Water District Educational Programs Promoting Behavior Modification
Posted on Freedom Advocates on August 15th 2003
SUMMARY: Something seemed fishy in the San Lorenzo Water District when its Board of Directors introduced plans for using ratepayer fees to fund indoctrination programs. In this commentary, Lisa Rudnick presents the opposition to the Board’s actions, and exposes how the program may not only be a questionable use of ratepayer funds, but that it may be illegal.
Santa Cruz County, CA For six months, numerous ratepayers and other local citizens attended San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) meetings, urging the Board of Directors to abandon their plan for using ratepayer money to fund indoctrination programs. Despite massive opposition, the Board approved the scheme with an initial annual budget of $15,000.
Why did they do it?
The majority of support for this program seems to have come from individuals and groups who plan to lobby for the money. It will be no surprise if the District awards grants to buddies, cohorts, relatives, and others associated with the its favorite non-profit organizations.
There is growing concern that some members of the board may be involved with the organizations that will benefit from this program. In addition, some of these beneficiary organizations seem to be local, national, and international anti-private property organizations that have reputations for dishing out misinformation and doomsday scenarios that promote their political objectives.
What’s wrong with the program?
According to California water law, water districts are only authorized to educate the public on the subject of water conservation. California Water Code 378 states:
“A public entity [such as a public water district] may enter into agreements… to provide water conservation services and measures and materials for implementing water conservation programs.”
The Mission Statement of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District Education Grant Program, however, “is to provide funding for educational and other projects that enhance the understanding of the San Lorenzo Watershed Environment or improve the watershed environmental health.”
Under the program, ratepayer money will likely be distributed to any special interest group that furthers the agenda. The Valley Women’s Club, a group that has close ties to the board, has stated that if they become grantees, their “goal would be to actually CHANGE THE BEHAVIOR of people” regarding the environment [emphasis in original].
The SLVWD board of directors was informed by local citizens that they appear to be implementing a plan known as “United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda 21” (Agenda 21), which is set forth in the “Rio Declaration on Environment and Development” (Rio Accords) . The Rio Accords were made the official policy of the federal government when then President George Bush quietly signed them without Congressional review in 1992.
How is this program connected to Agenda 21?
Geopolitical Journalist Joan Peros, who frequently attends UN conferences says:
“Agenda 21/Sustainable Development programs are ultimately designed to control our lives, from the bedroom to the boardroom, and from the cradle to the grave. All federal agencies with the United States are carrying out the policies expressed in the United Nations Agenda 21 document and they eventually trickle down into our local arena for adoption by local officials and government managers.”
Agenda 21, Chapter 36.3 affirms that:
“Education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environment and development issues. Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people’s attitudes. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. To be effective education should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual) development.”
Agenda 21, Chapter 36.9 calls attention to the importance of promoting “broad public awareness as an essential part of a global education effort to strengthen attitudes, values and actions which are compatible with sustainable development.”
In the “Agenda 21 Report for Santa Cruz County Local Agenda 21,” which is being implemented by Santa Cruz City and County governments sustainable activists state that most Santa Cruz County residents are “ill equipped to make the lifestyle changes necessary” to implement their sustainable vision for America. To achieve their “Desired State” of a “Sustainable Community,” local sustainable activists state that they recognize “the importance of the role of education in reaching everyone with a curriculum incorporating environmental… learning.” To accomplish this, Santa Cruz Local Agenda 21 states that sustainable activists have partnered with area teachers and schools to build and administer a comprehensive, integrated sustainable indoctrination and activist development program that is designed to “enlist and empower children and youth in reaching for ‘sustainability.'” The program includes “support structures and incentives… at every level of education and in all curriculum areas,” that will “give all students the opportunity be involved in the implementation of our ‘Local Agenda 21’ Action Plan.” (Read more about “An Agenda 21 Report for Santa Cruz County Local Agenda 21-Santa Cruz: Education)
What are the consequences?
This “education” program on its own may appear to be harmless. But as part of a focused and multifaceted effort, it provides insight into how the agenda is being implemented. A troubling consequence of these programs is that the rule of law is being ignored throughout Santa Cruz County and across California. The politicized environmental indoctrination element of Sustainable Development is restructuring our lives, targeting our children, destroying private property rights, supplanting long-standing California law, and causing irreparable harm to the economy and ecology. The result is increasing social discord, rising resource shortages, financial decay, lost freedom and a dimming future.
The political premice behind Sustainable Development stands in stark contrast to the US Constitution. As elected officials, the SLVWD Board of Directors will hopefully recognize that promoting Sustainable Development indoctrination programs with ratepayer funds may not only be an innapropriate use of their authority, but that it may be an action that violates their responsibility to uphold and defend the Constitution.
The SLVWD Board of Directors meets at 7:30 PM on the first and third Thursdays of each month at their Operations building located at 13057 Hwy 9, Boulder Creek, CA. Comments may be sent to:
(1) City of Santa Cruz City Council Minutes of 10/28/97, Item 25B
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