A FORK IN THE ROAD
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, October 26, 2012 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. In Georgia politics, we’re at a critical fork in the road and the fork we take determines whether our public schools will be controlled by elected officials or an appointed committee. As I talk about this, some say, “Just tell me how to vote!” I’m happy to tell them to vote AGAINST the charter school amendment, because public education ain’t what it used to be and will be worse if the amendment passes. For some time, schools have been used for social engineering and, right now, the goal has become job-training instead of academic learning.
Ronald Reagan’s statement, “You can’t control the economy without controlling the people,” must have prompted politicians to pass the Federal School-to-Work Act in 1994. So schools could be used to train laborers to stimulate the economy.
Control is the reason public schools use outcome-based education K – 12. The goal of OBE is to teach just enough to keep students from failing in a normal classroom. OBE keeps high achievers and average achievers from learning more than the lowest achiever can learn. No child is left behind and no child can get ahead, either! Then, a school-to-work plan puts every child on a career path, with a curriculum focusing on the JOB he says he wants to do when he grows up. With that plan, schools graduate kids that can’t read or spell or do math without a calculator, but they CAN work at entry level jobs in local businesses and stay in the community.
The 1998 UGA dean explained why educators adopted OBE and School-to-Work: “We don’t want to perpetuate academic learning – at some point it has to be applied to the workplace…. Schooling should transition right into work and I think schooling has become so academic that it isn’t transitioning well into work.” That same year UGA changed teacher education courses from focusing on academics to school-to-work because, “Educated employees have higher turn-over rates, lower job satisfaction, and poorer promotion records than less educated employees.”
Beginning in 2013, K – 12 students must choose one of 16 career paths and their education will be limited to learning the skills needed for that job. That’s the situation in Georgia and it will get worse, if the charter school amendment passes November 6th. Charter schools are radical because they were unconstitutionally created in 1991 by the Executive Branch of federal government via the first President Bush, who wanted radical, break-the-mold schools in every congressional district. Goal one of charter schools was to break the HOLD of locally elected boards of education, and that is happening. Goal two was the public private partnership between government and business to break the HOLD of parents on children’s education. By eliminating local control and parental control, school-to-work could be fully implemented and that’s where we are today.
The charter school question on the ballot is not designed to improve education. It’s not designed to help parents choose the best education for their children. It’s designed to eliminate voter control and parental control and ultimately state control over education will be eliminated. When the plan is complete, the one entity in full control of charter schools and education, itself, will be the federal government with no competition from voters, parents or states. When that happens and it’s near, the federal government, finally, will be the ONLY control over Georgia education. Vote NO on Amendment One on November 6th. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.