The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education is suggesting that parents are equal partners with the government in the rising and training of children. In its “Draft Policy Statement on Family Engagement From the Early Years to the early Grades,” these government departments say, “It is the position of the departments that all early childhood programs and schools recognize families as equal partners in improving children’s development, learning and wellness across all settings, and over the course of their children’s developmental and educational experiences.”
William A. Estrada, the director of federal relations policy for the Home School Legal Defense Association, says that the proposed draft “unmasks the federal government’s true philosophy behind the decades of federal involvement in welfare, kindergarten through 12th grade education spending and other programs. And policies, programs like Head Start, and now the push to create universal early education for young children from birth through age 5: the federal government believes that its role is equal with the role of parents.”
“Not only does this draft document expose the federal government’s breathtaking arrogance, a footnote at the bottom of page one goes so far as to redefine the family,” he said.
The footnote states: “The term ‘family’ is used to include all the people who play a role in a child’s life and interact with a child’s early childhood program or school. This may include fathers, mothers, grandparents, foster parents, formal and informal guardians, and siblings, among others.”
“According to this footnote,” Estrada says, “a close family friend (an ‘informal guardian’) could be considered part of a child’s family. This could include a parent’s boyfriend or girlfriend, even if the relationship is temporary or uncommitted.”
The document describes how the government would “systematically” engage families in their own children’s development. “When families and institutions where children learn partner in meaningful ways, children have more positive attitudes toward school, stay in school longer, have better attendance, and experience more school success,” the government states.
“At HSLDA, we believe that these statements reveal these agencies’ true beliefs: that a child’s God-given family does not matter,” wrote Estrada. “Family is whomever or whatever the government says it is.”
“Sadly, this document only underscores what we have observed for a while: the federal government is intent on taking more and more power from parents when it comes to their children’s lives,” he added.
“Whether it was the big businesses that worked hand in glove with big-government bureaucrats to push the Common Core on our nation, dangerous U.N. treaties that would elevate U.N. bureaucrats over parents, the Pentagon’s attempt to track all military families by where their children are educated, former MSNBC host and Tulane University Professor Melissa Harris-Perry’s claim that ‘kids belong to whole communities,’ President Obama’s call in 2012 for all states to change their compulsory-attendance statutes to keep kids in school until age 18, or his 2013 push to advance universal federally funded preschool, we see an intensifying movement of the federal government to consolidate control over all children from cradle to college,” Estrada said.
Parental responsibility is under assault. While there are plenty of dysfunctional families today, the aim of this proposed policy is to supervise even functional families, or perhaps functional families especially. In an age in which socialism attacks the religious and biblical responsibilities of families in America, this draft policy is ominous. If a government is permitted to interpose between parents and their God-given responsibilities to raise their children, freedom and liberty are gone.
“Fathers and mothers are responsible for the health, the constitution, the development of the character of their children. No one else should be left to see to this work. In becoming the parents of children, it devolves upon you to co-operate with the Lord in educating them in sound principles.” Seventh-day Adventist Home, page 187
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