Dr. Dennis Cuddy -- Common Core, Part 8

COMMON CORE
PART 8

By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D.
June 8, 2015
NewsWithViews.com

[Note. In my NewsWithViews column for April 15, 2013, I predicted that terrorists could set an apartment complex in this country on fire at night, and on May 27, 2015, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reported that the L.A. Police Department's anti-terrorism division arrested Dawud Abdulwali "on suspicion of arson in connection with a fire that destroyed a downtown Los Angeles apartment complex" on December 8, 2014 at 1:20am (night). Abdulwali may have been a "lone wolf," but he may also have been prompted by ISIS, which was looking at how long it took for him to be found and arrested. The time between the fire and his arrest was about 170 days. Suppose ISIS now calculated one of its members here could have as many as 170 days to set as many apartment or forest fires as possible!]

Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner were on the board of NCEE which wanted, according to A HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PLAN (1992), a "national system of education in which curriculum, pedagogy, examinations and teacher education and licensure systems are all linked to the national standards, and the standards are the same everywhere."

Also in 1992, NCEE president Marc Tucker co-authored THINKING FOR A LIVING: WORK SKILLS AND FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, in which he wrote: "As this is written (1992), the former members of the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union are setting out to fashion new societies....Many of those countries have done a better job than we of building effective human resource development programs, and for that reason, may yet surprise the world in economic prowess."

On August 2, 1992, Assistant Labor Secretary Roberts Jones announced that the federal government was preparing to deny aid and student loans to schools that fail to prepare their graduates with the skills needed to compete for jobs in the modern workplace, saying "This is a touchy subject."

Three months later, NCEE president Marc Tucker wrote a revealing letter to his board member Hilary Clinton on November 11, 1992 saying he had just come from David Rockefeller, Jr.'s office where they were "celebrating" Bill Clinton's election as president, as that would allow putting into place their agenda to integrate education into a national system of "human resources development...from cradle to grave...(for) everyone....We propose that Bill (Clinton) take a leaf out of the German book" (regarding required) "apprenticeship slots."

Relevant to Tucker's letter, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Lynne Cheney wrote in her April 2, 1997 article "Whose National Standards?" in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: "Undersecretary of Education Mike Smith has worked closely with the NCEE. Like Robert Schwartz, then head of educational giving for the Pew Foundation, Mr. Smith was among those whom NCEE president Marc Tucker brought together right after the 1992 election to advise Mrs. Clinton. After the meeting Mr. Tucker wrote an 18-page letter to "Dear Hillary" advising that the Clintons aim to " remold the entire American system" of education and training. Crucial to spinning a "seamless web" of education and labor policy that would envelop all Americans "from cradle to grave," Mr. Tucker wrote, are "clear national standards of performance."

The result of the Tucker-Clinton plan was that Tucker's ally at the National Institute of Education (where I worked) within the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), Mike Cohen, wrote Goals 2000 for President Clinton's Secretary of Education Richard Riley, for whom Cohen was a Special Assistant for several years after working for the National Governors Association (NGA). On April 21, 1993 President Clinton transmitted the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act," to Congress.

Title I of the legislation "codified into law the 6 (later 8) national goals." Title II of the legislation dealt with national education standards and assessments. And Title IV established a National Skill Standards Board. One of the Board members was Carolyn Warner, who as the State Superintendent of Education for Arizona said that "those who educate are more to be honored than those who bear the children. The latter gave them only life, the former teach them the art of living" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, January 7, 1975).

Commenting on the legislation, Dianne Ravitch (Assistant Secretary of OERI during the Bush administration) wrote in the May 26, 1993 NEW YORK TIMES "Clinton's Math: More Gets Less," in which she stated: "The Clinton administration's school reform bill would expand dramatically the scope and cost of federal regulation of local schools....To satisfy Congressional critics, the Administration revised its bill, laying the foundation for an interventionist Federal role in local schooling....At the heart of the bill is a powerful new agency, called the National Education Standards and Improvement Council, which would function like a national school baord. It would certify national curriculum standards, state tests and state 'opportunty to learn' standards."

On March 26, 1994, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation (the House passed it earlier), and Goals 2000 became law with 8 goals codified, and provision for a National Education Standards and Improvement Council, which would certify "what all students should know and be able to do" and certify "national content and student performance standards." These last provisions amounted to the widely objectionable "outcome-based education," which would later be combined with "school-to-work" to form the basis of Common Core. In 1994, Sen. Ted Kennedy's School-to-Work Opportunities Act also passed Congress.

Mike Cohen mentioned above was "detailed" on June 28,1996 from the U.S. Department of Education to the White House to become President Clinton's advisor on education. In that position, Cohen was able to exert great influence upon the President's February 4, 1997 "State of the Union" address, in which the president delivered a "Call to Action" concerning education, calling for "national standards representing what all our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. Every state and school must shape the curriculum to reflect these standards....To help students meet the standards and measure their progress, we will lead an effort over the next two years to develop national tests of student achieve in reading and math."

Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

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.

Subscribe to NewsWithViews Daily Email Alerts