Federal Legislation	August 13, 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 S. 667’s seemingly homeschool friendly title, this bill advances government education programs that begin at birth. Many of the provisions in S. 667 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).

S. 667 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: 2/16/2007—Introduced in the Senate.

Status:

2/16/2007

Read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Sponsor:
Senator Christopher S. Bond (for himself and Senator Hillary Clinton)

Cosponsors: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00667:@@@P (22)

Bill Summary and Status: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.00667:

HSLDA's Position:
Oppose.

Other Resources

Goals 2000

H.R. 2343—‘Education Begins at Home’ Act

Education Begins at Home Act (S. 667): Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing