IB debate should happen before, not after adoption by our schools
BY DOMENICK J. MAGLIO, Traditional Realist
The International Baccalaureate Program has been rejected after being implemented in 74 schools.
Recent schools that have dropped the IB Program are: Coronado High School, Calif., Loara High School, Anaheim, Calif., Wilmer Amina Carter High School, Rialto, Calif., Woodland School, Cartersville, Ga., Zionsville Community High School, Zionsville, Ind., Apollo High School, Owensboro, Ky., Hillwood High School, Nashville, Tenn., Virginia High School, Bristol, Va., and William Fleming High School, Roanoke, Va.
The Oct. 27 edition of “Education Week” reported in Idaho that “opponents have taken to the streets to publicize their concern that the IB Program is spreading an anti-American ideology in local schools … Similar controversies erupted in Utah in 2009 and Michigan in 2005, the AP notes.” UN Agenda in Public Schools, Donny Harwood watch?v= NG10x_RLBXI
There is blowback not only nationally but also internationally. Premier Gordon Brown abandoned the IB Program in the UK as being too expensive. The actual cost in the United States is difficult to ascertain.
“Cost of the IB Programme is perhaps the most difficult information to acquire. We have done exhaustive research on the subject and without exception every school district that has purchased the programme has hidden information or otherwise blocked our efforts to obtain any definitive understanding of what this program costs.” — Jane Aiken, ‘Merrimack Valley Taxpayers About to be Scammed,'” Bedford Journal.
In the Merrimack Valley School District in New Hampshire, cost for the program was estimated to be $135,000 by the IB presenter at a school board meeting and $3.1 million to $3.7 million over five years by the knowledgeable expert on the IB Program, Lisa McLoughlin. A state representative of New Hampshire, Seth Cohn, had to intervene to emphasize that a board member contradicted herself in stating where the IB training took place and its cost. The actual breakdown of the IB proposal for the length of the program should be provided to the public to make an educated decision. usschooldisputes/merrimackvalleynh.html
The IB Program has flown under the national media’s radar scene but is bursting forth in many local school districts throughout the U.S. The issues are similar from district to district. The local citizens were not informed and did not participate in the debate to adopt this expensive and controversial program. The more the communities learned about the IB Program, the greater the objections they had. The implementation of the IB Program without wide local acceptance is done by design. International Baccalaureate in Bedford, Anti-American ? watch?v=OTI0osj4W9w
In 1996 the IBO joined with UNESCO, part of the United Nations. They formed an international educational model that is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. A major goal of IB is to develop global citizens who will support the legitimacy of legislation for the international common good, not for their nations.
Thomas Sowell, a renowned Stanford University economist, wrote in the Jewish Review, “It (IB) also has a left wing hidden agenda as so many fad programs do. One of the program’s supporters gushed that it teaches students how to think globally and how to make us part of the world. One of the parents critical of the program put it quite differently. She said it ‘promotes socialism, disarmament, radical environmentalism, and moral relativism, while attempting to undermine Christian religious values and national sovereignty.'”
The IB Program has been artfully marketed to local school districts. Terrice Bessier, educational development specialist of the Open Society Institute, documents some of the progressive heavyweights such as George Soros, then-Sen. Barack Obama and Arne Duncan to be proponents of this program.
The Obama administration through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has provided millions of federal dollars as seed money to defray the start-up costs of the program. Local leaders are often seduced into backing this program to receive the federal funding. The local citizens get stuck with the recurring costs to complete the program.
There is minimal transparency in the stealth process to receive approval of the school board, according to people around the country as voiced on their websites and on YouTube. Concerned citizens receive minimal notification and the meetings are made as inconvenient as possible to discourage participation. They are packed with proponents of the IB Program and any vocal opponents are isolated, ridiculed or personally attacked. These techniques have been effective in limiting opposition to the program.
There are many good reasons to silence public discussion. The assessment of the IB student’s work is not done by the local district but by international examiners, which numbers range from 5,000 to 10,500. What are their qualifications? Local community parents have said the IB Program has an anti-Christian bias. Does this program have a “pro-bias” to any religion? Does the school district relinquish control of the curriculum content? Does all the money paid for the program go to Geneva, Switzerland? What is the exact cost of the program to the taxpayers?
The IB Program controversy is far from over. It continues. These questions should have been asked before, not after school districts decide to adopt the IB Program.
Our school board, along with citizens, should do their due diligence to protect our children’s minds and the future of our nation from being hijacked from within.
Dr. Domenick J. Maglio is the author of “Invasion Within” and “Essential Parenting.” He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School. Visit: www.drmaglio.com.
