Federal Legislation	July 30, 2007

Action Requested:
No action is requested at this time. HSLDA will continue to monitor this bill and will send out an action e-lert if the bill comes up for a hearing.

Background:
Despite H.R. 2343’s seemingly homeschool friendly title, this bill advances government education programs that begin at birth. Many of the provisions in H.R. 2343 are similar to provisions in the now-dead Goals 2000 and should be opposed for the same reasons (more information is available under the “Goals 2000” link below).

H.R. 2343 expands programs of early childhood home visitation, child abuse and neglect prevention, and early identification of developmental and health delays including potential mental health concerns, and for other purposes. Many of these provisions would increase the federal government’s role in these programs as well as increase government funding to these programs.

HSLDA is especially concerned with parts of this bill that further expand the Head Start program as well as create voluntary home visits. Additionally, this bill could lead to policies similar to the controversial “Parents as Teachers” program. Section 9 of this bill, entitled “Supporting new parents through hospital education,” sets up detailed government training of parents. This could be interpreted as mandating parenting classes for new parents.

Introduced:
5/16/2007 Introduced in the House

Status:

5/16/2007

Referred to House Education and Labor and the House Armed Services committees

Sponsor:
Congressman Danny Davis

Cosponsors: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR02343:@@@P

Bill Summary and Status: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.02343:

HSLDA's Position:
Oppose.

Other Resources

S. 667—‘Education Begins at Home’ Act