Chairman Henry, Distinguished Members, Ladies, and Gentlemen:

I am Maurice Painter, a management consultant specializing in strategic issues consultation with business and non-profit clients. I also am an elected member of the Williamson County Board of Education. I appear before you today to ask that you vote to remove all funding of a "School-to-Career" program of education from the proposed State budget for next year. I make this request after careful study of the program and after discussions with the Deputy Commissioner of Education, Mr. Hodges.

My objections are summarized as follows:

• School-to-Career abolishes the oversight of the local school board over education;
• School-to-Career unlawfully redirects education funding and staffing from improvement of education; and
• School-to-Career reduces our students to human capital for industry.

I shall illustrate my objections by quoting the Grant Application of the Department of Education which became a contract with the United States Department of Education and Labor in the amount of $28.2 Million.

School-to-Career abolishes the oversight of the local school board over education.

In fact, under this program, accountability to parents for the education of their future generations rests solely with one elected official, the governor. The flow chart on page 33 of the Application does not list accountability of any other elected local officials. Even the superintendents in the Superintendent Study Council are, or will be, appointed. And while the School-to-Career Policy Team and Design Team indicates "50/50 Public/Private" membership, none of the "Public" members are elected. All are appointed by the governor.

Page 22 sets forth the governance system for School-to-Career. "The Policy Team establishes policies for the oversight and governance of the School-to-Career system based on recommendations proposed by the design team." And: "The Policy Team . . . is the final decision-making body for the system." This Policy Team will "recommend and determine policy regarding STC." But, Tennessee Code Annotated 49-1-102 (a) clearly states that "[t]he system of public education in Tennessee shall be governed in accordance with laws enacted by the general assembly . . ." and (c) ". . . a local public school system . . . shall be administered by. . . a local board of education . . ."

The policies of this all-powerful Policy Team will be administered through 15 Regional Technical Assistance Teams, which "will provide leadership for Tennessee's School-to-Career system" (page 20). Each Regional Team will be led by a non-elected chairman and directors ". . . as the decision-making body" (page 48). Pages 34 and 35 list their duties as establishing standards for local implementation and devising assessments of compliance, using local grant dollars as bribes for compliance (page 39).

"Regional Partnerships establish standards for local School-to-Career system design . . .[and]. . . develop binding compacts supported by school superintendents, college presidents, local parent groups, key employers, local workforce agencies, and critical others" (page 34). Apparently, elected local school boards will be excluded.

Such a shift of power from elected to non-elected persons in the governance of education is a fundamental attack on our representative form of government. Because elected officials at the state and local levels are excluded from control of education by this program, I ask that you remove the $9.4 Million in Item 9.7 on page 20 of the Appropriations Bill which will fund the School-to-Career program next year.

School-to-Career unlawfully redirects education funding and staffing from the improvement of education.

On pages 38 and 39 we read, "Federal funds under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act will be used to change the way we do business in Tennessee - not to create a new bureaucracy that will become dependent on increased funding. The School-to-Career Office will be staffed primarily with existing personnel who will continue to be supported with existing resources." This is a present reality, for your phone calls requesting copies of the Grant will be answered by someone in the School-to-Career Office.

The three unnumbered pages following page 54 of the Grant list the 23 Federal criteria for receiving the $28.2 Million. "All twenty-three elements are identified [by numbers within square blocks in the margins of the pages] in the proposal" (page iv). I suspect that all of the 37 other states receiving these Federal grants had to satisfy these criteria also.

Criteria number 6 requires the consolidation of currently funded programs within the School-to-Career initiative. On page 37, " . . . Tennessee will commit more than $40.5 million existing state and local resources and nearly $21.4 million in existing federal funds to support the design, development, implementation and continued success of the system." And, from the Budget Narrative: "Tennessee will redirect $55 million over the course of five years to accomplish changes in education and career preparation for all our students." I would believe that all or parts of the programs whose funds will be redirected were reviewed and approved by committees of the General Assembly, but School-to-Career will redirect these funds without debate before the public.

Page 10 comments on the alignment of the Education Improvement Act, Goals 2000, and the School-to-Work Plan as follows: "Since the premises of these three programs feed off one another, they are inextricably linked. Their combined reform measures assist in . . . promoting strong and varied community partnerships focused on education and economic reform." In fact, my former superintendent, Rebecca Schwab, now the Goals 2000 Coordinator for the Department of Education, serves on the powerful Design Teams of School-to-Careers (Appendix D).

Even our successful effort at bringing computers into the classroom will also become a slave to the System. ConnecTEN will ". . . be integrated into the School-to-Career system by exploring the use of distance learning to connect employers with students and schools without leaving the workplace. . . maintaining School-to-Career portfolios of school and work-based learning experiences, and providing professional development for educators and mentors at work-sites." ConnecTEN will connect School-to-Career coordinators in the fifteen regions (page 31).

I state that such redirection of current education funding is unlawful because TCA 49-1-212 only authorizes the commissioner of education to develop a ". . . two (2) track high school curriculum, one (1) for college bound students and one (1) for students entering the work force." School-to-Career provides only one track for all students through " . . . strategies focus[ed] on providing ALL School-to-Career options to ALL students" (page 11).

The purpose of School-to-Career is to ". . . permanently change . . ." (page 37), ". . . to promote systemic changes . . ." (page 4), and to " . . .blur the lines between education and the work place" (page 23). "The School-to-Career system is built upon the notion that educational reform, economic development and workforce development must become a seamless and integrated system . . ." (page i). "The State Board of Education is an active member of the statewide partnership which has begun the journey to transform the national School-to-Work vision into Tennessee's School-to-Career system" (State Board letter of support.)

I ask you to remove the funding of School-to-Career because the initiative is unlawful.

School-to-Career reduces our students to human capital for industry.

Page 47 lists as a five-year performance measurement: "100% of curriculum will have been revised to reflect employer-based . . . needs." Page 49 echoes this: "Curriculum development is driven by the private sector . . ." Understand that parents do not comprise this private sector; only business, industry, and labor unions do. Further, page 3 states: "As curriculum is rewritten, academic and vocational components will be integrated into every area." and, page 4 states: "The Common Core [of curriculum] will contain the academic requirements set by the State Board of Education and the employability skills, technical skills, and life skills identified through private sector involvement." Even "[t}he Tennessee Business Roundtable [a private sector participant] is proposing a $300,000 project to the federal government to develop job profiles of 500 Tennessee jobs for use in the School-to-Career student assessment system" (page 20).

Gentlemen, this is not education! This is, as the Grant states, part of a movement to ". . . create a consolidated work force development system" (page 39). School-to-Career ". . . will require that all students engage in some form of work-based experience during grades 9-12" (page 15). The all-powerful Policy Team has recommended that the connection of students to business and industry be made by " . . . [a]ssisting STW completers in finding appropriate work . . ." (page 17).

One can only conclude that students will become human capital when School-to-Career proposes that private sector businesses, industries, and labor unions write the curriculum and that regional partnerships arrange jobs, not for students but for "completers"?

I implore you to protect the students of my district and the other students of Tennessee from this effort to rob them of their dreams.

Chairman Henry and members of the Committee, by a $200 Million redirection of Federal, State, and local resources, with some of this total coming from 22 State programs which have already received legislative review and approval, Tennessee's School-to-Career program will transform our two track educational system into an unlawful one track system. And, as an elected local school board member, I remind you that your vote today will be the first vote on School-to-Career by Tennessee's duly elected lawmakers.

Thank you.

Maurice L. Painter, P.O. Box 1308, Brentwood, TN 37024. (615) 3737-1147

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