STATE'S SCHOOL GOALS ARE DECEPTIVE, MANIPULATIVE

On Dec. 14 the State Board of Education passed a 95-page agenda entitled "Missouri Goals 2000 State Plan." The endorsement of this document makes crystal clear Gov. Mel Carnahan's intentions of education reform for our children.

The entire reform process is nothing more than handing our children over to the federal government for education. I'm sure most readers are aware of the infamous history standards of the national Goals 2000. For those uninformed, in the name of multiculturalism and diversity, relevantly obscure individuals are given pages of rave reviews. Those who were instrumental in developing the founding principals of our nation are obliterated in obscurity.

(Heaven forbid that we should have any national heroes who might serve as beacons of inspiration to our children.)

Perhaps less knows is the Pandora's box that can and will be opened under the national science standards. For instance, under Personal and Social Perspectives, Grades 9-12, are the following goals:

- Personal and community health. (Jocelyn, where are those condoms and bananas? And, shucks, we're going to have to raise taxes again to pay for all those school-based health clinics.)

- Population growth. (Would you like to be abortion justification will be slipped in along about here?)

- Natural resources. (Damn the West for our selfish consumption.)

- Environmental quality. (Go hug a tree, for we are at one with nature.)

The list goes on, but one more, please. It is referenced for further reading: "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit" by Al Gore. (Lest some think I exaggerate in my reading between the lines.) Back to the "Missouri Goals 2000 State Plan." I quote from page 43: "Society subscribes to the philosophy that it takes a whole village to raise a child." Doesn't that sound familiar? Or how about: "The community (school, that is, state) takes ownership ... of its children."

I've got news for President Clinton, Hillary and Governor Carnahan. I'm one parent who doesn't subscribe to this whole village philosophy. My wife and I can raise our children, and we don't need the state via the schools and social agencies telling us how to do it. Our children belong to us, not the state. Social engineers do not have the right to use our schools as a vehicle to change the values of our children.

On page 77 of the plan is this strategy: "Develop a set of standards for parent involvement." In light of the fact that under Senate Bill 380's legislation that schools which do not come up to the standards can be declared "academically deficient" and taken over by the state, could there be a possible threat of parents' losing their children to the state if they don't meet the state standards of parental involvement? After all, if standards don't have a measure of enforcement, when what's the point of writing them?

Let's now go to the area of assessment. Remember that we were assured that the state assessment would be academic in nature. Page 10 and 11 of the plan state: The State Board of Education has adopted the following purposes for the assessment system: A set of questionnaires are to be developed to complement the assessment. The questionnaires will provide demographic information relating to students, teachers and administrators and will facilitate (ital) the interpretation of assessment results (endital) (emphasis mine). Now wait a minute. We are going to give purely academic tests that have to be accompanied by a demographic questionnaire to interpret the test results?

Page 2 says that many of the major systemic components required by the Outstanding Schools Act (SB 380) "closely parallel those contemplated by Goals 2000. A primary difference ... is that while the Goals 2000 legislation is voluntary on the part of the state and school districts, the requirements of the Outstanding Schools Act are mandatory in Missouri." What was that assurance Governor Carnahan, Commissioner Bob Bartman and the State Board of Education gave us about local control and voluntary participation?

What's the bottom line? Governor Carnahan sold our children and our schools to the federal government for $6.5 million. That the amount of Goals 2000 money he gets for education in Missouri for 1996. As with all federal programs, you only get the money if you comply with all portions of the federal purse strings. Goals 2000 rewrites America's history and academically dumbs down our children, because so much time is spent making them politically correct. Goals 2000 is so bad that four state already have pulled out, the latest being California, which saw the reading ability of its children plummet to the bottom of the national under Goals 2000 guidelines. By the way, in keeping with the usual vein of deception that has accompanied the education reform process in our state, the internal working document was entitled Missouri's Goals 2000 State Plan. If you call the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and ask for a copy, you will have to ask for the Show Me Plan. Goals 2000, like outcomes-based education, has a bad name. At least we're consistent in our deception.

What can you do? Help get the Missouri Legislature off its posterior and repeal the reform portion of SB 380. And join with us for an education rally at the Capitol at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Ray Rowland is a Dexter resident.