But the idea that the Reagan administration withdrew from UNESCO was good enough for me to automatically assume that UNESCO must have been doing something right back then. And, conversely, that the US wants back in, is good enough for me now to assume UNESCO is about to do something very wrong and possibly nasty---probably some US backed neoliberal privatizing, rightwing, christian scam: handing out little Jesus readers in Muslim countries, pork-fried snacks from McD's for lunch (all paid for by IMF loans at usury rates), or some other heinous atrocity.
(I am sure everybody knows this, but just in case...) Reagan's entire line on social welfare, health and education institutions in the US, was that they were riddled with `waste, fraud, and abuse', that `Welfare Queens' waited for their checks with the parking lot full of Cadillacs, etc, etc... He used this corruption line to justify beginning the dismandling of the filmsy social welfare state we had.
Reagan spent his entire eight years as governor attempting to dismantle California's public school system, and essentially killed its growth, support, and maintenance enough to send it from the top public education system in the US to the bottom. I think only Mississippi and a few other butt hole states are below us now.
That the UK withdrew the same year is just a reflection of the same ice hole policies of the Thatcher regime---iron hand in the velvet glove---nasty old bitch. The Ron and Maggie show were a real Ozzie and Harriet routine from Hell.
So I would completely discount anything produced by the US or the UK on UNESCO. Any such report is probably virulently racist, anti-progressive, and just a snow job to get out of funding it.
Reagan hated the idea of money going to support children's education, health, welfare and cultural development. I would look around for other governments and international agency reports and assessments.
And in case this isn't known, the reason UNESCO was hosted in Paris by the French government was to facilitate its cultural directives---something the old anti-commie rat'm-out Hollywood Ron understood all too well, i.e. no contracts for Disney Inc....
Chuck Grimes
(Do I sound bitter? My kid and a group in his Berkeley middle school won honorable mention in the local papers for getting the most collections for the East Bay UNESCO drive the very year Reagan cut off US funding. The school funding drive was part of a whole social studies program about kids in other countries around the world, with lots of teaching materials from UNESCO. A lot of immigrant kids (Central America and SEA) had arrive in the school system in those years. They looked very cute in their newspaper photo, essentially a UN poster for multi-culturalism, all colors and races. I was proud of him and the group for the way they pretended to be little world citizens---then Reagan shit on it. Thanks asshole. I hope somebody puts dulcolax in your fucking feeding tube tonight and you shit all over yourself in the morning.)