head. With 
     outcomes now expressed in the old progressivist mumbo-jumbo 
     about feelings and attitudes, accountability becomes 
     impossible. Jeanne Allen of the pro-choice Center for 
     Education Reform believes that well-meaning business 
     executives have been misled by their staffers and education 
     bureaucrats.
       It would be grand if Governor Allen struck a blow for 
     liberty by making Virginia the first state to reject all aid 
     related to the federalization of education. But that's 
     expecting a lot, given the hue and cry sure to arise about, 
     ``shortchanging'' Virginia pupils.
       What's more likely is that systemic reform on the current 
     model will be imposed in every district in the land--and as a 
     result we will see a parents' revolt in this country that 
     will make the current uprising seem tame. Maybe then will 
     come true reform--not of the systemic variety, mind you, but 
     rather one that replaces the corrupt, monopolistic system 
     with true diversity and choice.

                          ____________________