PIML 96050501 / Forwarded to Patriot Information Mailing List: [Two messages explaining Goals 2000] PIML ================================================================== From: "Cravens, Roger D." Subject: May Education Reporter -- What Really is Goals 2000? 8/11 Date: Tue, 04 Jun 96 14:01:00 EST Subject: May Education Reporter -- What Really is Goals 2000? 8/11 Date: Friday, May 10, 1996 4:31PM What Really is Goals 2000? by Lance T. Izumi and Natalie Williams Few topics in recent years have inflamed parents and grassroots education activists as the Clinton administration=FEs Goals 2000: Educate America Act, passed in 1994. Although the law=FEs supporters contend that Goals 2000 is merely a helpful attempt to increase academic standards in K-12 education, the authors of this study find that in any common sensical reading of the law, power is transferred from state and local education authorities to the federal bureaucracy in Washington. The law makes mandatory a wide variety of federal dictates, controls education=FEs purse strings, requires national standards, issues federal "skill certificates," imposes new regulations, and manipulates state and local assessments. In so doing, Goals 2000 radically alters the education decisionmaking landscape by centralizing policymaking at the federal level, leaving the states and localities to carry out Washington=FEs dictates. * Drafters of the Goals 2000 law use the command "will" at least forty-five times in describing what the federal government expects states and local districts to do to accomplish the Act=FEs eight national goals. The more permissive =FEshould=FE is used only three times. * Goals 2000 creates a wide variety of bureaucracies (e.g., the National Goals Panel, regional education laboratories, federal education research institutes, etc.) which are endowed with wide =FEadvocacy=FE powers in order to get states and localities to implement the national goals and objectives contained in the Act. * Once a state accepts federal Goals 2000 money, it must implement the national goals and objectives of Goals 2000. According to the Act, any state that applies for Goals 2000 funding must devise a state improvement plan that incorporates "strategies for meeting the National Education Goals." * Through its control of the purse, the federal government will increase its influence over school curricula. Washington explicitly recommends that states include "gender equitable and multicultural materials" in its improvement strategies. * Goals 2000 tells states how to cut their education pie and in some cases even dictates the size of the pie (the level of spending) and mandates what social services schools are to provide on campus. * Goals 2000 creates a National Skills Standards Board that will endorse a broad spectrum of skills standards to be considered by business and employers when hirng. The related School-to-Work law strongly encourages states to issue "skill certificates" to students who supposedly have met the skills standards promulgated by the National Skills Standards Board. Schools and students who refuse to participate in the skill-certificate program will be at a disadvantage in the job market. * Even though compliance with Goals 2000 is "voluntary" for states, the law holds disadvantaged children hostage to its dictates. Goals 2000 requires states that receive federal money under the Improving America=FEs Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) to align state assessments, curriculum, and professional teacher development programs with the standards contained in the Goals 2000 law. California is slated to receive more than $1 billion in IASA money in 1995-96. The above is the executive summary of a 28-page report on Goals 2000 published by the Claremont Institute, 1127 Eleventh St., Suite 206, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916) 446-7924. EAGLE FORUM ---------------------------------------------- Be sure to get on our Eagle Forum Alert List!! Tell a friend about us! http://www.accessus.net/~eagle eagle@accessus.net ================================================================== From: "Cravens, Roger D." Subject: Goals 2000 report - Part II Date: Tue, 04 Jun 96 14:08:00 EST Subject: Goals 2000 report - Part II Date: Tuesday, May 28, 1996 11:49AM Find out what YOUR state is doing in this Goals 2000 project. Get the information FIRST-HAND. Then you know who to oppose and support. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 16:40:29 -0400 From: kwinters@inet.ed.gov (Kirk Winters) To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Goals 2000 report THE FIRST REPORT TO CONGRESS on Goals 2000 was completed three weeks ago & has been added to our Online Library. The 34-page report looks at... the CONTEXT that led to the creation of Goals 2000. how STATES are using Goals 2000 -- each in its own way -- to build partnerships, develop challenging standards & better assessments, & strengthen accountability. how SCHOOLS & LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS are using Goals 2000 to upgrade teacher preparation, improve curricula & instruction, get technology into schools, & more. how FLEXIBILITY in Goals 2000 is helping the Department find better ways of doing business & provide waivers from federal requirements that may impede school improvement. AMENDMENTS (passed by Congress & signed by the President last month) to the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Charts showing state-by-state allocations (under Goals 2000) are included, along with information on 10 urban & rural reform efforts and 28 parent assistance centers (supported by Goals 2000). The report also tells that... Forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and all of the outlying areas received funds in the first year of Goals 2000, primarily for designing or updating their education improvement strategies. Forty states, DC, Puerto Rico, the BIA, and all of the outlying areas but Guam have received second-year funds, and most of the other states are expected to apply for second-year money before the June 30th deadline. Twenty states and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have submitted comprehensive improvement plans for review. The full report -- "Goals 2000: Increasing Student Achievement Through State and Local Initiatives" -- is available at: http://www.ed.gov/G2K/GoalsRpt/ gopher.ed.gov -> Department-Wide Initiatives -> Goals 2000 A paper copy can be requested by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN. ********************************************************** EXCERPTS from "Local Improvements in Teaching & Learning," a chapter in "Goals 2000: Increasing Student Achievement Through State and Local Initiatives" (April 30, 1996) ********************************************************* ================================================================== * Patriot Information Mailing List * http://constitution.org/piml/piml.htm * A service to help inform those who have an active interest in * returning our federal and state governments to limited, * constitutional government * Send messages for consideration and possible posting to * butterb@sagenet.net (Bill Utterback). * To subscribe or unsubscribe, send message with subject line * "subscribe patriot" or "unsubscribe patriot" * Forwarded messages sent on this mailing list are NOT verified. * See World's Smallest Political Quiz: www.self-gov.org/quiz.html * Libertarian is to LIBERTY as librarian is to library (DePena) * PIML grants permission to copy and repost this message * in its entirety with headers and trailers left intact.