ARTICLES

State of Esteem

California Wants Students to Feel Okay

By Camille Giglio

"Inviting you: to enlist as a partner in moving all Californians, individually and altogether -- toward a new human politics, toward a Healthier State! Toward a state of esteem." So reads a statement taken from California state senator John Vasconcellos' official web site. Vasconcellos has been a legislator for close to 40 years, first representing San Jose in the assembly. He is now in his second term as senator.

In his desire to move California toward a "state of esteem," Senator Vasconcellos has been a forerunner of sorts for legislation, now before the state legislature, that would increase state intervention in the education of children. Much of Vasconcellos' legislation has reflected his humanistic philosophy and has sought to give high profile to the "I'm okay, you're okay" theory of self-esteem and personal liberty, especially for children. Vasconcellos refers to himself as the "Johnny Appleseed of self-esteem."

In 1979 Vasconcellos authored a book, now out of print, titled, Liberating Vision: Politics for Growing Humans. The book traces Vasconcellos' attempts in the human potential movement of the '60s and '70s to free himself from paternalistic traditions, which he came to believe were the cause of so much human suffering and misery. At one point in the book, he implies that children arrive at school age damaged emotionally and socially by their parents, church, and traditional institutions.

Though in years past, Vasconcellos' colleagues in the legislature did not take him seriously, today, they no longer laugh at the senator's goals and objectives. The idea that children are being denied proper intellectual stimulation and learning opportunities at home has become a large and profitable industry, spawning early education degrees and attracting special interest community agencies desirous of getting in on the funding. Children from birth to 18 are the newest consumers needing services. Newer crops of legislators, at the urgings of these special interests, have been, carrying an assortment of bills emulating the Vasconcelos' decades-long goal of using public education to free children from the destructive family unit and substituting the special interest agendas for academic education.

Two examples of the special interests that are lobbying legislators are director Rob Reiner and Craig Ramey. Reiner's program, "I Am Your Child," is a tobacco-tax-funded project of early childhood intervention by professionally trained child caretakers (who will profit considerably from the forced schooling of five-year olds as well as by the creation of tax-funded day care for three and four-year olds.) Ramey is promoting a nationwide program which he founded and originated at the University of Alabama's Civitan Center, called "The Abecedarian Project." Ramey's bio proclaims that he has "won professional and civic awards for his work on the prevention of intellectual disabilities and for exemplary early childhood education programs. He is currently focusing on the successful transition to school and the creation of a new generation of early childhood education, health, and family support programs."

Both Reiner and Ramey addressed the February 22-25, 2003, National Governors Association, in Washington, D.C., promoting their "prenatal and pre-K-12" programs. In addressing the governors' meeting, Ramey stated his belief that the brain is like an erector set, not fully formed at birth, but formed only by experiences. He indicated that through programs like his, governors are "investing 18 to 20 years into the future." Ramey used phrases like "total and continual monitoring" (of students) and "target districts and ethnic groupings" (always the lower income, immigrant neighborhoods). These words were used to describe the goal of reaching every infant and young child and following them through childhood and young adulthood. During their presentations, Ramey and Reiner urged the governors to find whatever means of funding possible to make this early intervention happen. Reiner gave special recognition to Governor Gray Davis (in attendance at the meeting) and to California as leaders in the early childhood development arena.

While people like Reiner and Ramey have learned to promote their agendas in a much smoother, intellectually plausible manner than John Vasconcellos, they are still saying the same thing -- parents are denying their children adequate stimuli and opportunities to "be okay."

Vasconcellos has sat on several committees dealing with education. He is, currently, the chairman of the senate education committee. He is the author of a senate bill (SB 550), introduced February 20, 2003, titled, "Education." This bill mandates that the state superintendent of schools create "developmentally appropriate guidelines for curricula for pre-school and early childhood education, aligning them with state-adopted academic content for kindergarten and grades 1-3." The bill, further, clearly establishes the state, rather than the school district, as the determiner of curriculum content. In the middle and high school grades, the bill would also mandate proficiency in a second language and the establishment of school-to-work programs through regional occupational centers. Much of the bill is couched in language that lends itself to a wide variety of interpretations.

Vasconcellos also now sits on a new legislative committee created by Senator Dede Alpert, (D-San Diego) and called the "Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education." This plan would supercede the original master plan in place for over a decade. The committee contains 18 members, nine from the senate side and nine from the assembly; six are Republicans and 12 are Democrats. But not all the committee members are enthusiastic about the proposed master plan. Two of the Republican members, Senator William "Pete" Knight (Santa Clarita) and Senator Charles Poochigian (Fresno), stated in a letter to committee chairman Alpert that they "are concerned by the extensive array of recommendations in the Master Plan Report."

Knight and Poochigian continued by stating that their major concerns are that "the large portion of the student population -- those who will not go on to or complete post-secondary education -- seems to be once again relegated to inferior status." Further on they state that "we find that this report pays an inordinate amount of attention to noncompulsory or nonexistent programs.The Proposition 10 commission (Tobacco Tax Initiative) sponsorship of these recommendations excluded a significant, but less-vocal population of citizens who believe the family should remain the primary teacher and/or that there are more appropriate settings/development approaches for children in the earliest years." Here the senators referred to the new legislation carried by Darryl Steinberg of San Francisco to mandate education for ages five (kindergarten) through to university as well as to develop tax-funded child care for three and four-year old children.

In addition to Vasconcellos' "Education" bill are a number of bills in the legislature encapsulating the goals and objectives California legislators plan for the intellectual development of the state's children.

Senator Nell Soto's (D-Ontario) bill, "Parent/School Compacts" (SB 16), is an example of a bill that would allow educators to take over the family's primary duty of raising children. In 1999 three bills were passed, authored by Soto and then-assembly members Tom Hayden and Teresa Hughes, which authorized the development of compacts or formal agreements between schools and parents to work toward a defined set of goals, both academic and social, for individual students. Soto's new bill goes one step further by mandating that schools undertake an aggressive campaign to bring all parents into partnership with schools, which will set the goals and objectives for the "whole" student. The bill would have the school setting the standards and the parents agreeing to cooperate with those standards. This includes such incentives as teacher at-home visits to ensure that the family is abiding by the agreement.

Another bill, sponsored by Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), "Child Care, Development and Education" (AB 56), mandates compulsory education for ages five to 18 years with a voluntary enrollment in preschool for children, ages three to four years, all at taxpayers expense. Dede Alpert's bill, "Child Care, Development and Education" (SB 7), is the companion to Steinberg's bill. It establishes a school readiness program to improve a child's readiness for kindergarten.

Another bill, Martha Escutia's (D-Norwalk) "Early Childhood Education and Care" (SB 14), mandates expanding programs for before-and-after-school care. If children, according to Reiner, Ramey, and Senator Soto, are to be continually open to a perpetual state of preparedness to learn, this bill would seem to insure that professionals, not parents, see to the learning.

Sheila Kuehl, (D-Santa Monica) has sponsored SB 71, "Education: HIV/AIDS Prevention Instruction," which establishes the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act. This will require that school districts provide pupils in grades 7 to 12 with HIV/AIDS prevention instruction, services, and lifestyle education.

One bill further extends state school oversight of student health. This bill, SB 473, sponsored by Dean Florez (D-Fresno), requires the superintendent of public instruction to appoint a school health advisory council to make recommendations regarding model health services programs and practices. This council, according to the bill, must collaborate with the state department of education and the state department of health services to develop school health services and school nursing services criteria. The bill has the potential to link the schools with the health department for the first time, establishing the state-controlled school health services as the provider of first choice for health care services to all students.

A more specific, but similar bill is San Mateo Democrat Jackie Speier's "Emergency Contraception Drug Therapy" (SB 545). This bill amends the business and professions code to permit pharmacists to initiate emergency contraception drug therapy counsel without special training and without regard to the age of the one requesting or seeking products and services. It allows this therapy to be administered in a "licensed health care facility" -- including, perhaps, school-based or -linked clinics.

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