Problem: the Governor and legislature so far have done everything they can to keep OBE in place, perhaps by another name. In Oregon the latest name for it is "Transformational Education." As with the rose, when given any other name, it still smells the same.
Solution: Frighten the whole lot of those Republican and Democratic politicians into serving the people for a change. How? Vote with your feet! Get out of the Republican and Democratic parties.. Tell your friends and relatives to do the same. OBE is a product of establishment politics as usual.
The Republican Party under President Bush and his Education Secretary, Lamar Alexander (Yup, the same one who was running for president in 1996), drew up the plans for OBE and called it America 2000. The Democratic Party under President Clinton pushed OBE, as Goals 2000, through Congress. He was supported by the leadership of both Democrats and Republicans. The second President Bush talks education but continues his support of the Goals 2000 agenda.
In Oregon, the Democratic Speaker of the House, Vera Katz, shoved OBE through the Democraticcontrolled legislature in 1991. Norma Paulus, a longtime Republican and Superintendent of Public Instruction, slavishly implemented the law into the OBE system now mandated in our schools. Governor John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, vows he will veto any Oregon bill that would repeal OBE. But he has nothing to fear, for the Republicancontrolled legislature (with now U.S. Senator Gordon Smith then in charge of the Oregon Senate) defeated a bill that would have repealed OBE.
The lesson for us: The Republican and Democratic Parties at all levels are shoving OBE down our throats whether we like it or not. They refuse to listen to ordinary Republicans and Democrats who fear what OBE is doing to their children. Instead they listen to the power brokers with the money.
The solution: Vote with your feet. Get out of the Republican or Democratic Parties. Tell your family and friends to get out also.
OBE is no joke. It is not a passing fad or fancy. It won't go away of its own accord. There are a lot of powerful people who want our kids dumbed down and made politically and economically compliant by OBE. Their power is money. They use it to control our politicians and our government. They don't want you to know it, but you have more power than they do. You have the vote. Your vote elects those politicians. They have power only because millions of people register in and vote for the Republican and Democratic Parties. But both parties answer to the money, not to you. They make you think you have a choice. Not any more you don't. Not with them. Your only real choice is a third party candidate who pledges defeat of OBE.
BEAT THEM WITH YOUR VOTE! Reregister out of the Republican and Democratic Parties. Tell everyone you know to do the same.
VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!