Op Ed: Neocon Policies Undermined Education, Heart of Democracy

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Oregon again faces desperate destroying slashes in its educational programs, at every level from k-garden through grad-school. “The best and brightest” (!?!) Oregon Legislators are scrambling and scamming and schooling each other again.

They are driven to defensive fortress-walls of still-presumed “political party/principle”, built higher each day, defended by futile press-releases offering excuses.

Every other State in this tottering once-democracy must cope with very considerable cuts in education, too.But only Oregon, California currently must still slash school-days, proving up potent past tax reform failures, even given huge national stimulus-funding NOW. Deeper, more destructive consequences to American lifestyle and opportunities --pledged in our Constitutionand even more consequential now-- follow for sure.

Those withering wounds to a once-great educational system are consequences of the Reaganomics debacle. That’s the price we NOW pay for allowing ourselves to be sold the atrociously perverted political pablum: “Government is NOT the solution -- It IS the problem”.

We were then misled to believe that looming danger could only be contained by constant cuts to both taxes AND expenditures, of ANY kind but especially for social aims and safety-net. “Greed is good” became the controlling attitude, reflected throughout America’s working world.

That shaped public/private --especially corporate--attitudes, setting up the great fall when consequences from too-easy credit to all parts of commerce and the economy came back to plague us. For THIRTY YEARS, that UNreality was perpetrated on this nation, generated by huge Far Right billionaire-funded midstream/media-based distortion/perversion.

There can be no question of Far Right intent and action, now fully evident in widespread think-tank, brain-group, publication and published statement --including bestseller books by participants in the scams. During those decades deep, sometimes disastrous, cuts and stalling containment of educational growth and development were constantly emphasized.

That major attack-point is specifically stated, described, documented and on public record over those years since educational support is atop the tax-costs for any democratic government. Those are the most pernicious controlling acts of massive neocon tax policies nationwide.

The Reagan era saw their imposition, camouflaged as “Reaganomics”, reflecting “supply-side” theory described as “voodoo economics” --until he was offered the VP--by Bush I. The whole Reagan approach was characterized as “a “Trojan horse’ full of treasure for the rich --by his own Budget Director, David Stockman, in an ATLANTIC Magazine article.

Stockman faced an irate, angry “Dutch” Reagan, did not resign, stayed on for more than three years, finally presiding over the horrendous annual budget deficit of $233 billion --proving his original point. (From DUTCH, Reagan’s authorized biography by his early school companion and friend Edmund Morris.)

The longtime consequences of these neocon policy impacts still dominate, distort, depress whatever any state legislature tries to do NOW -- in fundamentally different circumstances brought on by worldwide changes forced by fantastic globalization and new technologies of communication, production and distribution.

Every State has been victimized --ironic since it was Reagan’s longtime record of nationwide visit to GE plants as their corporate spokesperson that is reported to have shaped his conversion from labor leader to his professedly “conservative” views later.

Education lives-and-dies via the property tax; that makes it both the primary target, the most vulnerable victim of potent neocon destruction.It is there that desperate distortion of democratic demand --strong education for all, with equal facilities and teaching--has been allowed to pervert, permeate,even destroy what we owe to our progeny.

That surely includes an education closely geared to 21st Century realities, developments, and future certainties --such as much sharper competition from the rising billions of workers reaching middle-class all around the globe. (See preceding Op Ed for special ECONOMIST report.)

Anyone knowing and appreciating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, from the historical record since the Revolution, knew better and saw clearly --even in the Nixon/Carter era-- how far off-base that effort was -- imperiling all we had learned from 1776 onwards.

It was the combined impacts of Nixon’s notorious duplicity --he resigned to avoid sure impeachment-- and Carter’s capture, by consequences beyond any control, that set up that situation --now so recognized widely by most well-documented sources. No wonder many Americans, uninformed and misinformed by mainstream media, fell into crafty-trap by canny-cabal combined with complicit “brain-tank” and Far-Right/religious exhortation.

Widespread, increasingly deep public concern stemmed directly from personal/family and business-professional painful experience.That smashed through patterns of misinformation spread nationwide by neocon agency at all levels.

The surest proof is your local neighborhood association, your friends and colleagues, via open, honest democratic dialog; test it by frank conversation NOW with them. Finishing touches for strong motivation in every State was supplied by the awkward Bush II thrust of No Child Left Behind, forcing test pressures, threatening penalties for both teachers and schools, jeopardizing participation by school districts.

But it has has taken the Earthshaking impacts of globalization to drive home the WHY of the inevitable change in education --as for all other areas in this new 21st Century.

Underway for two centuries, as America reached out in strong free trade benefitting both parties, our honest entrepreneurship built this nation AND opened up the world for others. But then came the corporate confluence worldwide, forcing rapid failure of true “free trade” and distorting entrepreneurship into widening “increasingly false semi-competition contrived and controlled for multinational corporate interests.” We are now left with “competition” for common labor-work and manufacturing method against the low-costs of primitive lifestyle and precarious existence of near-slave/worker conditions in still developing nations.

Many stand ready to provide refuge and support for corporation-controlled manufacture fleeing former producing areas with democracy-supporting lifestyle. In our longtime American “exceptionalism”, with its strong characterization of a nation driven by intense motivation and equally intense love of family, do we now stand ready to move as we MUST --to guarantee a real world-class education for all, in equal preparatory participation, for the commonweal?

Henry Clay Ruark is the one of, if not the most experienced, working reporter in the state of Oregon, and possibly the entire Northwest. Hank has been at it since the 1930's, working as a newspaper staff writer, reporter and photographer for organizations on the east coast like the Bangor Maine Daily News.
Today he writes Op-Ed's for Salem-News.com with words that deliver his message with much consideration for the youngest, underprivileged and otherwise unrepresented people.

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Henry Ruark March 8, 2009 11:58 am (Pacific time)

To all: Here's "See with own eyes" re Obama's rapid actions to help reverse longtime situation outlined in OpEd: www.wpost.com Stimulus Funds to Reach Schools Within Weeks Money Comes With Demands for Improvement and May Prevent Mass Layoffs By Daniel de Vise Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, March 8, 2009; A05 Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced yesterday that nearly $44 billion in federal stimulus aid to schools will be available to states in the next 30 to 45 days -- soon enough, education officials hope, to prevent hundreds of thousands of layoffs nationwide and program cuts that would hit home in schools across the Washington region. "This is really a chance to avert an educational catastrophe and to save a generation of kids," Duncan said. An additional $49 billion will be distributed within six months, Duncan said, as he released a series of funding guidelines that had been eagerly awaited by states and school systems."

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 7:21 pm (Pacific time)

DB: Your recall re Belgium sharp and accurate. BUT differences far deeper than 60Minutes showed or could show, reflecing culture, social program attitudes, parental attitudes, child discipline methods, even state funding methods, et al, et al --ALL factors almost always overlooked via uninformed or misinformed status of some making studies, reporting the results. Take a book to explain total picture, but believe me above is accurate summary from very long, painful experience both "inside" and "outside" looking in to report accurately --as in twelve years of national surveys on two aspects of education, reported in then-leading educational journal.

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 10:37 am (Pacific time)

Michael: Yrs characterizing production of tests, esp.commercially produced, right on money. You echo my Ed.D. course outline and experience in use as consultant. Unfortunately you also thus reflect full knowledge re yrs distorted,perverted in first one here; if you so learned re tests, production, business, and applications, how could you possibly NOT know, fully understand that consensus now shows NCLB is, does, and was meant to accomplish ?

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 1:14 pm (Pacific time)

Michael:
Very true --and that's what really worries me, from 60 working years in both education and journalistic reporting on educational outcomes.
We were so warned in Ed.D. work, by the way; not naming any firms, but can supply some excruciating examples of what commercial motivation can and often will bring about.
Why did you shift from education to testing ? In all truth, was it for dedicated service to the profession ?
I shifted likewise, openly, honestly, since education paid too little for family, other onrushing needs.
Honest is honest, Friend M.; people go commercial for the dollar awards, as you well know. They distort reports for the same motivations, too...of which I surely have no such drive at my advanced age, and growing state of decrepitude.
Nothing personal, you will understand --just honest, open and democratic dialog based on specific reference checkable with own eyes for evaluation with own mind.
See current story and comments by OCPP, now leading page above...

Dorsett Bennett March 3, 2009 12:21 pm (Pacific time)

Several months back I saw an interesting episode on CBS's iconic program 60 Minutes.It dealt with that comparison of education of students in Belgium versus the United States. I did not vet the information provided, and that is why I am unable to attest to its accuracy. In summary, the money to educate the student follows the student. There are public schools and there are private schools. If the school offers a good product then students go there and the school prospers. If the school does not offer a good product, whether it is a state school, or private school, it will go out of business. The costs? Belgian spends approximately 50% level we spend to educate American students. The results? Belgian students easily surpass American students. An average group of Belgian high school students took a test that has a high failure rate in the US. Most of them thought it was so easy that it was almost a joke. Bravado? Possibly! But they do learn a lot more for a lot less money. Competition is a really wonderful thing. 35 years ago there was Ma Bell, and you got what they offered the price they offered for. Now people can call to Europe for less than $.15 a minute. We have had a 291% cost-of-living adjustment in the last 30 years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I don't remember what it cost to call Europe 30 years ago. But it wouldn't shock me if it was the least $.50 a minute back in 1979, which means adjusted for inflation it is possible to call Europe these days for about 10% of the cost of 30 years ago.

Michael March 3, 2009 11:37 am (Pacific time)

Henry Ruark there are people who know a lot more about the testing industry than you might think.

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 8:27 am (Pacific time)

To all: Here's "see with own eyes" timely report from OCPP, famed full-information source in our State of Oregon: Oregon Center for Public Policy Update March 3, 2009 Business Group Says Oregon Business Taxes Are Second Lowest Among All States and District of Columbia "A new study funded by big corporations found that Oregon has the second lowest state and local business taxes among all states and the District of Columbia and that businesses get a better deal for the taxes they pay in Oregon than just about anywhere else in the country. "The study's data suggest that Oregon's state and local business taxes are so low that the state could raise business taxes by $1.6 billion annually and still be in line with state and local business taxes nationwide, according to OCPP executive director Charles Sheketoff." ------------------- Look for full report in S-N later today. Watch for Op Ed re essential tax reforms well overdue, with some 5,000 profit-making Oregon-based corporations stil paying only $10 minimum corporate tax.

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 8:17 am (Pacific time)

Michael: You wrote: "Public education in Oregon has been funded above the inflation rate for as long as there has been public education." Yr distortion here obvious. IF funding starts-low, even ten times inflation-rate will do little good. Do NOT place Oregon "low", simply example of inane neocon-contorted rule well known for propagandizing usage and awkward misapplication. Yrs written as question re Bush initiation of NCLB flat out proof of distortion; if you worked for test publisher there's NO WAY you would NOT know all possible about NCLB. It started by plan of his major assistant in Texas, came to DC with him/her, was first act he perpetrated. Sen. Kennedy was one of 4 (two House, two Senate) required sponsors to move the bill, made great and essential changes, fought hard for full funding of some good parts when enacted. You attack him knowing allathat full well as shown by your affiliation; OR were you UNinformed all of that working time for test producer ??? We resent the implied insult for our readership and our own content, and I endorse Editor Tim's note to you: "Shame !" Harry Truman once stated: "I tell the truth, and they think it is hell !!" Hope that same applies for your statement here; chew hard, then swallow deep.

Henry Ruark March 3, 2009 8:03 am (Pacific time)

DCouch: Yrs to commercial rating publisher, unstated criteria, methods, with questionable reputation on some areas they cover, varies on education depending on how state is rated. Tough business, always well behind current situation. Familar with source since used as consultant, with some careful review of their detail on any client, corporate as well as state agencies. Oregon rates differently in different sources, but "38th and dropping -2" is no great surprise. Funding is only one measure for educational success; role of StateEdDept. major factor, with Oregon always rating high professionally, albeit badly hampered by corporate tax status,lack of reform, strife in Legislature, other factors familiar to residents. Dept. has taken national lead on some areas. State long a leader in the community college field, due to international note for Dr. Amo DeBernardis of PCC and others. We suffer from our own Oregon failures, but mostly by dint of impacts as set forth in Op Ed, demanding national change and radical reforms.

Michael March 3, 2009 7:06 am (Pacific time)

Unless one specializes in "assessment methodologies" they just do not understand what the testing industry is about. They respond to a wide variety of needs and formal requests, generally by government educational departments, but also private business and the military.. This industry has been around ever since civilization had the need to measure performance. The end mission of this industry is to help create solutions to help improve performance. There is no political agenda, except of course for those who do not like to see their failure exposed when the measurement conclusions have been reached. Test measurement is both a science and an art. It takes many years of academic training to even begin to grasp the science behind this science/art.

DENCOUCH March 2, 2009 9:00 pm (Pacific time)

http://www.statestats.com/edrank.htm Pretty sad if true.

Henry Ruark March 2, 2009 6:04 pm (Pacific time)

Stephen: Education of intense interest, varying kinds, levels of support in diverse ways, ever since Colonial days. Early strong fed-support was huge land/grants establishing state colleges/universities for agricultural, other broad research interests. Many other examples, with GI Bill paving way for millions of vets to move up and on...I was one. Previous Op Eds deal with variety of others.

Henry Ruark March 2, 2009 5:55 pm (Pacific time)

I honor anyone surviving both K/12 and test-publisher tenure ! --and understand shift to expensive product. Fact: Testing industry spent many millions lobbying for just the kind of tests on which NCLB built. Fact: Act seen as dangerous in the extreme for democratic education; promotes special teaching-to-test; demands its own kind of "success"; AND penalizes failures. It is regarded as "radical change in many schools", is intensely opposed by many educators and parent groups. Several previous Op Eds have discussed NCLB in detail with references and citations. Point of Op Ed here is NOT Oregon financing per se but heavy impact by neocon policy in every state. Oregon suffers greatly via lack of fairly shared costs due to corporate tax policies. Disclosure: Helped write National Defense Education Act in DC;10 yrs.in OrEdDept. as learning media consultant; $9 millions fed/match/funds in most districts; .05% error rate.

stephen March 2, 2009 5:52 pm (Pacific time)

I read krugman's March 1 article. We are in a depression because people want to save? I ask Paul, who is a new world order schill, and that is why he gets the prizes, well I ask him two questions. Where is he putting HIS money? Obviously in metals. The second question is, then where do we put our money? In a broken system? His March 1st article is beyond belief. Blaming those who are trying to do the right thing and investing in more lucrative ways or saving. His article mentioned nothing to invest in, just blame. What is unstated in his article is that Krugman sees our salvation in unleashing inflation. The best way to destroy savings is to inflate the currency to where savings are obliterated in a mass of paper. People are forced either to "buy now" or to purchase assets like gold which will hold or increase their value relative to rapidly-devaluing paper. Of course, whenever Krugman wants to score a point or two, he channels John Maynard Keynes. He does not mention his idol by name, but here we have it: inflate, inflate, inflate!

Henry Ruark March 2, 2009 4:28 pm (Pacific time)

To all: For solid incidents, quotes, and repeated "mea culpa" re huge errors of understanding American principles and how our democracy works; and even more horrendous examples of failure to alter policy known to be deficient by early 1981, see Stockman expose: "Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed"; 1986 (before ISBN); available in any library.

stephen March 2, 2009 2:27 pm (Pacific time)

I dont know off hand who really instigated 'no child left behind', but the fact that the federal government even got involved is why the education system is messed up. But, off topic. I just had a quick question. I think very poorly of the neo-cons and both parties so not trying to get into that issue. I agree with much in this article, but from my learning and opinion, did not the Clinton era (pushed mostly by rham emanuel) start nafta and more free trade policies that lost millions of jobs and production companies here in the U.S. ? Even tho economists such as Ross Perot said it would, but it was done anyway? Is not production the only thing that will get us out of the current economic crisis? Looking forward to your input on this. thanks.

Michael March 2, 2009 12:55 pm (Pacific time)

Editor: I spent many years in the testing industry, initially out of UC Berkely. I taught school for many years, k-12. I am a registered independent and I have a non-partisan view on what has happened to public education, having observed it's decline since the mid 60's. There was nothing inaccurate within my earlier post, so if you would post it, then one can pick it apart with actual qualified sources, which is unlikely. Just because someone does not like what one writes does not make it wrong. Public education in Oregon has been funded above the inflation rate for as long as there has been public education. Test results do go down for our students the longer they participate in public education as compared to other countries. These are facts. To develop solutions, you first have to really know what happened. Making it a political issue is inappropriate as far as who to blame. In Oregon, there is a pretty clear record as to what has happened. Thanks. By the way I don't really know anyone who wants our students to receive an inferior education, but public school teachers by and large put their own children in private schools if they can afford it. That should give one a hint.

Michael March 2, 2009 11:53 am (Pacific time)

I believe the "No Child Left Behind" was Ted Kennedy's legislation? Hasn't the cost and ultimate expenditures...

Editor: Michael, I have been exceedingly clear that this is not a GOP propaganda board, as much as you might wish it was. If you don't know by now that No Child Left Behind was a development under George W. Bush then you must be overdosing on crack. Yes, Ted Kennedy and plenty of D's and R's signed on and they basically threw our kids under a bus backing that legislation that led to the first federal intervention in our schools, in history! As Dan Brown from the Huffington Post put it, "(A) promise of 'school accountability' turned out to be, in reality, a fearsome, curriculum-distorting monster of high-stakes testing."

You guys think you are so clever, injecting your dirty little lies into an honest news flow like this; I think its sick to try to pin Bush's mistakes on others. They may have followed it, but W. and Rove and the gang created it> So now everyone knows that anything from this character is just a nasty little attempt to lie and have it appear to be a matter of record. Dude, whoever you are, you should be seriously ashamed of yourself.

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