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This article is from Eagle Forum, a national public policy group. They are absolutely accurate here. This is the very same message we have saying for six months.

The Failed Education Giant is Back
--Urge Senators to Oppose ESEA Reauthorization

Eagle Forum
May 1, 2000

On Tuesday, May 2, the U.S. Senate will begin debate on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (S. 2). 

ESEA, which is the largest federal law for K-12 education, has been a failure since it was enacted in 1965, but the Senate feels the need to continue failed education programs and throw more money into the federal education black hole. 

• Funding: Under S. 2, Title I funding for disadvantaged students would nearly double to $15 billion. 
  
  
• Goals 2000 and School-to-Work: While the time has run out on both of these failed programs, they are continued with the same top-down dictates, just under different names. S. 2 keeps in place the National Education Goals Panel, and Goals 2000 is renamed "America's Goals," with no new time limit to achieve the goals. 
  
  
• Social Services in Schools: During the 1994 reauthorization of ESEA, the Clinton Administration put counseling and health care programs in school that fail to involve parents. These programs are continued under S. 2. 
  
  
• Hate Crimes: S. 2 continues to fund projects that claim to prevent so-called "hate crimes" by promoting homosexuality while disparaging the religious beliefs of students and parents. 
  
  
• Gender Equity: Gender equity programs funded in S. 2 are based on inaccurate and biased research. There programs force teachers to divert attention from individual achievement and to search for discrimination or problems that often do not actually exist. 
  
  
• Bad Amendments: The list of potential bad amendments is long. Senator Jim Jeffords is expected to offer amendments to promote School-to-Work and create a new program for early childhood care and education. Amendments to increase gun control, expand hate crimes, eliminate state flexibility, and authorize funding for school construction are also expected. Other non-germane amendments are also  possible. 
  
  
• Good Amendments: Senator Shelby is expected to offer amendments that 1) force anti-drug programs to explicitly teach students that using drugs is wrong, and 2) prevent student privacy invasions by third-party contractors, such as commercial interests. 

Call your Senators and tell them you oppose reauthorization of ESEA. 

U.S. Senate Contact information: http://www.senate.gov
CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD: (202) 224-3121  

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