The following comes from an Aug. 12 posting by Lori Arnold of the California Family Alliance.
August 15 marks the final chance for most bills to make it out of committee for the year. With Friday’s deadline looming, this week’s action in the Appropriations Committee is likely to mirror the Wii “Shooting Range” game where players take aim at their targets at a frenzied pace before time runs out. The Appropriations Committee, which considers the financial implications for most legislation, is generally the last stop before bills hit the full floor for their final vote.
The deadline is first of several in the coming weeks as the two-year legislative cycle draws to a close. After Friday, only conference committees and Rules committees can meet. The final deadline is Aug. 31, when all bills must clear the opposite chamber in order to advance to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
On the Senate Appropriations Committee side, lawmakers will consider a bill at the top of our current watchlist: Assembly Bill (AB) 1444 (Buchanan D-San Ramon), which makes kindergarten enrollment compulsory. Under the new law a child cannot enter first grade unless they complete kindergarten.
The bill is an affront to basic family rights. CFA knows that parents—not the government—are best suited to decide if their child is physically, emotionally and academically ready for kindergarten. In addition, the new bill is punitive by forcing parents who are not satisfied with state-run schools to pay for an extra year of private school tuition and accommodate a bureaucratic one-size-fits-all approach to education. The committee will hear the proposal on Thursday.
Two other bad education bills with hearings on Thursday include Senate Bill (SB) 192 and SB 1123, both focused on early childhood education and both authored by Carol Liu (Liu D-Glendale). They will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The first bill, SB 192, encroaches on families by requiring a variety of activities, including child and family assessments that could result in referrals to human services organizations. It also funds professional development and career advancement opportunities, a boon to teachers at the expense of taxpayers. Like Buchanan’s bill, SB 1123 would expand “transitional” kindergarten while offering a host of “wraparound” services such as home visitations for low-income infants, toddlers and their parents.
While all three bills sound noble, each has the potential to further undermine the rights of parents.
To review other bills we are monitoring, click here.
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Parents know when their children are “ready” for school–not the government–and I don’t even believe that children should be put in “institutions” period! And Kindergarten should not be more than half a day long, if that. These little ones are being institutionalized at younger and younger ages. They should be home with their mothers or close family members for the majority of their early childhood development. Home schooled whenever possible.
Right on, Sandra D.
I agree ladies. God bless you both!
The earlier the state propaganda schools get their hands on the child the faster and better it can control the child’s thinking and social contacts. A child spends more of his/her waking hours in school than at home. This is mind control.
We must protest these bills. Its horrible how the government wants to control every aspect of our raising our kids. Truly evil. Make phone calls to these politicians. Put in practice your voting rights and voice your concerns. Yes I know people feel like its a waste of time, but if we can sit on the computer writing comments here, we can take a moment also to make phone calls.
“Under the new law a child cannot enter first grade unless they complete kindergarten.”
I always thought that all kids had to enroll in kindergarten first before going to 1st grade. I thought that it was now a forced preschool requirement that they are trying to push. I remember when they tried convincing me to place my child in preschool, I said NO way and no how! I even recall when one of my kids completed first grade, that school proudly announced that kindergarten was going to be full day instead of half day. I was not happy about that so I transferred to another school because I didn’t want my toddler, as he grew up, to have to be in full day hours when he entered kindergarten. Later on as they got older I home schooled, but it was tough on me because of my health issues. I persevered but I had to understand my limits, so we looked for an alternative and found a good charter school that best met with our morals and needs. Its not perfect but what is today? Its not easy for good families to raise kids in this hostile environment. Socialism and immoral agenda’s has played a huge part in the persecution of family values.
Amen to Sandra D’s comments. Young children belong at home with a parent or family member. Modern day feminism has done their best to change this. Mother’s are now working and the sooner their children go to school – the better for them.
Most of these parents use the public school as a baby sitting service, if they cared enough about these issues their kids wouldn’t be in these schools which are undermining everything they believe in. Then of course do they really mind these things taught to their kids?
There’s a quick way out of this: all parents of kindergarten age kids who do not want their kids attending can form a home school. It’s a little paperwork but fully legal in California. Your kids will show more progress than they would in the public schools, and you just may get to like it and home-school them into first grade and beyond. Just sayin’.
American state-run schools are very bad! They are completely controlled by godless, sick liberals, who brainwash kids with their own agendas, and do not give the kids a good education at all! And feminism as well as materialism, has caused so many parents to abandon their children at very early ages, so they may work, and pursue their own personal agendas! Children are abandoned, from babyhood— to various forms of childcare, or various institutionalized programs. Family life is seriously limited, and children are not given proper love, nurturing, nor the priceless value of a loving, nurtured life at home, in a family setting, with natural, relaxed, unstructured play! They are also not taught anything– respect, natural self-worth, good social relating skills, good manners, morals, virtue, good character! Nor are they given a good religious education, nor taught to say their prayers! It would benefit children, to begin school later, in first grade, and maybe to go only half-days, to kindergarten, in a relaxed manner. For mothers to work, is a terrible mistake! Caring for the young should be their primary responsibility!
Linda, you use the term “state-run” as though it was a bad thing. It really is YOUR school. You are the state. You can vote each year or so for the members of the local school board. You can run for the school board. You can attend meetings of the school board and encourage others to fill the chambers with like minded people. The state and most local schools put text books out for review before adopting them. Do you go to those sessions? You get to vote each two years for members of the state assembly and senate, for state Superintendent of Schools, etc. These are your schools. If you don’t like how they do things, all you have to do is convince a majority of the people in the local, county, and state to adopt your way of thinking. We can’t sit back and say we have no input. I don’t run for office, so I have little or no influence. I do vote, but the people keep electing those I don’t vote for. What that tells me is that the other side is better at telling their story, better at recruiting supporters, better at getting the votes. Why can’t we do the same thing? The educational leaders are leaders only so long as we let them be leaders. If we want change, we must bring it about. But to screed against it is not very productive.
American society, and its governments at all levels– plus the education departments at universities that produce teachers– and the public schools where they teach– are now almost exclusively controlled by immoral and misguided “radical liberal” Americans, of the “Death Culture!”
Linda, these radical liberal Americans you speak of are our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, next door neighbors, mothers and fathers. Do you know any of them? Are they as horrible as you describe them? Most are trying to do a good job of educating the future of our country. If you don’t like what they are doing, get involved. But, please, don’t cast aspersions on the whole lot of them. Your comments mirror the growing hatred of our country by so many people. Overly general comments like yours make me fear for our nation. I’m afraid that you come across like talk radio.
Linda Marie did say they were misguided, Bob One. So while you put forth the majority are – and they are, I believe – trying to do a good job of educating the future of our country, one needs to understand what ‘good job’ implies and what is the planned ‘future of our country.’
Considering what is coming out of schools and the mass media, the future is the culture of death and a distorted view of justice. But it is the confusion of false compassion that casts that which is inherently evil as good, necessary, smart, unavoidable, or the lesser of two evils.
It’s that mass confusion/delusion that worries me most about the future of our country as evil will be cast as good and good as evil to the detriment of countless generations.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
All these bills are sponsored by Democrats. Why does the CCC support Democrats??
Although they call themselves the CCC (California Conference of Catholic Bishops), “CCC” is the official abbreviation of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” – worldwide.
We and they should call the Bishops organization the CCCB to avoid confusion and scandal.
The CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church” does not support Democrats.
God bless you MEGAN for correcting gossip and rumors, which in the CCC say are a sin.
Why doesn’t the ‘California Catholic Conference of Bishops’ track all candidates, bills,
and the most current State Party Platforms
to inform Catholics in a timely manner of everything that violates our Faith – regarding the INTRINSIC EVILS of ABORTION, EUTHANASIA, HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE/sodomy, CONTRCEPTION, CLONING, and EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH; and those who wish to take away or right to freedom of religion by forcing us to pay for any intrinsic evil through our taxes ? ? ? ? ?
(The Conference should not get involved in issues that involve Prudential Judgment. Bishops personal opinions should not be included.)
The next President will nominate the next Supreme Court Justice.
I confess that I have to disagree with all of you. Kindergarten is mandatory in my state and has been for many years. It’s only a half day and the children get naps or rest time. My mom taught kindergarten for almost thirty years and teachers even in highschool could tell when their students had my mom at the beginning. Children learn how to stand in line and be good sports in games. They learn about rhythm, lovely stories and the adventure of learning. It’s a gentle way for students to learn about learning, sharing, and becoming good citizens. My mom’s classes put on plays and a huge circus where the mothers would make amazing costumes and the whole community came for their performance. I hate to hear such criticism of what is probably one of the most fun experiences of children’s schooling. It would make more sense for students to be sent to a kibutz type boot camp in their freshman year of highschool than to forgo kindergarten. Imagine teens learning how to obey orders, do manual labor, serve their country, clean-up their community through volunteer work, have to complete homework and best of all, mandatory attendance because they’re living in a camp in a remote area with no tv, drugs or sex. Now that is a lovely idea, no? :)
dana I agree because I always thought that kindergarten was mandatory but I was referring to forced pre-school. That is what they are trying to do now, force preschool, even when my kids were small luckily I didn’t agree and opted out. Whew. That is what I am against and also I do not agree with full time Kinder either. I like your mum, she was an excellent teacher. I can appreciate what you are saying, if we get lucky to have good teachers like your mum. My friend who has 8 kids, she homeschooled them all except for her last 3 youngest kids. She felt they needed disciple and the only way they were to learn that was her finally decided to try and placed each one of them in Elementary. They learned to behave better. As they got older, then she partially home schooled through a charter program. Some kids actually do better in a structured atmosphere in the early years of Elementary. Its just too bad that in today’s times in some states, Elementary is being used for immoral promoting of agendas. That is what we parents should look out for and warn others. : )
I agree, Abeca No child should be forced to go to preschool! Poor little tykes. And yes , you would have adored my mom…she was round and merry and always twinkled with mischief with red curls springing out of her untidy bun. Her class room was like a fairy land and parents came to hang out (aka play with the old wooden toys) and enjoy the color, places to explore, books, plants, all kind of fish &animals .etc. Its not easy being a teacher these days with all the paperwork the school systems demand and all the time wasted on state testing and carrying out those agendas you described, whether they want to or not. There are still many dedicated and loving teachers trying to do their best who need our prayers.
Sorry Abeca , I forgot to sign in..not one of the anonymous’s
:)
No Worries Dana. I knew it was you sweets. My computer automatically puts in my name, maybe you can check to see how that can work for your computer too. : )
Blessings sweets..don’t forget you owe me a cup of tea, rosary etc
Amazing ignorance of childhood! Glad I got my degree from St. John’s University and graduated summa cum laude before they had a chance to discover I never went to Kindergarten!
I tell my preschool classes that “Teacher Margie” never went to preschool or kindergarten. They gasp in amazement. My artwork and coloring is on a par with the children in my 4-5 year old classes but, other than that, I have managed to have a successful career in the federal government followed by a second career as a preschool and K-6 substitute teacher in two CA districts. Perhaps I might testify that there is life without kindergarten?
“. My artwork and coloring is on a par with the children in my 4-5 year old classes but…”
Show Off. Even my stick men don’t look like sticks, or men – and coloring within the lines still presents existential angst over not just which colors, but in what order.
BTW – I could not carry a tune with a wheelbarrow, and dare not sing in the showers for fear of stress cracks to the piping. I do sing in Church, but only the words, and leave advanced choir members to carry the ‘tune’ by the more talented.
Got my Juris Doctor with Distinction though – and purple is the color of the Law, because as they teach in Law School, a law degree is tops. If a surgeon is being tried for wrongdoing it is lawyers who will prosecute & defend them – as well as a former lawyer (Judge) running the Court.
Lawyers – however elicit the ‘there but for… go I” response from their own kind when sitting in judgment, by other Lawyers. Kind of like why Vampires don’t milk their own kind – Professional Courtesy.
BTW – I am occasionally asked “Do You Know of any Good Lawyers?”
The answer of course: There are No ‘good lawyers, just Better ones – or at least more expensive ones.