LIBERAL HOUSE AND SENATE REPUBLICANS USURP PARENTAL
AUTHORITY
AND SUBJECT YOUR CHILDREN TO MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING
AND INVASIVE SURVEYS
April 25, 2005
Minnesota House Education Finance Committee Chairwoman Barb Sykora and
Representative Doug Meslow completely undermined the parental authority
and student privacy rights of Minnesota citizens while composing the
omnibus education finance bill this week. The bill includes every element
of the radical Nanny State that we have warned you about these past
weeks. It includes: the radical, non-academic, Department diversity
training standards (curriculum); screening based on these standards,
including mental health screening of 3 year olds and a data tracking ID
number for three year olds; a big government rating system of childcare
centers; and using tax dollars to put unaccountable private groups in
charge of Minnesotas childcare policy. In addition, one of the few
freedom-affirming provisions to require opt-in parental consent for
invasive, non-academic student surveys was stripped out of the
bill.
The lynchpin of the Nanny State system is the controversial Early
Learning Indicators (curriculum) that define for all parents in Minnesota
what their infants and toddlers -- birth through five
should be taught. This de facto curriculum puts the government in
charge of what is normal mental health for babies and toddlers through
social and emotional learning. It indoctrinates kids into the political
agendas of gender identity, diversity training, vocations,
environmentalism, and social activism. This state-defined curriculum for
toddlers and infants will be used for evaluating all Minnesota
kids beginning at three, including their social and emotional (mental)
health. The state will use this curriculum to rate private, religious,
and public child care centers, all early learning programs, and to train
parents in what they should teach their children.
The bill is Article 7 of the House K-12 Omnibus Education Finance and
Policy Bill, HF 872. HF 872 passed out of the Finance
Committee this week, and it goes on to the Ways and Means Committee and
the Tax Committee.
We would expect the liberal-controlled Senate to produce an Early
Childhood bill (SF 1879) that Ready4K and the education
establishment would swoon over. (Wow! This is the first major ray of
hope since Arne Carlson was Governor, Todd Otis from Ready4K gushed in
his testimony last week.) More distressing was their being joined by
Republican Senator Bob Kierlin of Winona to include every element of the
Nanny State: testing, standards, child ID, private and public childcare
rating system, and putting unaccountable private groups in charge
of Minnesotas childcare policy. The Senate, however, thanks to Senators
Betsy Wergin and Sean Nienow, however did include the safeguard of
written, informed parental consent before children can be screened for
mental health. An attempt to remove that safeguard failed in committee
last Friday.
EdWatch
http://www.edwatch.org
952-361-4931