Viewpoint
                             October 1995
                               Ray Diaz
                    Email: 71600,704@CompuServe.Com


                 Government Schools A System Run Amok

Somewhere in Florida, it occurs every 72 hours a teacher sexually
molests or harasses a student. The number of teachers disciplined for
sexual misconduct toward students increased 150 percent last year.
Most cases involve inappropriate comments and touching, but have
included offers of drugs or better grades for sex, some have even
tried to force students into prostitution. A four-year nationwide
study on school sexual abuse found that one out of 20 teachers engage
in sexual misconduct, which would place the number of abusers in
Florida at about 6,000, a far cry from the few dozen routinely
disciplined.


The shocking abuse of position described above is just one of the
symptoms of a system that has run amok, and that's unraveling at the
seams. The American Public School system is one, in which the word to
"Pray" has become a four letter word. The U.S. Department of Education
which is a centrally managed governmental bureaucracy, has brought us
a long way from your local 'Little One-Room Schoolhouse' in your
neighborhood. The Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs lists
241 separate programs, many which have usurped the rights of the
states to manage their own education systems by shipping our tax
dollars to Washington, where a gluttonous high-priced administration
grabs it's share before sending the reminder back to the states. The
education establishment is one that is always crying out for more and
more of our money, and they try to get it from by any possible means:
property taxes, sales tax, the lottery, license tags...

Let's see what you are getting for your money from the government
school system:

Former Secretary of Labor William Brock has stated, "We have public
education at the elementary and secondary level that ranks below every
industrial competitor we have in the world!"

According to former Secretary of Education William Bennett, more than
90 percent of the students entering U.S. colleges would not be
admitted to post-secondary education anywhere else in the world.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the
mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have
viewed it as an act of war." "We have, in effect, been committing an
act of unthinking, unilateral education disarmament." "A Nation at
Risk" The National Commission on Excellence in Education.

"Each generation of Americans has outstripped its parents in
education, in literacy, and in economic attainment. For the first time
in the history of our country, the educational skills of one
generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach,
those of their parents" Paul Copperman, "A Nation At Risk."

"The crisis in our public schools grows worse and worse at least in
part because many teachers are themselves under-educated, unmotivated
and incompetent." Time Magazine, Crisis in American Education (1978).

"This is not teaching in any normally accepted, or for that matter
acceptable, sense. It is political indoctrination." Washington Post,
in an April 6, 1983 editorial.

Reading teachers working on their masters degrees in their specialties
at the University of South Carolina were tested. The results showed
that 25% read below the eighth grade level. In Dallas, 262 of 535
first year teachers failed tests in simple math and verbal ability. In
Houston, 62% of 2,437 teachers failed a standard reading skills test,
46% flunked in math, and 26% failed in writing. Allen Brownfield in
the Washington Times, March 30, 1983.

The 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) declared
that as many as have of elementary and secondary school students do
not demonstrate "competency in challenging subject matter in English,
mathematics, science, history, and geography. Further, even fewer are
able to use their minds well."

National Commission of Excellence in Education states: Only one-fifth
of 17-year-olds students can write a persuasive essay; 80% could not
write a persuasive letter; only one-third can solve a mathematical
equation involving several steps; and 13% are functionally illiterate.

The average achievement of high school students on most standardized
tests is now lower then in 1957 when Sputnik was launched, and the
average achievement of students graduating from college is also lower.

Eighty five percent of the children entering school will be taught the
"look-say" reading method instead of the phonetic approach. Twenty-
nine percent will be functionally illiterate by graduation.

1983 study from National Geographic reports: One fifth of students
can't find the United States on a map!

Some estimates put the number of adult illiterates at nearly four
million and functional illiterates at 30 million, their re-education
would require a national mobilization akin to fighting World War I,
and these adults are outside of compulsory education.

In Hillsborough county Florida, where the voters defeated a request
for a .5% sales tax increase the statistics were: The current total
school district budget is $1.3 billion for 150,000 students or $8,667
per student; The school district's employees' wages and salaries are
14% higher than the county's government employees, which is even
higher than comparable private sector jobs; and while the number of
students in the school system increased by 14% from 1980 to 1990, the
number of employees increased by 32%, and their salaries and benefits
increased by 178% during the same period.

In Dade county Florida 18% of public school teachers send their own
children to private school, while only 15% of the general public do.
Teachers gave the reasons for putting their children in private
schools as: smaller classes; fear of their children's safety; classes
that are less disrupted; where troublemakers can be quickly kicked
out. Fourth-grade teacher Priscilla Dames said, "When it comes to my
child, I'm a parent first, you fear for your children getting lost in
the shuffle and the crime. It scares you, it really scares you." Carla
Rivas, a middle school teacher said, "I work in a middle school, I
know what goes on there, when I was in college studying to be a
teacher, they called middle school 'the Vietnam of education' because
it's so bad. It's hard because I really want my kids to go to public
school, but the standards aren't high. They're just passing students
along. There are a lot of distractions. Parents are not supportive."
Cities with a higher share of public school teachers picking private
schools than the general public included: Boston (44%), Jersey City
(50%), Grand Rapids (41%) and Honolulu (45%).

In textbooks grades one through four the words "Marriage," "wedding,"
"husband," or "wife" are never mentioned as the foundation of the
family. A family is referred to as a "group of people".

Since 1970 the federal government has spent almost $3 billion of our
tax dollars to promote contraceptives and "safe sex" among our
teenagers. What have we gotten for our money since 76% of all high
schools seniors have taken the "sex Ed" courses: unwed pregnancies
have increased 87% among 15-19 year olds; abortion among teens has
risen 67%; and unwed births were up 61%; and AIDS has become the
number one killer of 25-44 year olds.

The risk of violence to teenagers is greater in public schools than
anywhere else.

Inferior education costs taxpayers over $400 billion annually or $140
billion more than our national defense, equals between $4,500 and
$6,000 per student. But that is not the greatest price parents pay for
so-called free public education. The greatest price is the damage done
to the mind of our children.

The school system in Jersey City, New Jersey which has spent over
$9,000 per student a year, graduates only 40% of its students, and
many who do graduate are illiterate. Things got so bad in 1989 that
the state took control of the city's schools.


Now let's look at the NEA (National Education Association): The NEA
was founded in 1857 as a professional organization to advance
education and represent teachers. Today they are a legally sanctioned
monopoly on the American education system. This 2.2+ million, yes
million member labor union, is the largest union and lobbying group in
the U.S., and it yields it's power at anyone who stands in the way of
it's agenda. School choice provides an illustration of their motives
and their inner workings. In 1992, a school choice initiative was
placed on the California ballot. But the NEA-affiliated California
Teachers Association (CTA) fought back, according to Forbes magazine
(6/7/93) expose on the NEA, the CTA resorted to tactics like, blocking
access to the petition, allegedly signing the petition with fake names
to sabotage it, and offering $400,000 to a signature-collecting firm
to decline the account. CTA President D.A. Weber justified their
guerrilla-style actions by saying: "There are some proposals that are
so evil that they should never even be presented to the voters." Their
$750 million a year budget allows their political tentacles to reach
all the way into the White House. In 1976, the NEA supported the
election of Jimmy Carter. Soon afterwards, the U.S. Department of
Education was created and has since funneled billions of your dollars
into the NEA-run education system. As retribution for the unfavorable
Forbes article the NEA announced that the magazine would no longer be
available at reduced rates to members, they also removed the magazine
from all NEA promotional literature. The NEA has just passed a
resolution that advocates  teaching the acceptance for homosexuality,
by calling on every school district across the country to celebrate
"Gay and Lesbian History Month." The resolution wants to increase
"sensitivity to sexual orientation"; calls for "eliminating sexual
orientation stereotyping"; and wants to portray "contributions of
gays, lesbians and bisexuals throughout history, with the
acknowledgment of their sexual orientation." It also calls for
"acceptance of diverse sexual orientation and awareness of sexual
stereotyping whenever sexuality and/or tolerance of diversity is
taught." "To win, know the enemy; divide the enemy; know who all the
players are; conduct the action on several levels; personalize the
conflict,." no this quote is not taken from an Army training manual,
but from the 1975 NEA staff manual. While it is obvious that the NEA
leaders are far more radical than your average teacher who is a
member, far too many teachers and parents think that the NEA is an
organization of professional educators, not a militant labor union
dominated by an ultra-liberal leadership.

"Schools will become clinics whose purpose is to provide
individualized psycho-social treatment for the student, and teachers
must become psychosocial therapists. Children are to become the
objects of experimentation." NEA pamphlet, 'Education for the
Seventies.'

Former NEA president George Fischer said in 1970 that the goals of the
NEA "The union intends to control who enters, who stays, and who
leaves the (teaching) profession. Once this is done we can also
control the teacher training institutions.".

Kansas NEA executive director John Lloyd, commenting on the NEA "is
controlled and run by a group of non-educators...well-paid
professional staff who have their own agenda, which is not necessarily
in the best interests of public education or of the poorly paid
teachers who faithfully serve it."

"The ultimate goal of the NEA is to tap the legal, political and
economic powers of the U.S. Congress. We want leaders and staff with
sufficient clout that they may roam the halls of Congress and collect
votes to re-order the priorities of the United States of
America." Terry Herndon, former executive director of the NEA.

"There's no alternative to political action. Instruction and
professional development have been on the back burner to us, compared
with political action." Former NEA president Mary Hatwood Futrell.

"Nowhere in the basic documents of NEA, in their resolutions or new
business items, are there any anti-Soviet or anti-socialist
positions." Daily World magazine, formerly the Daily Worker published
by the Communist Party USA on July 25,1981.

The NEA's "Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and
Storybooks" suggests classroom emphasis on Malcom X, the radical black
separatist; W.E.B. Dubois, the black Communist Party member; and
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and advocate of
infanticide, who was herself a racist talked about "weeding out of the
unfit" bred by the lower classes in her book, "Woman and the New
Race", 1969 p229. Yet they attacked the books: 'Hansel and Gretel' and
'Little Women' as sexist and 'The Story of Doctor Doolittle' as
racist.

"Nearly every  necessary step to high quality American public
education is being fought by the NEA. The NEA supports seniority
systems that prevent principals from firing inept teachers.", as
quoted in the New Republic, April 18, 1981.

The NEA claims that schools should have the 'academic freedom' to
teach children anything they want without parents' knowledge or
consent." Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum Publication.

"The NEA in recent years has come to embody every single cause that
has contributed to the crisis that threatens our public schools. These
days, the NEA functions as a trade union, as bellicose and demanding
as the miners, the teamsters and the longshoremen. In the whole field
of public employee unionism, few outfits are as militant." James J.
Kilpatrick , syndicated columnist.

NEA endorses "values education" materials from Planned Parenthood in
the form of a film entitled "About Sex" as a study on family life and
sex education. The film opened with a rock group singing: "Let's get
together/Sex/That's what it's all about/Sex." A nude go-go dancer was
shown, masturbation was encouraged and homosexuality was presented as
an acceptable option. Having an abortion was presented as a positive
experience. Yet there was not a single mention of the traditional
relationship of sex within marriage. At one point, the students were
asked to answer a series of questions regarding sex such as: Would you
rather be pregnant and give birth at 15 or have an abortion? Would you
rather spend your life in total abstinence or have sex only with a
prostitute?

You must be asking yourself , "why does the NEA membership tolerate
their ultra-liberal militant agenda?" The answer is quite simple, it's
likely that most teachers are not especially political and are more
involved in their classrooms, schools, and communities than in their
union's activism at the state and national levels. The NEA is
hijacking the American public education to change society, and they
are not just trying to restructure education, it's out to restructure
our society. As hard as it may be for you to believe it the NEA is
interested in power and the control of American education and your
children.


For this once great country of ours to have a future without tyranny
we must take back the control of our schools, so that they return to
the time-honored purpose of educating children. Regaining control can
be accomplished by praying for God to rally all Americans to:

See the truth of what is really happening before their very eyes, and
to tell anyone or everyone who will listen. Create public awareness!

Become informed, involved, vote, and contact your teachers,
principles, administrators, local government representatives,
Congress, and all media outlets, tell them what's on your mind. Get
involved in your local school, PTA, local school board and district,
grassroots organizations, and in our children's school work. You must
ask questions, look at your children's curriculums, show up
unannounced in the classroom, and withhold our children from all
questionable classes and activities, demand for prior notification.

De-fund all these dangerous organizations, because their commitment is
weak without government and the teacher's money. Vote for and promote
school choice, so then you can decide the type and quality of
education that's right for your family. Pressure Congress to de-fund
and eliminate "Goals 2000" which is the government's take over of our
local schools.

If at all possible pull your kids out of the government schools
immediately, and put them in private school or homeschool them. You
may have to sacrifice for a while, but aren't your children worth it.
Homeschooling is the fastest growing educational movement in America,
you can do it. We must put our children first, before ourselves and
our comfort zone because they are our future, we are responsible for
our children's education not the government or anyone else. Our
children's minds and hearts are in the balance.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however
long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no
survival - Winston Churchill.

Remember we are the majority and they are a minority, and as in all
things God is in control.


What the education establishment has said:

"(Our) great object was to get rid of Christianity, and to convert our
churches into halls of science. The plan was not to make open attacks
on religion...but to establish a system of state schools, from which
all religion was to be excluded...and to which all parents were to be
compelled by law to send their children. For this purpose, a secret
society was formed and the whole country was to be
organized..." Orestes Brownson (1803-1876)

"What the church has been for medieval man, the public school must
become for democratic and rational man. God would be replaced by the
concept of the public good." Horace Mann (1796-1858)

"...the traditional approach in which the tools of learning (reading,
writing, and arithmetic) were first mastered was not appropriate for
the new age of social consciousness." "...apart from the thought of
participation in social life, the school has no end or aim." "There is
no God and there is no soul. Hence, there is no needs for the props of
traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable
truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law
or moral absolutes." "It is impossible to ignore the fact that
historic Christianity has been Committed to a separation of sheep and
goats; the saved and the lost; the elect and the mass...Those outside
the fold of the church and those who do not rely upon belief in the
supernatural have been regarded as only potential brothers, still
requiring adoption into the family. I cannot understand how any
realization of the democratic ideal in human affairs is possible
without surrender of the conception of the basic division to which
supernatural Christianity is committed." John Dewey (1859-1952), The
"Father of Progressive Education;" co-author of the first Humanist
Manifesto and honorary NEA president.

"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every
American school is a school of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday
School's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction
of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of
humanistic teaching?" Charles F. Potter, Humanism: A New Religion
(1930)

"I think that the most important factor moving us toward a secular
society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach
Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until
he is sixteen tends to lead toward the elimination of religious
superstition." Paul Blanshard, "Three Cheers for our Secular State",
The Humanist, March/April 1976

"We must ask how we can kill the god of Christianity. We need only to
insure that our schools teach only secular knowledge. If we could
achieve this, god would indeed be shortly due for a funeral
service." G. Richard Bozarth "On Keeping God Alive", American Atheist,
November 1977

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged
and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly
perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of
humanity. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as
the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of
another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey
humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of
educational level - preschool, day care or a large state university.
The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the
old and the new - the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with
all it's adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism,
resplendent in it's promise of a world in which the never-realized
Christian ideal of "love thy neighbour" will finally be
achieved." John J. Dunphy, "A New Religion for a New Age", The
Humanist, January/February 1983

"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally
ill, because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward or
founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents,
toward a belief in a supernatural Being, toward the sovereignty of
this nation as a separate entity. It is up to you teachers to make all
these sick children well by creating the international children of the
future." Harvard Professor of Education and Psychiatry, 1984

"Today our state supported "public" schools are humanistic schools.
Actually, they are religious institutions teaching, with public funds,
an alien faith. The public schools are an establishment of religion:
the religion of humanism...No Christian children should be required to
attend a public school."  Rousas J. Rushdoony, "The World's Second
Oldest Religion", 1981


Recommended reading list:

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform - The National
Commission on Excellence in Education (The U.S. Department of
Education)

Blackboard Blackmail - Susan Clark

Blackboard Tyranny - Connaught Marshner

Censorship: Evidence of Bias in Our Children's Textbooks - Paul C.
Vitz

Classrooms in Crisis: Parents Rights and the Public School - Arnold
Burron, John Eidsmoe, and Dean Turner.

Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - E.D. Hirsh, Jr.

Don't Blame the Kids: The Trouble With America's Public Schools - Gene
I. Maeroff

Dumbing US Down - John Taylor Gatto.

Educating for Disaster - Thomas B. Smith

Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas -
Thomas Sowell.

N.E.A. Propaganda Front of the Radical Left - Sally D. Reed.

N.E.A: Trojan Horse In American Education - Samuel L. Blumenfled.

Schools: They Haven't Got a Prayer - Joe David

The Closing of the American Mind - Allan Bloom

The Devaluing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children -
Willaim J. Bennett

The Dilemma of Education in a Democracy - Richard H. Powers

The Literacy Hoax - Paul Copperman

Time To Choose: America At The Crossroads Of School Choice Policy -
Amy Stuart Wells.

What Are they Teaching Our Children? - Mel and Norma Gabler with James
C. Hefley

Why Johnny Can't Add: The Failure of the New Math - Morris Kline

Why Johnny Still Can't Read - Rudolf Flesch.

Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong: Moral Illiteracy And The Case
For Character Education -

William Kilpatrick.

Hand-out this document freely!