A Note from the Author
I’ve been asked for what audience this book has been written. The answer is “everyone.†Hopefully everyone from those who know little or nothing about the health and education goals and outcomes which our students are expected to perform, to those who are researchers, will find this book educational, interesting, helpful, and even entertaining. Since I am most familiar with how the reforms are being implemented in Missouri, you will read many references to Missouri. However, please know that Missouri’s reforms, and the “machine†used to implement them, are patterned after those used of other states.
The true stories sprinkled throughout this book describe real-life events that illustrate the “machine†which is implementing universal (socialized) health and education reform and its consequences.
I would like to emphasize my support for America’s public education system of which I am a product, and which I champion. Our good teachers teach by engaging children and parents in classroom activities and provide a role model of virtuous values any parent would be proud to have a child emulate. They are good people who are working very hard to provide students with an education that will carry them into their adult life. I have found that most teachers and administrators are dedicated people who are performing their jobs to the best of their ability based on what the State and others expect of them. They have hearts of gold and their intentions are pure. For the most part they are simply unaware of the “bigger picture†of the reforms documented in this book, or how what they do in the classroom fits into it.
Educators and administrators I have had the privilege of knowing and working with are among the most caring, compassionate, and dedicated folks I’ve ever met! The longer I work with them the more I love them. They do not hit others over the head with their degrees, and they treat parents with respect. While we don’t always agree, it is my opinion that they are sincere. The challenge is to document for them the “pill†(population control) in the “applesauce†(more money for school nurses, health programs, and services) of education reform which is sometimes difficult to see.
It has been my experience that educators and administrators at the local level are not aware of the “pill†found in restructuring local schools into centers for one-stop shopping. They don’t understand that schools are becoming government community centers for implementing national socialized health, education, and labor programs to reach national goals. They don’t see that individual freedoms are being sacrificed to accomplish it.
Teachers would rather teach than be surrogate parents. Yet they find themselves between a rock and a hard place when some children come to school sick, hungry, broken-hearted, without basic hygiene, or are suffering whatever consequences they endure from a society, community, or home with problems. The impossible is expected of teachers and schools that are asked to be all things and to provide all services to all children. This causes schools to reach out eagerly for the support of government grants and programs. The result is the cruelty of creating a society dependent on the government. “Government grants represent the largest single source of operational funds for social, health, and educational programs.†1
This book is NOT intended to judge the hearts of those involved in helping us to swallow the “pill†of reform (restructuring) along with the “applesauce†of government funding, but to explain and document what the “pill†is. The motivation and intent of even those referred to as “population controllers†is most likely well-intentioned. However, their actions reflect a different understanding, paradigm, philosophy, and vision regarding the purpose, place, and values classically associated with education and health in the America in which I grew up to know and love.
[1] Description of the Accessing Federal Grants workshop sponsored by the University of Missouri-St. Louis Continuing Education & Outreach Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program Winter/Spring 1997 brochure.