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[Letterhead]
House of Representatives November, 21, 1997 Dear Citizens of the State of Ohio: I write to you as a former Ohio resident, graduate of an Ohio public school and now an active member of the Pennsylvania House of Education, Labor and Appropriations Committees. I am a conservative, a businessman for 16 years before entering public office, and an elected official who believes in America as a representative republic. Throughout this nation, including the State of Ohio, there is currently being implemented a massive restructuring of the educational and employment systems. To a great extent, the average citizen is unaware of the comprehensive changes this restructuring will bring to them, their children and their jobs. As an elected representative to the House of Representatives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I feel a great duty to the people to make available all information possible to allow them the opportunity to make a truly informed decision. At issue is School-to-Work and the accompanying programs it incorporates. If I would not have studied, researched, and talked with hundreds of people on the topic of STW, Goals 2000, Medicaid in the schools, labor development plans, and traveled the world many times over while in business, I may have found some of what certain opponents have said about School-to-Work hard to believe. However, that is not the case. Not only do I agree with the concerns as expressed by such noted individuals as Phyllis Schlafly and State Board Member Diana Fessler, as a legislator I can add the perspective of how the process of promoting School-to-Work violates my view of freedom in this American republic. My reasons for not only questioning but opposing School-to-Work are as follows:
STW is being promoted as an advanced version of our traditional vo-tech educational program. It attempts to usurp the good will and success of existing vo-tech programs and even to fraudulently take credit for their success. In reality, while STW includes a vo-tech component it is deceptive to lead the public and the legislators to assume this narrow equation. STW will destroy most current vo-tech programs by usurping the decision-making regarding vocational choices from the local school and place it with the various labor boards, regional forecasters and governmental directives. STW is being promoted to business and employers as the answer to the obvious academic and skill deficiencies of the current high school graduates. Employers are being fraudulently led to believe that under-skilled laborers can be corrected by a "high-tech" "TQM" national program "bench-marked" to "world-class" standards. This may sound good, but that's all. The problem today is kids aren't taught how to read, and they are taught moral relativism that produces kids with high self esteem but bad moral character and deficient academic preparation. STW in none of its components addresses with of these root problems. As a result, business is fooled into accepting a cleverly disguised government program that mandates yet more costly business controls. If the average STW participant knew the historical genesis of STW and its ultimate mature design they would turn and devour the program. That is why the proponents work very hard at hiding the fact that STW is modeled after the Marxist and German models. When fully implemented, STW and its accompanying program will result in a "total managed economy" while all employment and educational decisions are made by someone other than the parent, child, employer, or educator. Few like to talk about the orchestrated components of the National Governors Association and Goals 2000, OBE, Title I funding, Medicaid, and the U.S. Labor Department SCANS. Proponents have tried to fool legislators into thinking these programs are not federally directed. Even the Pennsylvania Governor's top policy advisor insisted to me sometime ago, that STW had absolutely no relationship to Goals 2000 or OBE even though they had just signed a contract with the federal government that makes the connections crystal clear. In state after state, the executive branch (Governor's office) consistent with their pact to support Goals 2000 etc. have pursued federal monies, signed away valuable state sovereignty rights and entered into binding contracts without involving the General Assemblies. By violating the constitutional process, the necessary scrutiny afforded legislative and public debate has been preempted. Across this nation, legislature after legislature has witnessed a gross violation. The expanded authority that STW and other contracts place in the Governor's office to distribute the dollars and implement public policy according to the contract is dangerous, foolish, and unconstitutional. Every Governor that embarks on this process violates his constitutional oath! The executive branch is to enforce the law not make the law! No one who claims to be a conservative can support such violations. In fact, the failure to recognize such violations in this situation is an even greater travesty. Although the federal government has been increasingly involved in education within the states, this involvement nonetheless violates the Constitution. For the very reasons the founding fathers expressly disallowed federal involvement in state prerogatives, Goals 2000 and School-to-Work are now a problem. While some people obviously argue the benefits of federal involvement, this begs the question. For any conservative to reach out and embrace a federal plan and somehow think state officials will craft their own unique plan for their state is either willingly ignorant or deceived. Every Goals 2000 state will conform to the terms of the contracts they have signed and Ohio will too. The federal strings are long and strong. At the heart of my concern and all constitutional conservatives is the issue of control. America is not Germany, Japan, Russia, or China. We have been the nation of freedom, the world's most blessed representative republic. We are not a democracy. We were never designed to be anything other than a nation in whom the power was vested in the people and with whom a contract identifying the rights of the people are defined in a constitution which defines the scope of government. The very nature of Goals 2000 and STW and most other federal government programs attack the very essence of who we are. When combined with the organization of the STW program and the violations of Constitutional prohibitions, control is usurped from the people. All those who participate in such moves are therefore guilty of what our founding fathers called treason. It is this basic change in control that identifies the major problems with STW and Goals 2000. Decision making for education, vocational choices, and life decisions must be kept at the local level with parents and their assigns. This federally directed program strikes at the heart of this authority and if for no other reason is why every American let alone a true conservative demands rejection. In conclusion, if you are like some people with whom I have talked, you may think that Ohio is somehow unique. You may say that since you have not yet seen any Ohio student "job matched" or students judged as "human resources", that STW does not have an agenda. All I can say is that you are only looking at "the baby." The baby will grow up. When it does, it will look just like its parent and we don't have to go too far to see it! (I.e., recent articles in Newsweek, Businessweek) Citizen of Ohio, you should know that the goal of education is not solely employment. The employer and business is not the customer of education. The goal of education is to fully equip the young person in the basic academic foundations and when combined with moral instruction to produce an individual who best glorify his Creator. The parents who possess the responsibility of education are the customers. It is only the parent who legitimately sits in the driver's seat. For the sake of freedom and the continuance of this nation as we have known it, please consider these concerns before embracing the School-to-Work agenda. Sincerely, Samuel E. Rohrer SER:jjc [House Box 202020, Main Capitol, Room 423, South Office Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120-2020, Phone: (717) 787-8550] e:mail: [email protected]
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