Workforce Development means life-long indoctrination
by Berit Kjos (revised 9-3-98)
Skip down to The Literacy Deception
HR 1385 -- The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 was signed into law by President Clinton in August. He had threatened to veto it if key elements were deleted. Most of the references below are based on the House bill, not the final law which was not made available to to the public right away. Clinton’s approval and the government secrecy lead us to believe that the new law – like the original bill -- mandates national control over --
- beliefs and attitudes
- psycho-social counseling
- personal electronic portfolio
- training, retraining, remediation
- workforce assignments based on government perception of your willingness to conform to a new politically correct set of "literacies".
Marc Tucker, director of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) and the master-mind behind this partnership between schools and labor, proposes "breaking the current system, root and branch.1" He says,
"Our objective will require a change in the prevailing culture -- the attitudes, values, norms, and accepted ways of doing things." 2
"What is essential . . . is that we create a seamless web of opportunities to develop one's skills that literally extends from cradle to grave and is the same for everyone...a system of unending skill development that begins in the home and continues through school, post-secondary education and the workplace." 3
This bill based on Marc Tucker's vision would mandate the following:
National control over "statewide employment and training and literacy system[s]": "the Governor of the State shall submit to Secretaries [of the Departments of Labor and Education] a single comprehensive State plan that provides a 3-year strategy ."4
That all employment be funneled through a national system of "WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARDS": "All job search, placement, recruitment, labor market information, and other labor exchange services authorized under subsections (a) and (b) shall be provided as part of the full service employment and training delivery system established by the State."5
"The non-elected boards will determine who can be trained for what job," says attorney Gary Kreep, U.S. Justice Foundation. Sec. 314 (c)(5)(B) states that "Training services shall be directly linked to occupations for which there is a [local] demand a local workforce development board may approve training in occupations determined by the local board to have a high potential for sustained demand or growth in the local workforce development area."
A National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) to "coordinate literacy services" and "serve as a national resource for adult education and family literacy."6 The NIFL is linked to the International Literacy Institute and UNESCO, which have redefined literacy to mean, not ability to read, but a set of politically correct "literacies"- environmental, economic, cultural, gender, health, political, etc.- which view social issues from a global perspective. (See below)
A system of Family Literacy Services to train parents in politically correct child-raising and pull them into the "life-long learning" process. These "services are of sufficient intensity and of sufficient duration, to make sustainable changes in a family." They include (A) "Inter-active literacy activities between parents and their children. (B) Training for parents on how to be the primary teacher for their children. (C) Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency."7 (Send moms to work?)
"In today's 'educrat' lexicon, 'family literacy' is the buzz phrase for in-depth indoctrination into acceptance of governments new 'restructuring.' It means to be literate in Hillary's government 'village' concept; literate in all the new 'reforms;' and literate at promoting acceptance of it to your friends." (Karen Holgate, President, Parents National Network)
Counseling, training, and remediation based on affective assessments (dealing with feelings, values, attitudes) which determine eligibility to (re)enter workforce: "initial assessment of skill levels [which emphasize group thinking], aptitudes, abilities, and supportive service needs career counseling, information relating to training, and literacy activities...."8
A "national electronic data base of information that disseminates information to the broadest possible audience within the literacy and basic skills field." 9 This "common management information system" would be linked to the massive information technology management system created by President Clinton's Executive Order 13011, which merged the information systems of the CIA, EPA, FBI, FEMA, the Agency for International Development with those of the Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, Interior, Army. It has power to (1) disseminate politically correct information to all schools, workplaces, and community agencies, (2) collect private data and track each person from cradle to grave.10
That 16-year-olds be classified as adults, freeing the state from child labor laws and allows it to assign students to apprentice programs that replace traditional academics. 11
An "Interagency group" made up of the Secretaries of the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. 12
That taxpayers contribute "up to 50 percent of the wage rate" of apprenticeship or "on-the-job training" for new employees.13 (Such state subsidies caused German employers to hire apprentices rather than full-time workers-thus raising unemployment.)
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation." (James Madison, 1788)
Literacy has always been important to God's people. In Old Testament days, it opened the door to understanding the ways of God. In America's colonial days, it laid the factual foundation for the freedom, educated electorate, and scientific advances that have characterized our nation. But today, our leaders stand ready to trade traditional literacy for a learning process designed to create a dumbed-down compliant global workforce subject to a collective society and incapable of individual thinking.
Students in public schools are already subject to the new national-international standards for "understanding" or "literacy." HR 1385 would allow the state to round up most people outside our formal education system-pre-schoolers, parents, "disadvantaged youth" and workers of all ages.
You have glimpsed the huge workforce development bureaucracy with power to filter out anyone refusing to conform to global standards. Literacy-the key to indoctrinating every American with the new ideology-becomes the doorway to social privileges in a managed society. Non-compliant parents, youth, and workers are "at risk" of being denied the certificates or diplomas required to enter the workplace or higher education.
In defining "literacy", this bill starts with the traditional meaning, then leaps into the ambiouguous realm of double-speak, where hidden meanings abound: "Literacy means the ability of the individual to speak, read, and write English, and compute and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary--(A) to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society; (B) to achieve the goals of the individual; and (C) to develop the knowledge potential of the individual."14
Look again at the vast new literacy bureaucracy and some of its international connections. SEC. 321 in HR 1385 establishes The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), which "shall (1) provide national leadership with respect to literacy (2) coordinate literacy services; and (3) serve as a national resource for adult education and family literacy by providing the best and most current information available....15
"The Institute shall be administered under the terms of an interagency agreement entered into by the Secretary of Education with the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this section referred to as the `Interagency Group'). The Interagency Group may include in the Institute any research and development center, institute, or clearinghouse. whose purpose is determined by the Interagency Group to be related to the purpose of the Institute."
Those who have access to Internet, can visit the already established Institute (NIFL)16. There you will find links to various other research centers and institutes -- presumably those approved by the Interagency Group. Two of those links are worth checking: the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) and the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy (ISAL). Both are based at the Penn State College of Education and both are linked to the United Nations and its education plan for the world.
The NCAL, funded by the Department of Education shares office address, phone and fax number with the International Literacy Institute (ILI). The ILI is a partnership between Penn State and UNESCO. At its 1996 World Conference on Literacy, keynote speaker Richard Kelder, director of the Institute for Postsecondary Pedagogy at the State University of New York, clarified the new meaning of literacy:
Literacy represents different things to people. This ambiguity has contributed to what has become known as "the literacy myth." In the everyday world, literacy is generally associated with an abstract set of reading and writing skills that exist independently of any context....
All want higher levels of literacy and this higher anxiety level feeds the political, social and economic myths associated with the concept and further masks its reality, preventing many from recognizing literacy's historical, political, cultural, social, and ideological complexities and implications... By bringing a critical dimension to "multi-literacies".... students will develop a meta-language for understanding how meanings are created.
Creating new meanings that rule out the biblical world view and immerse students in the new global paradigm is key to the new way of learning. And, as Clinton's Goals 2000 and UNESCO's Education for All emphasize repeatedly, every person-young and old-must participate in the process. The information technology in HR1385 will help assess individual progress and monitor change, progress, and cooperation.
California's 1987History-Social Science Framework outlines the new context for teaching literacy: Historical Literacy (including cultural empathy and respect for various religious traditions) Ethical Literacy (looks at ethics from a global or UN perspective), Cultural Literacy (including the myths, values, and beliefs of cultures), Economic Literacy (understanding "the problem of scarcity" --a Marxist philosophical view--and evaluating "the distribution of scarce resources" globally), and Socio-political Literacy (understanding political systems and the influences that affect the changing "interpretations the Constitution").
This new workforce-and-family literacy bureaucracy is not separate from the formal school system. "A State shall use a collaborative process in the development of the State plan," commands HR 1385, " carried out by the Governor; representatives, appointed by the Governor, of business and industry; local chief elected officials; local educational agencies....."17
Most of our schools are already teaching literacy based on its new meanings. That's what "whole language" is all about: Don't teach children phonics until the new context (global and multicultural) has been established.
The ultimate goal is an international workforce, centrally controlled, locally managed by an appointed council, and loyal to the new global and environmental ideals. Each worker must conform to the new collective mindset and be willing to trade individual ideas for group thinking-and biblical values for a global ethic. Nothing less will fit the new Total Quality Management (TQM) System that will standardize and manage workers, education, communities, and governments around the world.
"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
What can we do?
Pray! Warn others. Write or call your senators and representatives.
To see how the federal workforce system fits into the international education system, read Brave New Schools.
Endnotes
1 Marc Tucker, ìHow We Plan to Do It,î in Proposal to the New American School Development Corporation, National Center for Education and the Economy, July 9, 1992.
2 Ibid.
3 A Human Resource Development Plan for the United States,(1992);2,4.
4 Sec. 101. (a)
5 Sec. 805 (4)
6 Sec. 321 (a) (1-3)
7 Sec. 103 (A-C)
8 Sec. 123 (d) (1-7) The link between the affective assessment and skills standards are explained in chapter 3 in Brave New Schools.
9 Sec. 321 (c)(1)(A) This national electronic data base of information includesóì (i) effective practices in the provision of literacy and basic skills instruction, including the integration of such instruction with occupational skills training;`(ii) public and private literacy and basic skills programs and Federal, State, and local policies affecting the provision of literacy services at the national, State, and local levelsÖ.î
10 Report on EO 13011 available from Berit Kjos
11 Sec. 312 (b) (2) (A)
12 Sec. 321 (b)(1)
13 Sec. 103 (51) (B)
14 Sec. 103 (47)
15 Sec. 322 (2-3)
16 Web site: http://novel.nifl.gov/external.html
17 Sec.102 (a) (1) (2) (A-C)
"The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is a non-profit institution. We have received funding from the following organizations and individuals to help develop our education and workforce development programs."
• Alan L. Wurtzel
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Anonymous
• Apple Computer, Inc.
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Circuit City Foundation
• David Rockefeller/David Rockefeller, Jr. Trust
• DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
• Eastman Kodak Company
• Ford Motor Company Fund
• Fort Worth, Texas Independent School District
• Gannett Foundation
• GTE Foundation
• Holland Associates
• Jewel-Osco
• John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation
• Lilly Endowment, Inc.
• Lumina Foundation for Education
• Melville Corporation
• New American Schools (Development Corporation)
• New Schools Venture Fund
• New York City Board of Education
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Public School District
• Rochester, New York City School District
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund
• Sam M. and Helen R. Walton Foundation
• San Diego, California, Public Schools
• SJS, Inc.
• State of Arkansas
• State of California
• State of Colorado
• State of Connecticut
• State of Delaware
• State of Florida
• State of Iowa
• State of Kentucky
• State of Maine
• State of Massachusetts
• State of Missouri
• State of New York
• State of Oregon
• State of Pennsylvania
• State of South Carolina
• State of Texas
• State of Vermont
• State of Virginia
• State of Washington
• Target Stores
• The Abell Foundation
• The Boeing Company
• The Broad Foundation
• The Danforth Foundation
• The German Marshall Fund of the United States
• The Leon Foundation
• The Pew Charitable Trusts
• The Stupski Foundation
• Union Carbide Corporation
• The Union Carbide Foundation, Inc.
• United States Chamber of Commerce
• United States Department of Education
• United States Department of Labor
• Verizon Foundation
• Walton Enterprises
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Xerox Corporationhttp://www.ncee.org/ncee/mission/funders.jsp?setProtocol=true
More links: H.R.1385: Employment, Training, and Literacy Enhancement Act of 1997'.
WIA Final Regulations 8/11/2000-
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