WP,pg1: Byrd's Annual Civics Lesson (on Const. for students, fed workers)

[DeepModem Mom]

Sen. Byrd's Annual Civics Lesson
Law Requires Programs on Constitution for Students, Federal Workers

By Valerie Strauss and Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Page A01

It's not often that first-graders, CIA agents, agriculture inspectors and airport security workers from coast to coast all receive a lesson on the same topic -- and on the same day -- but that is what's in store this September.

The subject is the U.S. Constitution, thanks to a new law fathered by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), who is worried that so many people don't know the first thing about the country's governing document that he decided to try to make sure they do.

Tucked into a massive appropriations bill approved without fanfare late last year by Congress is the requirement that every one of the estimated 1.8 million federal employees in the executive branch receive "educational and training" materials about the charter on Constitution Day, a holiday celebrating the Sept. 17, 1787, signing that is so obscure that it, unlike Arbor Day, is left off many calendars.

That's not all: The law requires every school that receives federal funds -- including universities -- to show students a program on the Constitution, though it does not specify a particular one. The demand has proved unpopular with educators, who say that they don't like the federal government telling them what to teach and that it doesn't make the best educational sense to teach something as important as the Constitution out of context....

***

Byrd, who prides himself on being the Senate's unofficial constitutional scholar, is expected to appear today at the National Archives when representatives from various federal departments and agencies meet to celebrate the launch of the "Constitution Initiative," according to Mike Beckman, acting deputy associate director for the Center for Leadership Capacity Services in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Officials will, all together, retake the oath of office, he said....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071801585.html

[dweller]

1. i wonder what it would take to make

Robert Byrd 'THE OFFICIAL CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR OF THE SENATE' ?

an amendment? a test? Recall his 'debate' with Frist in which he asks " where in the Constitution does it say 'up or down vote?' ...
as Frist, tail-tucked between legs, sneaks out the back door...

dp