IB Program or International Bull

Well the Danville Public Schools are at it again. Not satisfied with consuming millions of dollars on “magnet schools” they are again grazing at the federal trough. (When asked they are quick to note that federal grants are not “city money” but “federal money.” Hmmm and federal money comes from where? Yes, you guessed it -tax money!) This time its fishing for more “IB” money. This is the International Baccalaureate program originally developed for Galileo, Schoolfield, and Westwood. The official website describes IB: “The International Baccalaureate Program is governed by the International Baccalaureate Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and administered by the International Baccalaureate Curriculum and Assessment Center in Cardiff, Wales. The organization originated over thirty years ago in Europe as an effort by international schools to assure quality educational standards for students, regardless of where they lived. Today, the organization uses the talents of educators around the world to continuously update curriculum, train teachers, assess student work, and evaluate the program.” UNESCO, the United Nations’ primary agency dealing with universal education, helped set up and fund the International Baccalaureate Organization (“IBO”) in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968. Danville, drooling over those grant dollars, now wants to expand it to Forest Hills School. Why Forest Hills? Because it’s the best little private school at public expense they have! When the “open enrollment” concept was eliminated almost three years ago students were steered back to their home schools. All except Forest Hills. Why again? Forest Hills has traditionally been the school where the elite of Danville put their children. The school at one time was nearly 60% opt in students. Statistically Forest Hills should have been closed years ago. A dwindling elementary population in the Forest Hills area and an aging land locked facility should have had any school board member with kahunas calling for its closure but that would have been comparable to streaking naked through the Wednesday Club. In other words, it wasn’t going to happen. Averett has been foaming at the mouth for the land but we will all be dead and embalmed before that school ever closes even though it has one of the highest costs per student in the district. Enough on economics. The fact is it’s the home of the upper crust and thus an “international” program would give the parents something else to brag about at the Danville Country Club. So the evil generals assembled at the concrete palace and plotted the assault on the American taxpayer. But hold on, has the IB program been a success? No mind! Tax money is just over the horizon! Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead! Let no one stand in the way. The education pigs are elbowing for room at the trough. (Lets ignore the fact that the budget for technology in the schools has continually declined over the past three years). The Gregorian monks who are housed in the basement straining in candlelight writing grants with quill pens must have work. Well in fact the IB program has been an udder failure though again no gueen from the concrete palace would ever admit to that. The real facts are that it never caught on and only a handful of students have ever worked their way through the program. On top of that the program is coming under increasing criticism for its anti-American slant. Anti-American? How could that be? Critics have argued that IB's multicultural themes promote values that conflict with traditional Judeo-Christian values. Some opponents have called it Marxist because the International Baccalaureate Organization is a signatory to the Earth Charter, a collection of global principles created in France in 2000. Under the mantles of “sustainable development” and “social justice,” the Earth Charter’s authors want it to become part of binding international law to control population growth, force a slowdown of economic activity in the industrialized nations, and divert a massive amount of wealth from successful economies to failed ones by UN fiat. This is old-fashioned global socialism by a different name. The idea, according to IBO’s mission statement, is to build “intercultural understanding and respect” among “compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.” That would be fine enough if countries like Iran were dedicated to the same principle of intercultural understanding. But in the eyes of UNESCO and the International Baccalaureate Organization, we are the ones who must do more of the multicultural outreach than our mortal enemies determined to destroy us. IB's curriculum, instruction and assessment can be expensive, though, running into the tens of thousands of dollars. That cost, and the idea of giving up local control of school curriculum, upsets some school board members across the nation. IB programs can cost up to six times the cost of Advanced Placement programs. IB is coming under increased scrutiny across the country, largely because it is being expanded through additional federal grant money. A recurring criticism concerns IB's promotion of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Critics point out that students are not taught nor is the public informed that Article 29 of that UN document puts the United Nations in authority over individual rights -- unlike America's founding documents, which describe individual rights as "inalienable." Article 29 states: "These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." Many may argue that we must become more aware of our world community. That’s true, the US cannot become an isolationist society. But they also don’t need to become a socialist haven either. Students have the right to understand that our form of government, while it may have its problems, is not all bad. Why are so many people trying to sneak in if its such an evil place? While the pros and cons of the program can be argued the fact remains for Danville that it isn’t working. We do not need to throw more money at it to make it work either. Someone needs to shake up the concrete palace or the next tax fueled school trip will be to Geneva. Oink.