DON BELL REPORTS

A WEEKLY COMMENTARY

Year Twenty-Nine ... Number Sixteen ... April 23, 1982

Table of Contents

LEGISLATION TO DECEIVE THE ELECTED
AND THE ELECT IF IT WERE POSSIBLE

At one time He said, "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." If this statement were impersonalized it well could be applied to certain laws and regulations that appear beatiful, functional, economical and desirable at first reading, but when examined more closely are shown to be deadly deceptions and pitfalls to entrap the gullible. President Reagan recently suggested just such a measure, an old idea with a new name. It's called The Educational and Opportunity Equity Act, but it's nothing more than the old "Tax Tuition Credit Vouchers for Education" idea. When explained without going into detail and background, this seems to be a beautiful bill, one that would grant tax write-offs for all parents who send their children to private, church and parochial schools. To parents who have been paying taxes to support government schools and also paying the tuition costs to send their children to private or church schools, a tax break of this kind sounds wonderful. So, a great number of conservative educators who ought to know better, right-wing legislators and dedicated promoters of private/church/parochial schools are falling head-over-heels for the plan.

It all began this time when President Reagan went to Chicago to address members of the National Catholic Education Association. He told them that working Americans "are overtaxed and underappreciated." And he proposed tax credits "of up to $500 for families earning as much as $75,000 who send their children to private or parochial schools." Under this plan, said President Reagan, "working families would be able to recover up to half the cost of each child's tuition. Our proposal is fair, equitable and designed to secure the parental right to choose."

Newsweek called it a political gesture, reported that "When Ronald Reagan's advisers gathered at Camp David earlier this year to review his latest polls, they discovered that he was slumping badly with Roman Catholics. Last week they came up with what they hoped might be a quick fix. The President flew to Chicago, home of the country's largest Catholic school system, and announced his intention to give tuition tax credits to families that send their children to nonpublic schools." But the Newsweek article was but an opening blast, since soon -- probably next month -- both Time and Newsweek will carry a four page spread publicizing this education voucher plan. Heading a national promotional effort will be David Rockefeller of Hewlett-Packard Co. Behind the program is a think tank calling itself the Education Voucher Institute, which is associated with an ever larger organization called the Center for Independent Education. Both EVI and CIE provide "expert testimony on vouchers, tax credits and related issues before Congress, state legislatures and local school boards."

It should be noted that both EVI and CIE are opposed to government schools, are solidly behind all programs to expand private and church schools. We have a promotional brochure from EVI which correctly asserts that "We taxpayers spend over 100 billion dollars a year to support a public education system that is not working ... Many schools are not teaching children to read and write ... Many schools are teaching subjects parents find objectionable ... Too many schools have become centers of violence, vandalism, drug abuse and alcoholism .. These conditions and problems will continue to exist as long as we allow the government's virtual monopoly to be responsible for the education of 90% of our children ..." Yet, this Education Voucher Institute is actually promoting a program that would give the government a 100% monopoly on all American education! On April 29-30, 1982, a "conference on education vouchers and tax credits" is being held and attending and speaking will be some of the men who have been the best friends of those promoting private education. Among them will be George Roche, president of Hillsdale College, who has been a strong and effective opponent of government control of private schools. He has been elected to the governing body of EVI and now promotes the voucher system. So does William B. Ball, noted constitutional lawyer who has defended Bob Jones University in its stand against federal control of its institution, and who has long been a leading advocate for church and private schools. Also active in the promotion of the educational voucher system are Milton Friedman, monetarist, Nobelist, successor to the Maynard Keynes system of economy; Mrs. Onalee McGraw of the Heritage Foundation; Robert E. Baldwin of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a large number of educationalists. All of these dignitaries say they are solidly against a federal monopoly on education. Yet all of them are promoting the voucher system. They all may have overlooked the fact that whatever the federal government subsidizes, the federal government controls. So says the Supreme Court. And they may have failed to recognize the type of umbrella control over American education which the federal government maintains.

In introducing his Educational and Opportunity Equity Act, President Reagan proposed a bill that would 1) provide a maximum tax credit of $100 per child in 1983, $300 in 1984, and $500 in 1985; 2) allow parents to deduct the amount of the credit from the total taxes owed; 3) allow full credit to families with incomes of up to $50,000 while families earning up to $75,000 would get partial credits and families with incomes of over $75,000 a year would get no tax break; and 4) families who send their children to schools that discriminate because of race would get no tax breaks at all. This is the schedule that professing conversatives who ought to know better are promoting. Perhaps these dupes -- we use the word advisedly -- would know how they are being deceived if they knew how federal agencies control American education. From experts in this field who are far more knowledgable than your reporter, we have learned that the entire process of educational control comes under the umbrella of a set of regulations called Interagency Day Care Standards. Adopted June 18, 1971, they were not printed for public sale and are difficult to obtain, the master control system hinges upon the federal government's definition of "day care." Here is the definition:

Day care services and programs are further defined as:

And here are the clincher statements:

All of the above are excerpts or definitions found in the "Federal Interagency Day Care Requirements" with underlining added. Interested parents are advised to ask their Representatives or a Senator to obtain for them a copy of the "Interagency Day Care Standards," dated 18 June 1971, from the Department of Education. The Freedom of Information Act supposedly guarantees access to such records.

Here, briefly, is the method of operation by which federal agencies control all education that is subsidized directly or by voucher payments or tax credits:

1. The State Education Department of each State receives Federal funds (directly or indirectly from another agency such as Welfare, Mental Health, Social Security, etc.) for a program that complies with the federal definitions of "day care." These include but are not limited to Head Start, Neighborhood Youth Corps, Manpower Department and Training Act, Title I of Elementary and Secondary Education Act; also any federally funded program providing for day care services such as work incentive programs for welfare mothers, or other child care services purchased for welfare mothers under Title IV of the Social Security Act.
2. The State Education Department is obligated to coordinate its actitivities on a statewide basis with the Federeal Interagency Day Care Standards.
3. The State Education Department also is obligated to apply the Interagency Day Care Standards to "all programs or facilities which the agencies establish, operate or utilize with federal support."
4. Thus, the use of federal funds places the school receiving those funds -- or the entire State school system with the "umbrella type" Interagency Day Care Requirements in all its operations, whether it be the one school or the entire State's school system! This would seem to be the chief reason why the States are trying so desperately to include the policing of all private and church schools under the control of the State Educational System. The State risks the loss of federal funds if all schools in the State do not comply in all respects with the federal requirements!
5. These Interagency Requirements are imposed directly on State and local school systems, by-passing State and local elected officials, as well as State laws and local ordinances. The intention is to penetrate all private and church schools as well; much of which has already been accomplished.
6. Under these Interagency Requirements public school education is defined as a "day care" activity. The Interagency Manual, which your elected representative or senators probably have never seen, admits that "a variety of different definitions appear in federal and State legislation particularly in laws related to day care licensing." But, the bureaucrats aren't interested in legal definitions, because "For the purpose of this manual, day care is defined as the care of a child on a regular basis by someone other than the child's parent(s), for any part of the 24 hour day."
7. Under this Interagency definition of "day care," "All administering agencies at the State level and the local level in a State must coordinate their day care program planning and operations activities ... it is the responsibility of administering agencies at all levels to pursue joint program pre-planning and continued coordination." In short, obey the federal agency guidelines as laid out by the Regional Council in your Regional Capitol, or else no federal funds for your State Education Department!
8. In addition to these "Interagency Day Care Standards" we have discussed in this Report, there is yet another "umbrella" regulation under which public (government) schools are expected to operate. This is the "Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Program." It's stated objective is to "develop techniques and practices leading to a solution of the nation's juvenile delinquency control problems based on the assumption that delinquent behavior is rooted in the fabric of society." The basic objective of this program is not to stamp out delinquency as such. The program is focused on behavioral research and admits that its objective is to "bring about changes in youth and society, and to train all levels of police, teachers, probation officers, judges, community leaders and social workers" to "prevent" delinquency. Furthermore, the program is "directed at all youth -- ages 0 to 24." If you have read Orwell's "1984" recently, you will recognize the pattern: to change youth and society by eliminating all Biblical standards of morality and installing instead the tenets of Secular Humanism! To do this, private and church schools must be "controlled."

This is why the tuition tax credits and vouchers plans are so deadly. If private and Christian schools are required to accept federally-backed vouchers, this would place them in a position where they would be forced to apply all federal regulations, including this Juvenile Delinquency Prevention program, in all of the school's activities. Don't be deceived by this as so many are: The federal takeover of private and church schools is the objective; and the granting of tax tuition credits and vouchers is the means!

Get this information to your Congressmen and Senators. Demand a public investigation, and action. Inform your friends and neighbors. Insist that elected officials carry out their Constitutional obligation to represent the people. Federal control of local schools is unConstitutional but it exists under the process briefly described here. That this stems from government action in areas where government action is forbidden by the Constitution is both the major problem and the hope for solution. The seizure of the Nation's institutions by a single ideology has simply derived from the ability of certain agents controlling Federal Agencies to foist their programs upon a deceived and unwary citizenry.

The control of education is a function not permitted and specifically denied the Federal Government under the United States Constitution. Therefore, control of education, public or otherwise, by federal regulations or laws, is intolerable. Let your elected officials know you know this.

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