EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
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March 3, 2000 

Idaho buries School-to-Work?

Idaho recently signed into law their resolve to bury the School-to-Work system in their state.  That success is hailed in the article "Idaho Buries School-To-Work" (Eagle Forum, Feb., 2000). However, the article (and others like it around the country) is naive in thinking the STW system will therefore leave Idaho. 

Contrary to what many STW opponents believe, the federal money does not end with the sunsetting of STW and Goals 2000.  Rather, federal funding is actually magnified times ten under various federal programs designed  for that purpose, such as Carl Perkins, Wagner Peyser Act, Food Stamp Program (!), Vocational Education, and lots more.  At the STW conference in January, one whole workshop was about a "unified system of funding" and how these various streams of federal money are all unified into one funding STW stream, funnelled through the local workforce boards, neatly bypassing the state legislatures. In other words, this funding stream neatly bypasses the Idaho legislature and its will to eliminate STW from their state. 

That is why we are promoting  the Northstar Standard in Minnesota.  It is based on true high academic standards and replaces the STW, minimum skills competency system.  That is why we are working so hard in Washington DC, too, on correcting the new ESEA reauthorizing legislation. 

EdAction - 105 Peavey Rd, Ste 116, Chaska, MN  55318 
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