Dr. Dennis Cuddy -- Marc Tucker's "NEW" education plan

MARC TUCKER'S "NEW" EDUCATION PLAN

By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D.
April 9, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

On December 14, 2006, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, headed by Marc Tucker, released a report titled "Tough Choices or Tough Times." It was promoted by CBS News as being something "new," but was it?

You may recall the infamous letter of November 11, 1992 written by Tucker to NCEE board member Hillary Clinton. It stated that Bill Clinton's presidential victory of November 1992 would give them the chance to implement their plan to integrate education into a national system of human resource development "from cradle to grave...the same system for everyone."

Hillary Clinton at the beginning of her husband's presidency in 1993 developed a health care program that Milton Friedman called Socialist. During her own bid for the presidency, on March 17, 2007 in Houston she announced not only that she wants to provide health care for all Americans, but she also announced that as president she would create a universal pre-kindergarten program. This would be working toward the "cradle" end of their plan referred to in Tucker's 1992 letter. And it would be in line with Tucker's "Tough Choices or Tough Times" new plan, which calls for putting all 4-year-olds and all low-income 3-year-olds into universal public pre-school.

Actually, this "new" Tucker plan isn't really all that new. More than 7 months before Tucker's November 1992 letter to Hillary, she and Rhodes scholar Ira Magaziner authored "Will America Choose High Skills or Low Wages?" (EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP, March 1992) recommending that "a new educational performance standard should be set for all students, to be met at or about age 16." This reference to "age 16" is perhaps from where "Tough Choices or Tough Times" got its call for 10th graders who fail a board exam to leave high school for vocational training.

The Clinton-Magaziner article also stated that (1) the new performance standard should be benchmarked to the highest in the world. And they said (2) students passing a series of assessments incorporating the new standards would be awarded a certificate qualifying them to get work, enter a college-prep program, etc. Combining (1) and (2), students would have internationally recognized skills. This would fit with President Bill Clinton's 1995 New Transatlantic Agenda signed with the European Union "addressing the challenges and opportunities of global integration," including the "portability of (students') academic credits." An October 1997 report indicated that global skills standards and portable credentials would be "benchmarked to international standards...a high degree of integration...embedding skills within the broader context of economic and social activity, and specifically within...local and regional economic development."

This latter report provision fits with Tucker's call in "Tough Choices or Tough Times" for federal legislation for the states "to create regional economic development authorities" to develop "goals and strategies for their regions" and coordinate "the work of the region's educational and training institutions to make sure that each region's workers develop the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in that labor market."

Why all the attention to "regions"? It's because with greater population mobility, the power elite wants to develop a "regional" mindset among people. For some years already, there's been a Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) including 2 Canadian provinces and several U.S. states. Once populations accept this emphasis upon thinking regionally within nations and overlapping national borders, it will be easier to persuade them to accept regions among nations, such as a North American Union including the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Then the final step will be to link all regional arrangements into a world government.

Resistance to this plan needs to begin at the grassroots level. For example, local control of schools is very important to most parents, and they can be shown that Marc Tucker's "Tough Choices or Tough Times" actually demotes locally elected school baords simply to hiring and overseeing contractors who will run the schools.

Secondly, in Tucker's plan, career education will be integrated into elementary and secondary education. But therein lies a serious problem. What if a student in middle school chooses a particular career path, but then changes paths in high school? With an integrated curricula, is the math, English, etc., he learned in middle school for one path now at least somewhat irrelevant to his new high school path?

And thirdly, Tucker says in his plan's executive summary that American children need his plan to be able to compete in the world economy. However, this is misleading because no matter how efficient an American worker becomes (e.g., producing 50 widgets an hour), he will not be able to compete with less efficient Third World workers (e.g., producing only half the 50 widgets an hour), because the Third World worker's wages will be far less than half the American worker's wages.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

If the flaws in Tucker's plan are explained to the American people, they might reject it. And if the ultimate goal of the power elite is revealed to the American people, hopefully they will organize at the grassroots level to resist it. The reason this will have to be done at the grassroots level is that we cannot count on our elected officials. Why not? Remember that on June 25, 2001, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution stating that the conference "endorses the Earth Charter and commits the organization to the realization of its aim." Since one of the goals of the Earth Charter is to "promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations," this means whoever was mayor of your city probably endorsed this Socialist redistribution of wealth concept nationally and globally, thus facilitating the power elite's ultimate goal of a World Socialist Government.

Order Dennis Cuddy's new book "Cover-Up: Government Spin or Truth?"

Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts

E-Mails are used strictly for NWVs alerts, not for sale

Dennis Laurence Cuddy, historian and political analyst, received a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (major in American History, minor in political science). Dr. Cuddy has taught at the university level, has been a political and economic risk analyst for an international consulting firm, and has been a Senior Associate with the U.S. Department of Education.

Cuddy has also testified before members of Congress on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Cuddy has authored or edited twenty books and booklets, and has written hundreds of articles appearing in newspapers around the nation, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He has been a guest on numerous radio talk shows in various parts of the country, such as ABC Radio in New York City, and he has also been a guest on the national television programs USA Today and CBS's Nightwatch.