Ron Paul on UNESCO and the International Baccalaureate

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment denies funds to UNESCO, and it is an amendment that is identical to what I brought up last year and got a recorded vote on and had a debate on last year.

Last year, I brought it up because we were just getting back into UNESCO. President Ronald Reagan, in 1984, had the wisdom of getting us out of UNESCO because of its corrupt nature,
not only because it had a weird, false ideology, contrary to what most Americans believed, but it was also corrupt. He had the wisdom to get us out of it, yet last year we were put back in UNESCO, and I was hoping that we would not fund it.

Last year, the Congress approved $60 million for this purpose, which was 25 percent of UNESCO’s budget. Does that mean we have 25 percent of the vote in UNESCO? Do the American people get
represented by 25 percent? How much do we get out of it? What is the American taxpayer going to get?

The American taxpayer gets a bill, that is all.

They do not get any benefits from it.

And there is one part of UNESCO that is particularly irritating to me, and it is called the Cultural Diversity Convention. This is an organization that actually is very destructive and will play havoc with our educational system. It also attempts to control our education through the International Baccalaureate Program, and that, too, introduces programs and offers them to our schools. It is not forced, but there are already quite a few schools that
have accepted these programs.

Now, let me just give my colleagues an idea of the type of philosophy they are promoting, but what we as the Congress promote with what the American taxpayers are paying for.

Here it is:

‘‘The international education offers people a state of mind, international mindedness. We are living on a planet that is becoming exhausted. And now listen to this, this is what the U.N.
UNESCO people are saying about education in the various countries, including ours. Most national educational systems at the moment encourage students to seek the truth, memorize it and reproduce it accurately.’’ Now, one would think that is not too bad of an
idea. ‘‘The real world is not this simple,’’ so says UNESCO.

‘‘International education has to reconcile this diversity with the unity of the human condition.’’

I mean, if those are not threatening terms about what they want to do, and yet here we are funding this program and the American taxpayers are forced to pay for it. Now, there are a few of us left in the Congress, I see a couple on the floor tonight, that might even object to the Federal Government telling our States what to do with education, and of course there is no constitutional authority for that.

We have the Leave No Child Behind, but it looks like everyone is going to be left behind before
we know it.

But here it is not the Federal Government taking over our Federal education
system; this is the UNESCO, United Nations, taking over our educational system. It does have an influence.

Sure, it is minimal now, but it will grow if we allow this to continue. So I ask my colleagues to please vote for my amendment, and I sure hope they allow a vote on this amendment. It was permitted last year, so it surely would be permitted this year.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance
of my time.

Ron Paul on the International Baccalaureate