The Progressive Policy Institute published Mandate for Change1, a project of the Democratic Leadership Council, in 1993. The average citizen need not look for the boogey men hiding in archives, they handed the American Perestroika Act to the next President elect.
Mandate for Change tells no spin story nor double speaks its intent. The actions listed are the means in the never ending restructuring of American society and education.
Mandate for Action
- Pass an American Perestroika Act to create a commission for a New Federal Commission for a New Federal Compact. The President should appoint a high-level commission to plan a sweeping devolution of federal government grant programs-eliminating roughly 100 grant programs and transforming more than 4000 others into Challenge Grants. Once the commission’s recommendations are approved by the President, both houses of Congress would have to defeat them within 30 days or they would automatically go into effect. Amendments would not be permitted.
- Develop a State and Local Deregulation Initiative. The commission should request broad waiver authority from Congress to cut through the over regulation and red tape strangling state and local implementation of federal programs.
- Appoint a Federalism Czar. The President should appoint a cabinet-level czar to chair the commission, rally support for its recommendations, push them through Congress, and oversee their implementation. (pg. 26)
America is now witnessing the manifestations of re-invented governance in the form of Challenge Grants. Oregon was the first ‘ed-flex’ state to sign Goals 2000, a voluntary comprehensive takeover of the education system by the federal government. We (the Feds) challenge you (the State) to implement this or that federal program and We will reward you. All you, the States, need to do is waive previous federal regulatory legislation restricting how the money is spent.
The We’uns wanted to include all your children as ‘special’. Waivers were signed, so school districts could use the carrot sticks for more than school lunches or special education reading programs. Additional grants are made to a myriad of non-profits in designing curriculum (IT vendors), measuring progress (how schools are progressively failing) and implementing innovative school designs (e.g. Coalition of Essential Schools). Hence, the conservative media attracts viewers naming all the president’s men as czars while Race to the Top Challenge Grants mandate standards, longitudinal databases, Pre-K schooling and federal oversight of teaching performance.
Perestroika? Means ‘restructuring, rebuilding, transformation . . .
“However, the new President has an opportunity to take the lead in activating the process of state law making. Nothing in the Constitution requires him to make proposals only to Congress, or prohibits him from making proposals to the states. A progressive agenda for reinventing government may in fact depend on connecting the power of national leadership to the power of the state system, including, but not limited to, public education. (pg. 135)”
Simply, the Executive Department is buying power. The State of Oregon has then and now willingly partnered with perestroika to reinvent government for over 2 decades. How was the general public informed? The Oregonian ran a lengthy op-ed piece on Welfare Reform, citing that “Oregon was a fine demonstration partner with the U.S. Federal government to reinvent government.” 3 The media failed to describe the implications of Title III, The Education Flexibility Demonstration Partnership Program2, within Goals 2000. Oregon renamed Goals 2000 as the ‘Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century’, a blueprint for the remaining states. How grand and far-reaching these people are! All the Executive Department need to do is send stimulus funds and voila, the state, big business and non-profits change our form of a representative government to a group interest Democracy.
Perpetual Peace Immanuel Kant
1st – “The Civil Constitution of Every State Should Be Republican”
2nd – “The Law of Nations Shall Be Founded on a Federation of Free States”
3rd – “The Law of World Citizenship Shall be Limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality”
Perpetual Peace, Immanuel Kant, Section II Containing the Definitive Article for Perpetual Peace Among States
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1 – Mandate for Change, Progressive Policy Institute, ed. By M. Marshall and M. Schram, Berkeley Trade Pub., 1993.
2 – Oregon Option Rewarded: R. Landauer, Opinion & Commentary, The Sunday Oregonian, May 26, 1996