Free Republic

On September 10, 2003 in Prague at the International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future, the United Nations declared 2005 through 2015, "The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)." To nobody's surprise, the UN also named UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) as the lead agency for this global effort. The official launch ceremony took place on March 1, 2005 in New York City.1 Few Americans paid attention. They should have.

Armstrong Williams' poor judgment in not revealing being compensated by the Department of Education to promote No Child Left Behind is unfortunate. With his stepping into the line of fire and acknowledging his errors, we'll be able to get this behind us and move on. What impact, if any, will this incident have on the ongoing credibility of black conservatism? Liberals, particularly black liberals, will claim this incident simply confirms what they have known all along. For them, black conservatives by definition are individuals on the make and on the take. In their view, liberalism is coded into black DNA....

The only effective group of citizens today in open opposition to big government are the home schoolers. They are the only Americans willing to take on the public education system that props up the entire statist enterprise of big, intrusive government. Forget about conservative politicians. They are more concerned about conserving their legislative privileges than rolling back increasingly intrusive government. Although President Bush has said nice things about home schoolers, he is doing more to expand federal control over education than any previous Republican president. His call for nationwide standardized testing is in reality a call for a federal curriculum,...