Alert Congress Before Head
Start Increases Federal Nanny State Head Start, HR 2123
Continuing
to assume the right and constitutional authority that it does not have,
the federal government is extending its illegitimate takeover of K-12
education downward to the birth to five age range with the
reauthorization of Head Start, HR 2123. The bill makes some invalid
assumptions, such as:
That federal education programs are able to close the "achievement
gap," or eradicate poverty;
That "social and emotional" learning is necessary for a good
education and can be objectively taught and assessed;
That "social and emotional" learning is only about self-discipline,
sharing, and waiting one's turn, when it has proved to be about setting
government derived norms for mental health or indoctrinating a political
worldview in very young children;
That state standards for K-12 education or early learning are unique
to each state, locally derived, and have nothing to do with worldview
indoctrinating national standards (federal curriculum);
That states are making bad choices independently, and that HR 2123
does not promote a federal curriculum for pre-schoolers by forcing states
to align their Head Start programs to these standards, thereby absolving
the federal government of responsibility for its interference;
And that poor people and minorities have, by virtue of their poverty
and other stresses, flawed brain biochemistry that can only be fixed via
mental health screening and powerful, potentially lethal psychotropic
drugs.
The failure of Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA/NCLB) despite 40 years and untold billions of dollars; the failure
of any preschool programs to show more than temporary academic gains; the
proliferation of radical, minimum competency non-academic standards in
every state that just happen to be nearly identical; and the frightening
increase in the psychiatric labeling and drugging of children with
ineffective and dangerous medications should amply show these
assumptionsí lack of validity.
Although
HR 2123 makes some important improvements in financial accountability and
some impressive strides towards parental rights, and although it was
likely drafted with good intentions, it has some very dangerous
provisions.
HR 2123, soon to be heard on the floor of the U.S. House, does the
following:
Implements radical curriculum standards for preschoolers in every
state that teach toddlers about socioemotional (mental health) teaching,
gender identity, diversity training, careers, social activism, and
environmentalism;
Extends No Child Left Behind standards and testing to preschoolers;
Extends these curriculum standards to all children via state and
local integration, and;
Continues the role of government in the mental health of very young
children and their families.
1. Implements radical curriculum standards for preschoolers in
every state.
HR 2321 requires states to align their Head Start programs with either the
radical Head Start Child Outcomes or with their own state early learning
curriculum standards, many of which are also based on this same Head
Start/NAEYC Framework. Curriculum standards for preschoolers in
individual states are then applied to other state programs. In this way,
Head Start sets the norm for what will eventually be required of all
children. The Head Start Outcomes become part of a seamless system of
controversial government required standards from birth through twelfth
grade.
The
Head Start Outcomes do the following:
put the state and federal governments in charge of what is normal
mental health. The Outcomes use extremely vague and subjective criteria
under the mantle of social and emotional standards;
bring up issues of gender and group identity to three and four year
olds; and
begin discussing careers and jobs with young children.
2. Extends No Child Left Behind standards and testing to
preschoolers.
HR 2321 requires Head Start to be aligned with NCLB content standards and its
assessments. State standards and assessments under NCLB have become
dumbed down, non-academic, indoctrinating outcomes that states have
adopted based on national standards (federal curriculum). Significant
opposition has developed against extending NCLB to high school. Extending
them to the nation's youngest and most vulnerable children makes even
less sense than extending NCLB to high shcool. (See next point, below).
3. Extends curriculum standards to all children via state and local
integration.
This
aligned system of standards and programs is not just for poor, at-risk
children, but rather for all children due to this required integration on
the local and state levels with public preschool programs, and it will
eventually force faith based programs to teach Head Start curriculum
standards. As described above, some of these curriculum standards are
very radical, and would be contrary to their philosophy. The result would
be to force faith based programs out of Head Start or out of business
altogether.
4. Continues the role of government in the mental health of very
young children and their families.
HR 2321 re-inserts mental and behavioral health care into Head Start. These
diagnostic criteria for mental disorders are extremely vague and
subjective, as admitted by the US Surgeon General, the World Health
Organization, and many psychiatric textbook authors.They are extremely
difficult to accurately apply to young children. As a result of the New
Freedom Commission recommendations for screening and drugging, this
emphasis on mental health for very young children will result in
increased screening and psychiatric drugging of infants and toddlers with
drugs admitted to be ineffective and dangerous for children. (See
here for details)
The House
Committee on Education and the Workforce is to be highly commended for
their commitment to protecting the fundamental right of parental consent
for health services and screening, similar to language in the
The Parental Consent
Act, HR 181. It is also very important to prevent coercive
drugging. The Child
Medication Safety Act
(CMSA), HR
1790, does that and should be included in Head Start. CMSA is a
legislative priority for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), because they are concerned about disproportionate
identification and drugging of minority youth. One would assume
that this concern would extend to minority toddlers and their
families.
We need your help EdAction
is now alerting you, our subscribers, to urge you to give your own
Members of Congress urgent notice that the Head Start re-authorization
must be amended to address these concerns before it passes out of the
House of Representatives. With the help of Citizens for Health, we
have developed an e-action alert to help you contact your Member of
Congress about the dangers of the Head Start bill. Just
click
here to contact House Members to urge them to support amendments that
will do the following:
1) Stop the required alignment of Head Start to the state content
standards of NCLB, state early learning standards, and / or the national
Head Start Outcomes so that the radical worldview of these standards will
not be imposed on our youngest, most vulnerable children;
2) Remove the newly required integration of Head Start with
every state public preschool program;
3) Remove requirements for social and emotional teaching;
4) Make it absolutely clear that any mental health screening
requires informed, written consent, and that coerced screening or
drugging of children is prohibited
To follow up with a phone call or fax, find your U.S. House Member
contact information here. Thank
you.
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