(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today issued an investigative report entitled Goals 2000:  Dumbing Down America’s Children.  The report condemns the Goals 2000 initiative – a program spearheaded by President Clinton and the Department of Education – as a flagrant misuse of taxpayer dollars.

“Of the approximately $1 billion Goals 2000 budget, nearly 90 percent is funneled back to local school districts under the guise of raising standards,” said CAGW President Thomas A. Schatz.  “Our report sheds new light on where that money is going and how it is being spent.  It exposes a firmly entrenched bureaucracy of different educational grassroots organizations that are benefiting from Goals 2000 grants.  All too often, these organizations surrender the proper education of our children to their own selfish political agenda.”

The report finds that 90 percent of all Goals 2000 money is spent on “preservice programs and professional development activities” that train policy advocates to do exactly the same thing.  A mere 10 percent of the money is spent on charter schools or other fresh ideas which the educational establishment desperately needs.

“Anyone who has studied America’s educational decay knows that the systematic lowering of standards is a primary cause,” Schatz noted.  “Goals 2000 is supposed to deal with this problem, but instead we get a Pennsylvania initiative that forces students to relate to the history and nature of various forms of prejudice, and a Washington state program that does not mention tests once, but measures performance through a system designed to be sensitive to ‘learning styles, racial and ethnic background and gender.’

“This report exposes the educational establishment for what it is – a money-hungry bureaucracy interested solely in self-preservation and promotion of a misguided political agenda.  Americans need to be informed that throwing money at a flawed system will only make the situation worse.”

CAGW is a 600,000-member nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.