By Alice Linahan 01/27/2025
W
hat is TQM?Total Quality Management (TQM) is a business model designed for accountability and quality control in private industries. While effective in manufacturing, applying TQM principles to education transforms students from individuals into products raising significant concerns about data collection, control, and outcomes.
The Shift in Education
In November 1989, President George H.W. Bush and governors from all 50 states convened in Wichita, Kansas, to establish national educational goals. At this pivotal meeting, Dr. Shirley McCune, senior director of the Mid-Continent Educational Research Lab, boldly stated that these goals were not about minor classroom adjustments but a fundamental restructuring of society with schools being the wedge.
From that point forward, education shifted from a model of opportunity, focused on academic achievement, to a workforce development model emphasizing data-driven systems, behavior management, and economic alignment.
Timeline of TQM in Education
Key Events Shaping Education
1991: The U.S. Department of Labor SCANS Report introduced performance standards for workforce-driven education.
1994: Federal funding facilitated systemic changes, aligning education with national curriculum and testing models under the General Education Provisions Act (Sec 438).
2001: No Child Left Behind (NCLB) tied federal funding to high stakes testing, increasing government oversight of education.2015: Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) shifted focus from academics to workforce behaviors and competency-based outcomes.
Key Concerns for Parents and Educators
The Philosophy Shift
The transformation moves education from: Opportunity: Equal academic opportunities for all students.
Equity: Enforced equal outcomes based on attitudes, values, and behaviors.
This paradigm shift promotes competency-based standards, prioritizing behavioral outcomes over academic knowledge, redefining assessments to measure workforce readiness.
The Role of Data and Privacy Risks
Data Collection: Student data, including mental health and behavioral metrics, is shared with third-party vendors without parental consent.
FERPA Revisions: Changes in 2012 weakened protections, exposing children’s private data to corporate and government entities.
Workforce-Centric Education
Education is now a pipeline for workforce pathways, limiting students’ career flexibility and creativity. This model replaces traditional public schools with charter-like structures driven by public-private partnerships (P3s), prioritizing corporate profit and state control over genuine learning.
Implications of Medicalization in Education
Academics Replaced by Interventions
Behavioral conditioning now dominates classrooms.
Teachers are required to log and monitor students’ personal data unrelated to academics, enabling surveillance capitalism.
Medicaid and Universal Screening
Federal programs incentivize schools to diagnose students with social, emotional, and behavioral problems, creating a system that merges education with healthcare under bureaucratic control.
EdTech: The Global Education Agenda
Both Republicans and Democrats have quietly aligned to implement a global, technology-driven education system. Programs like Betsy DeVos’s school choice initiatives, Obama/s Connect All Schools, and Jeb Bush’s ‘Learner in a Networked World’ aim to centralize control through education technology (EdTech), using America’s children as guinea pigs for experimental reforms.
Partisan Politics: A Divide and Conquer Strategy
While political narratives portray education reform as a partisan issue, the reality is bipartisan collaboration in advancing workforce-centric, technology-driven agendas. This distracts the public from the true goal: centralized control over education.
Government Regulated Universal School Choice
The next step is access to all students in America.
While school choice is often seen as a means of empowering parents, government-regulated universal school choice programs such as those using Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) carry significant risks that threaten parental autonomy, private education, and student privacy.
1. False Freedom of Choice
Under universal school choice programs, families are told they can choose any school or vendor for their child. However, these choices are restricted to government-approved vendors. Parents cannot directly control the ESA funds or select vendors outside the preapproved list. This shifts decision-making power from parents to unelected bureaucrats, turning choice into an illusion.
2. Erosion of Private and Homeschool Independence
Private and homeschool education, which traditionally offer independence from government mandates, are at risk of losing their autonomy. To accept ESA/Voucher funds, private schools and homeschools are required to comply with state-imposed rules, including:
Mandatory Testing: Schools must administer nationally norm-referenced assessments and report results, aligning them with public school accountability systems.
Data Collection: Private and homeschool students must submit demographic and performance data to the government, subjecting them to the same intrusive oversight as public school students.
These regulations fundamentally alter the character of private and homeschool education, forcing them into a one-size-fits-all model dictated by state standards.
3. No Guarantee of Equal Access
While universal school choice programs aim to provide equitable access, the reality is far different:
- Private School Admission Policies: Private schools retain the right to reject students for any reason, including academic performance, disabilities, or behavioral issues. This leaves vulnerable students particularly those with special needs without viable options.
- Inadequate Disability Support: Although ESA programs may offer additional funds for students with disabilities, private schools are not required to provide services to meet those needs, creating a false promise of inclusion.
4. Centralized Government Control
Universal school choice programs empower the government to control nearly every aspect of education, including:
Vendor approvals.
Curriculum oversight.
Assessment requirements.
Student data collection and analysis.
5. Long-Term Risks to Educational Freedom
Government-regulated school choice is a Trojan horse. What begins as financial assistance to families ultimately entices private schools and homeschools into a system of government oversight. Once dependent on public funds, these institutions become vulnerable to further regulation, transforming them into extensions of the public school system.
Call to Action
American Tax Payers must reclaim education by:
- Demanding Local Control: Empower parents, teachers, and school boards to make decisions free from state and corporate interference.
- Protecting Student Privacy: Advocate for transparency in data collection and sharing practices.
- Rejecting Workforce-Driven Models: Support education rooted in academics, critical thinking, and freedom of opportunity.
Conclusion
The application of TQM in education has transformed Texas schools from places of academic opportunity into instruments of workforce development. Americans must unite to restore an education system that values individuality, intellectual growth, and local decision-making. Only then can we ensure a future where our children are free to pursue their dreams, unburdened by the constraints of a government-controlled agenda.
Alice Linahan is an Education Policy Advisor and author dedicated to empowering parents and taxpayers to take back control of their schools.