Funding A Centralized Federal Workforce

11/1/02

from Maple River Education Coalition (MREdCo)

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is being re-authorized
in the US Congress in 2003, that is, its funding is up for
reconsideration.

On September 12th, the U.S. Subcommittee on 21st Century
Competitiveness conducted its first re-authorization hearing,
"Implementation of the Workforce Investment Act: Promising
Practices in Workforce Development." The Chairman of that
subcommittee is Rep. Buck McKeon, a Republican from California.
(http://www.house.gov/mckeon/welcome.htm) Written and oral
testimony about WIA was taken at that time.

The following is an excerpt from one piece of testimony
submitted in writing to the committee by MREdCo. The entire
testimony is available on our website, along with other
testimony, at http://www.edwatch.org/ab_fed_contacts.html.
Go to "The Workforce Investment Act/Planned Economy." We
will forward excerpts from other testimony in future updates.

Please consider these issues carefully and address them to
your U.S. Congressmen/women and U.S. Senators. The future
of our free system of education, the workplace and the economy
depends on it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Report Submitted in Opposition to Reauthorization of the
Workforce Investment Act

Objection to the Overall Workforce Restructuring Scheme
by Michael Chapman, Maple River Education Coalition
http://www.edwatch.org/updates/090102

We oppose the reauthorization of the 1998 Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) because it represents a "radical" and "revolutionary"
departure away from America's successful free-market economic
system. Instead it embraces and helps establish a government-
planned and managed economy. In order to understand how this could
be, one must realize that the WIA is simply one piece of a larger
federal reform agenda broken apart and passed piece-meal under the
Clinton Administration. The 1998 WIA, along with the 1994 Goals
2000 Educate America Act, and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act,
built the framework for this federal system.

These three laws effectively merged education and businesses under
a government-appointed bureaucracy, which will oversee a "seamless
system" of human resource development to meet the government-
perceived needs of the future economy. These planners will
determine future workforce need and approve specific "career-
clusters" that regional schools may offer to students. Under
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the term "career cluster"
was replaced with the term "smaller-learning communities."

In Minneapolis, ALL students are required to apply for a specific
career cluster by 9th grade. Eventually, however, the Workforce
Investment System is meant to include everyone in this scheme -
whether one is a young student, unemployed, or an "incumbent"
worker seeking a job change.

Building the Federal Workforce Investment Puzzle:

On November 11, 1992, Marc Tucker, president of the National
Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), wrote a letter to
Hillary Clinton explaining how best to implement the design
they had worked on together, now that Bill Clinton was president.
(See Congressional Record, Sept. 25, 1998)

In that letter, Tucker explained how that design would manage
and control all people throughout their lives:
"We think the great opportunity you have is to remold the
entire American system for human resources development...
What is essential is that we create a seamless web...
that literally extends from cradle to grave and is the
same system for everyone."

His plan was to align and coordinate ALL EDUCATION, WORKFORCE
PREPARATION, and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT into a single,
comprehensive, "seamless system" under a government-appointed
planning board that would encompass every child, worker, school,
and business.

On September 12, 2002, the Committee on Education and the
Workforce heard testimony in favor of reauthorizing (and
strengthening) the Workforce Investment Act, which confirmed
that WIA represents the culmination of Marc Tucker and Hillary
Clinton's radical restructuring plan to ensnare ALL people:

Mr. Tim Barnicle, Co-Director of the Workforce Development
Program at the NCEE, and a former official with the US
Department of Labor during the development of the Workforce
Investment Act, testified in favor of reauthorizing WIA for
the purpose of completing the "comprehensive workforce
investment system for the United States." He explained that
WIA would require an "EVER INCREASING investment" to meet its
ultimate goal to "leave no child, no worker, no contributing
member of our society behind."

Echoing the Tucker/Clinton plan for a "seamless system" was
Mr. Bruce Stenslie, Director of the Ventura County, California
Workforce Investment Board, who explained that the goal of WIA
is to "integrate workforce, education and economic development
strategies."

Managing the "K-80 Knowledge-Supply Chain."

Robert Jones, the Undersecretary of Labor during the Carter
years, helped create the Secretaries Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills (SCANS) - where the preliminary work for WIA
was begun. Jones is now the president of the National Alliance
of Business and was Minnesota's keynote speaker the Workforce
Development Seminar put on by the state this October 10th.
Jones explains that WIA is about "Managing the K-80 Knowledge
Supply Chain" in a newsletter:
"To stay competitive, US companies are making a science
of pulling together the right supplies at the right time
in the right place. What would happen if companies could
apply this process, known as supply chain management, to
people?"

Jones explains that schools are to become the "suppliers" and
businesses the "customers" under this new "seamless system." The
Workforce Investment Act echoes this idea explaining: "The state's
Education system...must be more closely attuned to the needs of
the employer community...including more...just-in-time training."

Keep in mind; the system is designed for all learners - "K-80,"
not just those who "choose" to enter two-year technical college.
The proponents of the system call this concept "Life-Long
Learning," because eventually EVERYONE will be part of the system.

[Sections available on our website]
-- "New Economic Governance"

-- A Track-Record of Failure

-- All 50 States Implementing the Same Plan

Summary of Reasons to Oppose Reauthorization of WIA:

1) The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is one of three federal bills
that combine to create an aligned and unified "Labor Supply Chain,"
in effect, re-inventing government, education, and the economy in
all 50 states.

2) WIA interferes with local free-market forces by controlling
workforce and economic development through government-appointed
planning boards. Furthermore, it usurps and damages the private
job-matching industry.

3) WIA waters down existing programs for the truly needy,
disabled, and unemployed by spending limited funds for ANY and
ALL citizens.

4) WIA has a proven track record of failure in its pilot states.
More funding WILL NOT SOLVE the fundamental problems inherent
within a government-planned economy!

5) WIA usurps states' (and the peoples') right to self-
determination guaranteed by the constitution and the 10th
amendment.
------------------------------------------------------
Michael J. Chapman and the Maple River Education Coalition

Michael J. Chapman is a volunteer researcher for the Maple
River Education Coalition, and the founder of American
Heritage Research. He has conducted thousands of hours of
research from original-source state and federal documents
on the new federal education, workforce preparation, and
economic development system. Mr. Chapman has traveled the
nation explaining the system to thousands of parents,
educators, and government officials in a wide variety of
forums and conferences. He has also provided testimony on
various education issues at the state level, and has
provided research and training materials to federal
representatives and staff at their request.

Maple River Education Coalition (MREdCo)
1402 Concordia Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104
http://www.EdWatch.org
651-646-0646