Posted on 08/23/2014 7:22:52 AM PDT by lifeofgrace
Parents sending their three- and four-year olds to preschool are facing increasing pressure to use government schools, as secular, elitist educators use government funding as a back door to remove parental choice from pre-school options.
Alabama’s First Class program is growing quickly, using federal funds from the popular Head Start program to extend restrictive government regulations to preschools who agree to accept public money. Hiding under the blanket of “ensuring quality”, these regulations cover every aspect of pre-school education.
First Class funding casts a net over preschool programs, supporting those that agree to restrictive government regulations. An extensive list of programs and classroom regulations dictate everything from the length of the school day (6.5 hours) to the number of students per classroom (16, with mid-year growth to 18 allowed). Even the physical environment of state-funded preschools— displays, furniture, materials—must meet specific requirements, and the daily classroom schedule must be approved by the Alabama Office of School Readiness.Every year, educators make progress in getting legislators to increase funding, frequently using lottery money, and target those funds away from religious organizations. In Alabama, the buckle of the Bible belt:
Approximately 300 preschools are enlisted in the program; only approximately seven of those are faith-based, said J. Robin Mears, executive director of Alabama Christian Education Association. Basically, religious preschools must give up their basic mission to comply with state regulations, he said.We live in Georgia, and have three- and four-year old boys, whom we send to a church-based pre-school, and we pay tuition for that, $228 per month for both kids, plus incidentals and supplies. Many parents can’t afford that, and opt for Georgia’s Bright Start program, offered by the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL).
Georgia’s Pre-K Program is a voluntary, universal program established in 1993 to provide the state’s four-year-old children with high quality preschool experiences. Currently, nearly 58% of Georgia’s four year olds are served in this nationally recognized program. During the 2012-2013 school year, approximately 84,000 children will be served in every county in the state.I searched the Bright Start provider list for my zip code, and not one faith-based pre-school is on the list. A parent’s choice is pay up, or submit your kids to the government’s rules, taught by the same teachers and staff as at public schools. The same public schools where a child is told not to pray over her lunch. That school is in Oviedo, Florida, a small town about an hour west of Cocoa Beach. I’ve been to Oviedo, and it’s not a bastion of atheist activism.
I don’t oppose using lottery money to fund public pre-school and other programs for kids. That’s a worthy cause, it helps avoid problems like working mothers arrested for leaving her child to play at a play at a park while she worked at McDonalds. When that state money is funneled by elite educators only to schools of which they approve, it limits parental choice.
Parental choice is the cornerstone of American education. American children belong to their parents, not to the government. Programs that limit choice lead to censorship and erosion of First Amendment rights, and this is especially true of pre-school programs, where small children’s minds are open to indoctrination.
It’s a fine line that separates parents passing on their values and beliefs to their young children and government indoctrination. Liberal elites see no difference—they feel that they have the right to pass on their beliefs to our children. As a parent, this is intolerable. State legislatures need to provide equal access to all pre-schools with public funds, and not allow liberal elites in the educational system to push faith-based pre-schools out of the market.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
With the exception of the federal entities inidcated in the Constitution's Clause 17 of Section 8 of Article I as an example, entities under the exclusive legislative control of Congress, the states have never delegated to Congress, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for intrastate school purposes. This is evidenced by the excerpts below.
“The great mass of the articles on which impost is paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers [emphases added].” —Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
On the other hand, constitutionally ignorant citizens arguably DESERVE unwanted, unconstitutionally big federal government interference in their lives.
Why are BABIES ( because that’s what 3 and 4 year olds are) being sent to ‘preschool’ at all? Why aren’t these precious little ones being taken care of by parents or grandparents???
People will pay others to take care of their own but then tell me it is too hard to live on one income.....Learn to budget.
In the end, it boils down to parental sloth and stupidity. Why would a parent give up his 3-year-old to an unknown government hack purely for the purpose of babysitting? From 3 to 6 are precious years, a time for the parents to establish themselves as the children’s first and most important teachers. The potential influence in this period is massive, and it’s irresponsible to give it away to some shiftless bonehead just following orders from those who’s intent is evil.
Ultimately, it will be parents who choose to abandon their children; the children, and the future, will suffer for it.
“I’ve been to Oviedo, and it’s not a bastion of atheist activism.”
They do have at least one person working there who needs to be fired—by the parents, because the leftards are certainly not going to do it.
“In the end, it boils down to parental sloth and stupidity.”
Um, you are aware that some people are poor, aren’t you?
Some people do not earn enough either to pay for a better school or to home school.
And sometimes—just sometimes—it’s not because they are bad people.
“Why are BABIES ( because that’s what 3 and 4 year olds are) being sent to ‘preschool’ at all? Why aren’t these precious little ones being taken care of by parents or grandparents?”
Some people have to work.
“People will pay others to take care of their own but then tell me it is too hard to live on one income.....Learn to budget.”
Okay, you budget $7.25 an hour for 25 hours a week, and see how well you do. And if you think that’s easy, maybe you should put some time into teaching these people how to do it. Or, perhaps, you could undo all the mistakes they’ve made and get them into Harvard.
There are over 100,000,000 people on welfare. That’s pushing a third of the population, much worse than the First Great Depression. Over 90 million are out of work. And those that are working average 23% less pay than they did before the 2008 recession.
The situation is different than it was when FR was established. There were jobs then.
Vladimir Illych Lenin said that the way to destroy the middle class is to grind them between the twin millstones of taxation and inflation. Sound familiar?
Leftards have long known that the US would not fall to fascist slavery until the middle class was destroyed. We are at just that point in history. The middle class is circling the drain, and those who were in previous epochs known as “poor but honest” are drowning in Chairman Maobama’s depression—created through the same policies FDR used to accomplish the same thing.
WWII saved FDR from going down as our worst president, and it saved the middle class from going down entirely.
Fun Depression Facts: FDR’s first great depression was created using the same leftist policies that the Kenyan Cretin used to create this one. Take one garden variety recession, apply the policies of the limey poofter John Maynard Keynes, may he burn in Hell, rinse and repeat.
The thing that scares me is that the shitbird currently profaning the Oval Office may be thinking that a war is the only thing that can save him, just as it did FDR.
“It’s hard for a stay-at-home mom to have two pre-schoolers 24/7.”
Women got along without preschools for maybe as long as 200,000 years, depending on who you ask.
Perhaps there are special circumstances in your case.
I am and my importantly I made sure my child was only taken care of by close family. I did not say that a stay at home mom shouldn’t get time off. I don’t know where you even came up with that. Pre school is NOT the place for anyone’s children
The only people ‘who have to work’ are those who have no spouse. They still have family members. It is the selfishness of the got to have more generation that suggests having someone else raise your children is a good idea.
Even when I was growing up those who ‘had to work’ had family taking care of their children. The idea that someone you pay is going to take the time and love and care with your children is beyond words
“The only people ‘who have to work’ are those who have no spouse.”
It’s 2014. You may still be that well off, but tens of millions are not.
“It is the selfishness of the got to have more generation that suggests having someone else raise your children is a good idea.”
Sounds like you don’t get out much. Of course it’s not a good idea, but the “more” that tens of millions are looking for is rent, groceries, and utilities.
“Even when I was growing up those who ‘had to work’ had family taking care of their children.”
Don’t know how old you are, but things have certainly changed in the last 40 years.
“The idea that someone you pay is going to take the time and love and care with your children is beyond words”
Of course it’s best to take care of your own children. What I am arguing with is the notion that everyone could if they only wanted to.
I have no idea of why you are blathering on. People chose to live in a certain manner. Yes ‘times have changed’ and I might simply add not for the better.
One does not NEED fancy cars, big houses, private school, private lessons, lots of paid for activities. My parents survived the Dust Bowl and the Depression (the real one not the one that is going on now). Interestingly enough if dad was out of work and mom had to go and work to just bring home a little money for food then that’s what happened.
I have lived in a single room rented at a modest price. I lived in a nice house. The truth is neither of the locations made the difference. There are plenty of people who don’t earn the big bucks and maybe dad has to work three part time jobs for mom to stay home but those children are better off than the ones in the really expensive and nice ‘day care’ and ‘pre-school’.
The idea that you CAN”T make it one income is false narrative designed to break up the nuclear family.
All the excuses you keep throwing out are just that ....It is not easy to do the right thing.
“I have no idea of why you are blathering on.”
Well, I *was* trying to discuss the issue in a calm, courteous manner.
“People chose to live in a certain manner.”
That may be the single most ignorant thing I have seen anyone post on FR. Ever.
“One does not NEED fancy cars, big houses, private school, private lessons, lots of paid for activities.”
Wow! Are you ever out of touch with what’s going on in America.
I know people who don’t have gas to take their kids to school—three miles. And no, they didn’t waste a nickel.
Stuff happens. One day it might happen to you. I hope, on that day, the memory of this one isn’t too embarrassing.
“My parents survived the Dust Bowl and the Depression”
And mine. So?
“(the real one not the one that is going on now).”
Howls, Bruce. Howls of derisive laughter. This depression is already much worse than FDR’s by every measure except public awareness.
“There are plenty of people who don’t earn the big bucks”
There are over 90 million people today who don’t earn any bucks, and it’s not because they don’t want to work. Evil men have imported cheap labor to drive these Americans out of work.
“and maybe dad has to work three part time jobs”
Dad can’t work three part time jobs because dad can’t find one part-time job. Every one he applies for goes to an illegal alien or the boss’s accomplice in sodomy.
“The idea that you CAN”T make it one income is false narrative designed to break up the nuclear family.”
Wrongheaded and wronghearted. Not only are tens of millions of Americans unable to find full employment, most of that group are unable even to find part-time work. Illegal aliens have those jobs, not Americans.
“All the excuses you keep throwing out are just that ....It is not easy to do the right thing.”
Wake up. Reagan isn’t president any more. We’re in a deeper depression than FDR ever achieved, and MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED MILLION AMERICANS ARE OUT OF WORK.
The truth is that I walked more than three miles to school each and every day. I am well aware of what is going on in America. I also know that the Great Depression was far worse than today. I also know that people chose all sorts of justifications for doing the wrong thing
This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)
The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.
“I am well aware of what is going on in America. I also know that the Great Depression was far worse than today. I also know that people chose all sorts of justifications for doing the wrong thing”
You think you know, but you don’t. The First Great Depression was not as bad as today. Failing to find a job when there are no jobs is not “doing the wrong thing.”
Don’t break your leg if you finally decide to get down off that high horse.
“The truth is that I walked more than three miles to school each and every day.”
In a much safer era.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.