Lenin's Dream Come True

Lenin's Dream Come True
by Julie Foster

Being a good little conservative, I've always loved the concept of vouchers, educational tax credits, and anything else that will give kids the ability to get out of public schools. I've viewed public schools as a diseased animal who's time had come. Take the poor dog to the vet and put him down. Recently, however, I've begun to rethink my position. You can give all the tax credits in the world and it won't help the kid whose parents don't pay taxes one bit. What is that kid going to do? Many will say, "Give him a voucher." I am not so sure I like that idea anymore, either.

Our country, California in particular, has proven that it just can't keep its hands out of every aspect of our lives. What makes us think vouchers won't have strings attached? Vouchers would be an irresistible target for our all-intrusive yet "benevolent benefactor," Uncle Sam, to meddle with.

Public schools, while infirm at the moment, are very necessary. They require significant overhaul, which is a topic for another day, but by and large we need them. The latest addition to California's public school system is the state sanctioning of school health centers. I say "sanctioning" because these health centers already exist in many schools. The latest development now allows California's Healthy Families program to cover costs associated with care given at these centers. Healthy Families is state-funded health insurance for children.

Another change is that each school must determine its own parental consent policy. That is legislative code for "you don't need parental consent if you don't want it." There are lots of arguments against the bill that made these changes to school health centers, and they're all pretty reasonable. For example, schools are there to teach, not to give medical care. We have added so many non-curricular functions to our schools that it is easy to see why we are falling so far behind academically. Supporters of the bill have seemingly reasonable responses to those arguments, such as, how can you teach a hungry or sick child? The debate can go back and forth, and frequently does in the legislature.

But let's just take a step back for a minute and look at the big picture. Today we have schools that feed our kids breakfast in the morning. Our kids are in classrooms all day long where they are taught that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle and that they won't be able to breath when they grow up because of pollution. People who don't recycle are bad and when you have sex, it's okay as long as you use a condom. Kids can get those condoms, along with other "reproductive health services," at their school health center without parental consent. They may also now be referred to a primary care provider without parental consent. Keep in mind these health centers are for kindergarten through 12th grade.

After school, kids stay for day care programs where they are again fed and wait for their parents to pick them up, usually between 6:00 and 6:30. Our kids are being raised by the government for a minimum of ten hours a day.

I'm reminded of Lenin's communist teaching that the best way to take over a democracy is by first gaining control of the school system. With the direction our school system is taking, the state is undermining the authority of individual parents and setting itself up as the moral and civil authority in children's lives. They would have us believe that parents are unnecessary, and we have allowed them to create a system where parents don't have to do anything.

The problem is that parents are, and always will be, necessary. My question to all you parents out there is: Are you going to do your job? Are you going to raise your children or are you going to let the state raise them for you? Whose values to do want your children to espouse? Whose moral code do you want them to live by?

If it is not the state's ever-evolving version of values and morality, then you must step in and assert your own authority. The Supreme Court said you have a constitutional right to control the upbringing of your own children without interference from the state. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).

If you have a child, be a parent. The former does not assume the latter. You have a job. Do it. If you don't want to take the time and do the work that is required to raise your own children, then don't have them. They deserve more than this state thinks it is obligated to give them.

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