The State of Education in America Today

The following speech was given by Doug Gamble of the American Heritage Party on January 17, 2000, on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia, Washington, for the first annual Family Freedom Day.

For 10 years, the big central government of Greece fought to take over the great city-state of Troy. Then the Greeks sent Troy a gift – a giant wooden horse. A religious leader threw a spear at the horse, pointed out the hollow sound, and warned against accepting the gift. The leaders of Troy said it was too huge a gift to not accept, so they pushed it into the city. That night, soldiers hidden within the horse came out, opened the city gates, and allowed the enemies to pour in. Troy fell in 1184 BC and never recovered.

Today a battle is being waged by the big central government. In essence the government is telling parents, "Give us your children and get out of the way." Many parents are fighting to keep education under parental jurisdiction. Many parents want the schools to teach the 3 R's and omit the socialistic/humanistic programs that interfere with the family's privacy and beliefs. The Humanistic Magazine of January 1983 says:

The battle for humankinds future must be waged and won in the public classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizer of a new faith – a religion of humanity. Teachers must convey humanistic values in whatever subject they teach.

The Goals 2000 Trojan Horse has been pushed through the Washington State gates. In the horse's saddle bags are several million dollars for education. Washington State officials saw it as too huge a gift to refuse. Promoters of Goals 2000 say this is a voluntary program for states that want it. However, a 1996 DOE publication says:

goals 2000 signaled the beginning of a new era in education that will, over time, touch all schools.

As a home school parent, I throw my spear at the Goals 2000 wooden horse and tell you that it is a hollow educational program. That horse needs to be sent back to its builder before all of the enemies come out.

In Arkansas, Clinton was known as "the education governor" because he put in a new program called Outcome Based Education or OBE. Three years after he implemented OBE in Arkansas, test scores had dropped in 11 of 12 grades. When Clinton became President, he packaged OBE with Goals 2000, signed into law in 1994. None of the goals were reached, so Goals 2000 is now "Goals Whenever."

Two years ago, The National Education Goals Panel was asked to summarize how OBE was doing. Their answer was:

in the 18 areas where it is being tried, progress has been uneven.

What an answer. In fact, 10 of the 18 areas that tried OBE show no progress and 8 have slipped. To a home-schooler, that is not uneven progress, that is regression.

In 1960, students were given this math problem:

a logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost was 4/5ths of the selling price. What was his profit? Do this problem and check with the teacher to see if you have the right answer.

Today, under OBE, the math problem becomes:

by cutting down the sacred trees, the logger only made $20. What impact will this have on the spotted owls and how much should the logger be sued. There is no right or wrong answer. Let the class decide. To assure continued federal funding, report results of this problem by race, gender and orientation using DOE form 666.

In America today, there are approximately 70 million students in grades K through 12: 59 million go to public schools; 9.5 million go to private schools, which are predominantly religious; and about 1.2 million are home schooled. Dr. Lawrence Ruder's study, as well as others, show that private school students get significantly higher test scores than public school students. Home school students do the very best of all, testing from 30-37% higher than public school students in all categories. The real shocker is that it makes little difference if the home school teacher is certified or not.

The National Commission of Excellence in Education report called A Nation at Risk says:

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today in the public schools, we might well view it as an act of war ... we have, in effect, been committing educational disarmament.

After 30 years of DOE involvement and literally hundreds of billions of dollars, our public schools are testing much lower than students in the 1950's. What should really scare you about the low test scores is that, according to the August 25th Bremerton Sun, 50% of students admit to cheating on their tests.

Why do private schools do well, while public schools do so poorly?

Some say public school teachers are underpaid, but private school teachers are paid one third less than public school teachers. Some say public school classes are too large, but the average class size has dropped from 26 to 17 over the past 30 years, while test scores have continued to stay down. Some say private schools do better because they have more money, but public schools receive over $6,000 per student per year, compared to half that for private schools. Some say teachers need more help. The non-teaching staff in public schools is now at 48%, more than double that of private schools.

The primary difference between America's 26,000 private schools and the 85,000 public schools is the massive Federal Education bureaucracy and its mis-guided humanistic and socialistic programs. DOE gets $40 Billion per year to operate. For every dollar that DOE collects, only 59 cents finds its way back to the states. No money, whatsoever, from DOE goes to home schools. The question that begs itself is: "How is it that home schools, getting nothing from the Federal government, are getting the best education?" When home schoolers are outscoring public schools by a 37% margin, without any money from DOE, without any Goals 2000, and without OBE, why pay billions for these Federal programs? Two former Secretaries of Education, Bill Bennett and Lamar Alexander, both testified before Congress that the Department of Education, that they once managed, should be abolished.

It is contrary to the Constitution to have education centralized in Washington DC. As recently as 1980, the law establishing DOE provided strict language to the effect that the Federal Government should not interfere with State education. Yet, today there are 240 separate federal education programs run by DOE being pushed through the state gates. In 1960, total SAT scores averaged 975. In 1998, scores were down to 916. The federal programs have not only failed to improve education, but they have actually contributed to a degradation of education.

The more that education policy has been centralized in DOE, the more mediocre education has become. Public schools, in 1966, gave twice as many C's as A's, but today there are more A's than C's. Test scores are down but there are three times as many A's. Making everybody feel good about themselves and being politically correct has become more important than competing for excellence in education. In 1998 International Educational comparisons, the US ranked near the bottom in Math and Science, below even Iceland and Slovenia. Reading skills have shown virtually no improvement for 30 years. The Goals 2000 horse needs a vet – preferably Dr. Kevorkian.

The Bible warns in the second chapter of Colossians, do not let man spoil you through philosophy. The National Educational Association embraces the teachings of the philosopher John Dewey who said:

humanism, socialism and globalism are the standard for the public schools.

John Dewey, founder of the Humanistic Society, said,

evolution is the basis for all education.

Put the words evil and solution together and you have evolution. The teaching of evolution has done more to destroy America over the past 30 years than any other factor. Evolution teaches students that they are just animals, with no moral absolutes. More and more students are looking and acting the part. Evolution has made a mockery of our God, monkeys of our children, and a mess of our society. American schools will be better off when DOE and OBE are pronounced DOA.

Public school students are taught that evolution is a fact. A leading evolutionist, Dr. George Gaylord Simpson, in his book, The Meaning of Evolution says:

evolution is beyond scientific investigation. The origins of evolution remain unexplained and inaccessible to science. We may worship it in our own way, but we certainly do not comprehend it.

In the 1961 case, Torcaso vs. Watkins, the US Supreme Court ruled that Humanism is a religion and evolution is what the humanists worship. Public schools abound with humanistic and New Age religion. Public schools are not anti-religion, they are anti-Christ. DOE tells local schools they are not allowed to say Christmas Break; they must say winter break. The pagans celebrated the coming of winter; Christians celebrate the coming of Christ. If they are going to kick the Christian religion out of the classroom, why not show some diversity – kick out humanistic religion, kick out pagan religions, and kick out New Age religions as well.

The preamble of the Washington State Constitution says:

we the people, of the State of Washington, are grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe

If the people of the State of Washington are grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, then why do we kick him out of public schools and then bring in a religion that says evolution is the supreme ruler of the universe? For nearly 100 years, Washington State acknowledged God as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe until the DOE horse brought its money bags through the gates. Only 7% of Washington State's education monies come from the federal government. We can have better education without Federal monies. The State of Utah spends half the amount per student that Washington State does and Utah students test higher than in Washington. We should send the Goals 2000 hollow Trojan horse back to DC, with a brand that reads: Keep your money. Our God and our children are not for sale.

Our present educational system dishonors the Creator and worships and serves the creatures. Last month a young woman came down out of an old growth tree that she had been sitting in and worshipping for two years in Humbolt County, California. (By the way no one complained that she might be disturbing the habitat of a spotted owl.) She became a celebrity for going out on a limb for a tree. They nick named her "the butterfly". I think they should have called her "spacy needle". We need to return to an educational system that is less concerned about trees being cut down and more concerned about babies being chopped up.

Page (103) of The Communist Manifesto says:

Communists support the elimination of religion and morality.

Over the past 30 years, DOE has carried out the goals of The Communist Manifesto by removing religion and morality from public schools. DOE has moved America near the bottom in the 3 R's, but DOE has made America the worlds leader in triple X. According to USA Today, there were over 200,000 rapes in public schools in 1999. America leads the world in venereal disease with 3 million teens infected, America leads the world with 300,000 teen abortions per year, and America leads the world with 76% of teenage mothers being un-married. DOE is doing for American morality what King Herod did for Toys are Us.

The 10th goal of The Communist Manifesto calls for a school to work program, as does Goals 2000. The State of Wisconsin had a school to work program for seven years. It cost $200 million, but did nothing for school or work. Goals 2000 says high school graduates should get a Certificate of Mastery for employment or educational advancement. Millions of certificates, millions of copies of certificates, and millions of records and reports. The government answer to any problem is more money and more paper. The government needs to make up its mind. Does it love trees or not? Will the certificate say that the student was among the 5% who take marijuana every day? Will the certificate indicate that the holder was one of the 50% of students that say they think cheating on tests is OK? Will the certificate guarantee the student will be on time to work every day, and give an honest days work? As a former employer of 700 employees, I say keep the certificates — send me character. I can train students with character to do the work. What good is a "school to work program" that certifies that they are ready to make a living, but that has not taught them how to live. How can legislators of one nation under God allow a Marxist school-to-work program? Why do our legislators tolerate Goals 2000 or OBE that promote the socialistic educational system that has only brought failure? The only way that the Goals 2000 horse can help education is to send it to the glue factory. American schools will be better off when DOE and OBE are pronounced DOA.

The Gallop Poll of July 9, 1999, shows the following:

70% of Americans favor voluntary prayer in school

74% favor posting the Ten Commandments. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is noted that African-Americans exceeded non-minorities in that they had an 85% desire to have the Ten Commandments posted in public schools.

78% of Americans support after hours use of schools for religious purposes

71% support teaching the Bible as part of history, literature, or in social studies

68% support teaching creation alongside evolution. Now that is something we should get busy with.

In summary, traditional education with religion and morality has proven a success, while ungodly and immoral progressive education has proven a huge failure. Don't let the government give home-schoolers any of the Goals 2000 requirements, such as teacher certification or mastery certificates. The eleven million private school and home school students don't cost the taxpayer a penny now; don't add to the taxpayer's woes. Our Bible, our Founding Fathers and our Constitution left education to parents and local teachers. That kind of educational system made America great and that kind is needed to keep America great.

I ask all of you to please do what you can to see that the government does nothing for, or nothing to, home schoolers.

In conclusion, years ago in America an expression often said to your friends as you departed was: "don't take any wooden nickels." As I depart now, I say to you, my friends: "don't take any wooden horses."

Thank you.

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