Federal Curriculum, Mental Health Screening, and STW

Urgent EdAction Alert

March 22, 2005

1. Alert: Support cuts to the Federal Curriculum, Mental Health Screening, and STW
2. Alert: Oppose the Expansion of NCLB to High Schools

Congress in Spring Recess until April 4th. This is a great time to ask for a meeting with your Senators and Representative..


I. Alert: Support cuts to the Federal Curriculum, Mental Health Screening, and STW
The President has proposed significant cuts to the Federal Curriculum, Mental Health Screening in the schools, and School-to-Work. Those proposals will not survive the Congressional budget process without the involvement of thousands of parents and taxpayers. The well-funded special interests are lining up to defend these programs. Please take advantage of this important opportunity to eliminate some very bad programs in the U.S. Department of Education.

EdAction urges you to alert your networks to contact your U.S. senators and representative to tell them to:
     Support a budget resolution that includes elimination of all of programs included in the President's proposed 2006 Department of Education budget request.
     For a sample letter, click here. Please forward us a copy of your letter at edaction@lakes.com.

The following programs are particularly important to eliminate:

The Federal Curriculum:

Mental Health

  1. "to enhance, improve, or develop collaborative efforts between school-based service systems and mental health service systems
  2. to provide, enhance, or improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services to students." This is 5 million more dollars for screening, labeling and drugging students. (See our update.)

      Subsidizes the labeling and drugging of an alarmingly large population of young children with potent medications that have not been studied in that age group. (See our update.)

School-to-Work

Other programs

A sample letter to members of Congress is available on our website. Personalize your letter to your senators and representative and send it via email. For more impact, print it out and fax it to their offices! Fax numbers may be found here,
 
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2. Alert: Oppose the Expansion of NCLB to High Schools
 

The proposal to expand No Child Left Behind to high schools expands federal authority ever farther over education. The National Governor's Association is fully behind this expansion, having launched Goals 2000 and School-to-Work in 1989. The columnist George Will wrote:

"When, a couple of weeks ago, the RSC [a group of conservative Republicans in Congress] met in Baltimore to enumerate its priorities, their list included "maintaining local control of secondary education." That may seem an anodyne sentiment; actually it is a shot across the Bush administration's bow. It is code for: Enough centralization -- we oppose the president's plan for  extending federal standards to high schools. Thirty-four House Republicans voted against No Child Left Behind in 2001. More might oppose the administration's planned extension of its sweep." [Emphasis added.]

Please urge your members to strongly oppose NCLB into high schools. Your calls make a powerful difference.

For a clear explanation of NCLB, read AMERICA'S SCHOOLS: The Battleground for Freedom,, by Professor Allen Quist. The author explains how international agreements form the basis of No Child Left Behind. He also describes how the state standards and assessments are promoting pantheism, multi-culturalism and the New Marxism. Most important, he describes where we go from here.

Contact information for Alerts to Congress:
To find your members of Congress and e-mail and telephone contact information, visit this website and click on your own state. For a sample letter, click here. Both the House and the Senate have passed their budget resolutions. The specific programs that will be included in these guidelines will be determined in the coming weeks and months. It is very important that the public weighs in on some very important budget issues. Please forward us a copy of your letter at edaction@lakes.com. Thank you!

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