First, let me preface by saying that "federal" funding has been eliminated for goals 2000. Anyway, where to begin? Goals 2000 was a 3 component program originally devised by Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner, among others that completely alters the way our education system works. It started out as a pilot program in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor. At the time he was president of the National Association of Governors. This gave him access to people in Washington that he mnight not otherwise have had. One of those people was Lamar Alexander, then Sec. of Ed. under Bush I.
Lamar Alexander signed onto the whole thing. Then when Clinton came into office he signed it into law. It was optional but states would not get any federal money at all (which they sent to Washington in the first place) unless they signed onto it and implemented it.
Anyway, it had three parts, outcome based education, parents as teachers, and school to work.
The outcome based education component basically dumbs down education. The really dangerous stuff was the "parents as teachers" part (which should read teachers as parents) and the "school to work" part. Parents as teachers was a way to identify "at-risk" kids. There was a list of questions or criteria that identified whether a child was "at-risk". It was either too much of this or too little of that. Unfortunately there was no "the right amount" category. They would either ask students a bunch of questions and then use their answers to fill out the questionaire or show up at the house and nose around and using their observations, fill in the questionaire.
The school to work program was a way to tie current students to future jobs. Only problem is that they determined at an early age what you were going to be when you grew up and educated you accordingly. This would be based on supply - assesments of students in grade school, and demand - database of projected workforce demand from business, etc. It sounded an awful lot like the old Soviet system.
Tied to all this was a "certificate of mastery". You would not be able to get a job without this certificate and it would have your full permanent record tied to it.
Luckily, Goals 2000 was permanently defunded by the Federal Government in 2002, as part of the "No Child Left Behind Act". My only concern is how much of the mechanism that was put in place has been dismantled at the state and local level? And, how much of this new program is just a reincarnation of some of the more troubling parts of Goals 2000?
Here are some articles on it:
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/Issues/G/Goals2000.asp
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/4/goals2000.htm
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/1997/feb97/97-02-19.html