Washington State, Education Reform and Special Interests
The following report was presented to the Joint Select Committee on
Education Restructuring in the State of Washington on August 28, 1997. The document presented was over one inch
thick comprising the evidence to support the letter that follows.
Note: This letter represents the final
documented presentation to the Joint Select Committee on Education
Restructuring and incorporates corrections and additions to the draft copy
mailed to the Commission on Student Learning on August 13, 1997. The first number of the bracketed
numbers references the document number.
The number following the decimal point references the specific point in
the document where the information is located.
The appointment of Frank Shrontz to Chair the Commission on Student Learning (CSL) Accountability System presents many conflicts of
interest, of which we shall enumerate the most evident for consideration. Mr Shrontz's
personal, and Boeing's business and financial involvement in every facet of
education restructuring — state, national and international — is
well documented and shows undue influence in the direction and composition of
restructuring in Washington state.
In 1991, the New American Schools Development Corporation
(NASDC) was formed under President Bush's America
2000 to oversee the restructuring of the American education system [1.1,
6.3]. NASDC was a
coalition of private business enterprises who chose and funded design teams to
accomplish this goal [1.2, 6.3].
Mr Shrontz served as vice-chairman of NASDC [2.2, 4.1, 6.1] while Boeing was a major contributor [1.3,
2.1]. This was while Shrontz was a member of the Washington state Governor's
Council on Education Reform and Funding (GCERF) [1.4,
13.1]. GCERF
was convened by the executive order of Governor Booth Gardner [3]
subsequent to his failed attempt to pass legislation for education reform in
1991.
Of the 686 design team proposals
submitted to NASDC, 11 were selected in July of 1992 [5.2,
6.2]. One successful bidder was
the National Alliance for
Restructuring Education (NARE) [1] [4, 5.1, 5.3], whose parent organization is National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) [4.2, 16.1, 16.4] — Marc Tucker,
president [4.2, 18.1]. At
the time of the design team award, Washington state
was a contractual partner with NARE [4.3, 12.2]. The Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) was first presented in NCEE's
Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce report, America's
Choice: high skills or low wages! [7.2] and became the hallmark
of NARE [7.3, 8.2, 28.2]. When Tucker announced formation of the
Certificate of Mastery to become the prime credential for obtaining employment
and higher education, Shrontz was present to promote
the Certificate [7.1, 8.1].
Likewise, Shrontz is listed as being on the
advisory board of the Center for the Study of Social
Policy, a design team implementation partner of NARE
[4.5, 9.1, 12.1].
Brian Benzel,
Superintendent of the Edmonds School District, who previously served as Chair
of the Schools for the 21st Century Program [10.1,
18.4], was listed as a partner in the NARE design
team [12.5, 12.6] while he chaired the GCERF
Standards Work Group [11.1, 11.2].
Benzel also served on the National Education Goals Panel [13.2, 14.1]
established by Goals 2000 [14.2], and National Council for Educational
Standards and Testing [15.1, 17.1] established by Public Law 102-62 [15.2]. On October 4, 1991, a full nine months
before NASDC chose NARE as
a design team, Brian Benzel signed a GCERF memo [11.1] giving exclusive reference to NARE, Marc Tucker, and the New Standards Project
(NSP) — another NCEE
program and NARE implementation partner [11.3
through 11.9, 12.3, 16.2, 16.5].
At this time, Washington State was already an original NARE member [16.1, 18.3, 24.2]. Governor Gardner and Superintendent of
Public Instruction Billings were on the governing board of NSP
[9.3, 17.1] when the NARE restructuring plan
was delivered through NASDC's selection of NARE in July 1992.
The agreement was signed by Governor Gardner, SPI
Billings and Benzel [17.1] and committed
Washington to Tucker's restructuring plan [17.2, 17a], bringing into
question whether the agreement could supersede legislative authority.
In 1992, the co-chair of NARE [4.4] and senior advisor to the National Business Roundtable [19.1],
David Hornbeck, wrote the Washington Gap Analysis [9.4], a
document authorized and published by the Washington
Business Roundtable [9.5] headed by Frank Shrontz
[20.1]. Hornbeck drafted the
1992 GCERF report to the legislature, Putting
Children First [21.1].
These reports were critical in forming the foundation of the education
system implemented under ESHB 1209 on which Hornbeck
also consulted [22.1].
As early as 1986, Marc Tucker was a consultant
and major player in education reform in Washington state
[23.1, 24.1]. In 1987, prior
to GCERF, Tucker addressed the Washington state
Legislature advocating proposed legislation for the Schools for the 21st
Century Program [23.2] and NCEE actually
became a consultant to this state program [25.1, 25.2, 25.3]. Subsequently, the Schools for the 21st
Century Program became a model over which Goals 2000 was eventually written [1.5]. NCEE documents
disclose that NCEE was a consultant in the writing of
the 1993 education reform legislation in Washington State [26.1] —
ESHB 1209 which mandates the CIM,
a requirement of the NARE design team [12.4, 18.2,
27, 28.2]. NCEE
also acknowledges consulting on the writing of the Goals 2000: Educate America
Act and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA)
[16.3, 28.1]. According to a
February 2, 1993, Seattle
Times article, when Governor Lowry wavered in his support of ESHB 1209, Shrontz and Boeing
executives met with the Governor, indicating they would not support a tax
increase that did not include money for education reform. The article indicates that this
pressure, placed on Lowry by Shrontz and Boeing,
brought the Governor back into support of ESHB 1209 [29.1]. The CSL is
headquartered free of charge in the Boeing offices at Tukwila, Washington [30].
In 1991, ESSB
5184 established the Workforce Training and
Education Coordinating Board (WTECB),
drawing on the work of NCEE's Commission on the
Skills of the American Workforce (CSAW) report, America's
Choice: high skills or low wages! [31.1]. The WTECB
was charged with the task of developing a workforce development system through
the integration of education reform, school-to-work, and workforce training [32.3,32.4]. In 1993, Governor Lowry formed the
Governor's Ad Hoc Steering Committee on School-to-Work Transition [33.1]. This team laid the foundation for the
Governor's Council on School-to-Work Transition [33.2, 34] which
eventually gave way to the Governor's Task Force on School-to-Work Transition [32.2]. According to state documents, Boeing had
representatives on all three groups [32.1, 33.3, 33.4, 35.1]. In March 1995, the Governor's Council on
School-to-Work Transition published its final report and recommendations on
school-to-work transition to the Governor [35]. Boeing contributed "generously to
the preparation of this report" [35.2].
Boeing is a member of the National School
to Career Consortium, with, among others, the Washington State Workforce
Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB),
and Education Development Center, Inc (EDC), who serves as the leader [36.1, 36.4]. EDC "is
an international nonprofit research and development organization committed to
human development through education and training." EDC works in
the U.S. and more than 75 other countries "in efforts to solve a wide
range of education, health, and social problems since it was founded in
1958" [36.3]. The
President of EDC, Janet Whitla,
is also President of the U.S. Coalition for Education for All (U.S.C.E.A.) which met October 30, 1991, in Alexandria,
Virginia [37.4, 37.5]. Its
mission stated it was part of a 156-nation network working to reform education
worldwide [37.1, 37.6]. This
conference was an outgrowth of the World Conference on Education
for All [37.1] sponsored by United
Nations organizations and the World
Bank, March 5-9, 1990, in Jomtien,
Thailand, that resulted in the development of world education goals paralleling
those of America 2000. The stated
goal of the U.S.C.E.A. is "to work to meet the
goals set by the World Conference on Education for All" [37.3, 37.6]. Whitla is also
an implementation partner to another NASDC design
team, Atlas Communities [38.1].
EDC is a nationally certified school-to-work technical assistance provider
for the federal government [36.2,
36.6]. Technical assistance
providers guide the states on developing school-to-work models and
implementation plans as well as assisting in the writing of federal grant
applications. EDC
has extensive involvement in Washington state. In March 1995, WTECB
contracted with EDC for the purpose of laying the
foundation for applying for a Department of Labor
(DOL) school-to-work grant [39.1]. In April 1995, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction entered into a contract with EDC
for the purpose of providing "an evaluation of the 1994-95 on-line
projects" [36.5, 40.1].
In July 1996, the Employment Security Department
(ESD) — an agency and partner in Washington's
school-to-work model — entered into a contract with EDC
for the purpose of obtaining "assistance in the drafting of a proposal for
implementation of a statewide one-stop career center system" [41.1]. The one-stop career center system is the
umbrella under which education reform, school-to-work, and workforce training
will operate [43.2, 43.3].
In October/November 1996, EDC was retained
through a federal technical assistance voucher to evaluate the state essential
academic learning requirements for the inclusion of Goals 3 and 4 and for their
alignment with the U.S. Department of Labor SCANS (Secretaries Commission on
Achieving Necessary Skills) competencies [44.1, 44.2]. If this system is state autonomous, why
would it be necessary to have a subcontractor to the federal government analyze
our state essential academic learning requirements? EDC submitted
their report to the WTECB and Work-related
Competencies Committee (WCC) in January 1997 [44.3]. In November 1996, WTECB
entered into a three year, $300,000 contract with EDC
for the purposes of participating in The Teaching Firm Project [42.1, 42.2, 42.3]. EDC is working with Boeing on this international project
intended to augment the transition of companies to the "high performance
work organization" [36.4, 42.4]. The high performance work organization
is considered a key tenet of national and international workforce systems.
ESHB 1988 passed in 1993, establishing the Employment and Training
Trust Fund [45]. According
to a letter written by Governor Lowry August 23, 1996,
Massive layoffs at
Boeing, our largest private employer, led to establishment of our Employment
and Training Trust Fund, which provides $70 million to fund community and
technical college programs for dislocated workers as well as service
enhancement and integration in our employment and training system [43.1].
This placed an
unconstitutional mandate on the taxpayers of the state of Washington to pay for
the retraining of Boeing dislocated workers without regard to length of time
worked for Boeing and without regard to whether those workers would be or could
be rehired by Boeing.
In 1996, Shrontz
participated in the National Governor's
Summit
in Palisades, New York [46.1]. One of the results of that summit was
the formation of Achieve, of which Shrontz became a board member [47.1, 47.3] and
Boeing a monetary contributor [47.2]. The mission of Achieve is to establish
internationally competitive "academic" standards, assessment tools,
and accountability systems within two years, such that businesses will be
required to change their hiring practices and business location decisions based
on whether a state is conforming to Achieve's
criteria for an appropriate education system [47a.1]. Achieve is to be a national
clearinghouse accountability system [47.4].
In the world of total quality education
established by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, accountability comes in the
form of evolution toward stated outcomes.
This evolution is measured in the gathering and analysis of statistical
data to include personally identifiable information on individuals within the
programs [50a.1]. This
information is largely gathered by the National
Center of Education Statistics (NCES)
under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education [48] through
contractors such as Westat
and National Computer Systems [48.4]. The information is stored in two
mainframe computers, the bulk of which is stored by Boeing Computers of Vienna,
Virginia; the rest is stored by the National
Institutes of Health [48.2, 48.3]. According to the NCES
restricted field manual, this information includes
Any item,
collection, or grouping of information pertaining to an individual and
maintained by National Center of Education Statistics or one of its
contractors, including, but not limited to the individual's education,
financial transactions, medical history and criminal or employment history, and
containing the name, or an identifying number, symbol, or other identifying
particular assigned to the individual such as a fingerprint, voiceprint, or
photograph [48.1].
Other researchers
(contractors, analysts) may access this information with NCES
approval through contracts with Boeing for which Boeing receives monetary
compensation [48.3]. Having
control over the information necessary to the Achieve accountability system, of
which Boeing is also a part, presents a very large conflict of interest.
In the 1997 Legislative Session, Carver
Gayton, former Boeing employee, was confirmed as head
of the ESD [35.1, 49]. ESD houses
massive quantities of personally identifiable information on employees within
the state of Washington. Westat, a contractor to NCES, has
already accessed 1.2 million unemployment insurance files in the state of
Washington, held by the Employment Security Department
[50a.2], for the purposes of compiling accountability data [50]. A question of ethics arises in the fact
that Boeing will very likely be the recipient of and gain monetarily from
statistical data obtained under the direction of a former Boeing employee.
Unlike any other private business,
Boeing has had an inordinate amount of representation on restructuring
committees within Washington state; has donated untold amounts of money toward
the education reform/school-to-work/workforce training
initiative in Washington state [51.1, 51a.1]; has been a
contributor and major supporter to the Washington Alliance for Better
Schools (Edmonds, Everett, Northshore,
Seattle and Shoreline School Districts) [9.2, 52 through 60] established
in Washington state as a regional jurisdiction and partner of NARE [60.1, 61.1, 61a.1]; and of all the private
contributors to the Future of Washington Schools Project, Boeing donating the
largest amount — $15,000 [62.1].
It is also of importance to note that Shrontz was the head of Washington 2000 [63.1], and
is the head of Partnership for Learning
[64.1, 64.2], two private organizations within the state of Washington
established to publicize and promote education reform within the state. Yet for all the publicity, a survey
published by the Future of Washington's Schools Project [65.1] and
information published by the Commission on Student Learning [66] prove
that the majority of Washington residents cannot approach the subject on an
informed basis. Nor do they
understand that the workers produced by the total quality environment established
by Goals 2000, the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA),
and the STWOA will be of economic benefit to
businesses like Boeing.
We, the undersigned, call for the
removal of Mr Shrontz from the accountability
committee. Whereas restructuring
proponents have consistently claimed that the education
reform/school-to-work/workforce training initiative, hereinafter known as the
reform initiative, is bottom-up, local in flavor, and grass-roots; whereas the
evidence points to a different conclusion — to conflict of interest,
undue influence by a select group of people who are not elected representatives
of the people, and the implementation of a predetermined outcome, we also call
for a full legislative investigation of the entire reform initiative as it has been
developed and implemented in Washington state.
(signed)
Cris Shardelman
Roxanne Sitler
Lynn Stuter
___________________________
[1] The
National Alliance for Restructuring Education is now known as America's
Choice. [Back]
As noted above, this letter was
thoroughly documented. However, the
state legislature refused to address the conflicts of interest outlined here.
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