Advanced International Certificate of Education

What does the Florida Dept of Ed, Communist China's INET, George Soros, and Islamic Organizations have in common?

AICE or Advanced international Certificate of Education being pushed on Florida Public School Children.



Advanced International Certificate of Education

Sarasota School Program linked to George Soros, Communist China and Yasser Arafat?By rich swier | 11/22/10 | 6:35 PM EST | 2 Comments

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I was part of an e-mail thread with the Sarasota County School Board staff about a new educational program being offered at Sarasota High School. The new program is titled the Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE). AICE offers an international diploma that students can earn via an advanced academic curriculum and assessment program written and administered by a non-profit department (CIE) of the University of Cambridge in England. This program is touted on the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) website. According to the FDOE:

The Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Program is an international curriculum and examination program modeled on the British pre-college curriculum and "A-Level" exams. Florida's public community colleges and universities provide college credit for successfully passed exams. Students in Florida's public secondary schools enrolled in AICE courses do not have to pay to take the exams.

This all sounds so wonderful, that is until you go to the AICE website at the University of Cambridge and find out who are this programs partners.

There are six partners listed. I only looked into three of them - British Council, iNet and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization. From a cursory following of the links and some quick Google searches I found some disturbing information. I only wish the FDOE and our School Board would have done the same.

First let's look at British Council. When you search for the name Soros on the British Council website you get dozens of connections to guess who - George Soros and his Open Society Foundations. Just one of these programs provides scholarships available at British Council offices in places like Amman, Jordan, Tbilisi, Georgia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Damascus, Syria.

Now let's research iNet. Well iNet, according to their brochure primarily works with Communist China. iNet "focuses on school transformation around the world." iNet has three offices located in London, Beijing and Melbourne, Australia.

Finally, we have Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization. According to the Middle East Forum, Talal Abu Ghazaleh International was the audit firm for the Palestine International Bank (PIB). In an article by Issam Abu Issa in the Middle East Quarterly titled, "Arafat's Swiss Bank Account":

"Rather than use donor funds for their intended purposes, Arafat regularly diverted money [from PIB] to his own accounts. It is amazing that some U.S. officials still see the Palestinian Authority as a partner even after U.S. congressional records revealed authenticated PLO papers signed by Arafat in which he instructed his staff to divert donors' money to projects benefiting himself, his family, and his associates. . .The PLC investigated the seizure of the bank after I lodged a complaint in 2000 about the PIB's unlawful takeover. The PMA governor then threatened the [PIB] bank's auditing firm, Talal Abu Ghazaleh International (TAGI), for revealing facts and figures that implicated the Palestinian leadership." [My emphasis]

So there you have it. Fifteen minutes of work to connect this new program touted by the Florida Department of Education and Sarasota County School Board to George Soro's Open Society Foundations, Communist China and last but not least Yasser Arafat.

Maybe the School Board needs a lesson in how to Google the organizations they associate our kids with? What do you think?