Quality Child Care By Becky Vandeberghe Recent trends across this country clearly reveal that the government is trying harder and harder to gain dominance over our children as early as possible in order to indoctrinate our kids with its own version of right and wrong, instead of allowing the parents to instill them with traditional concepts of moral absolutes. Since I was the only taskforce member who adamantly "opposed" the concept of the state government taking control of Wyoming's daycare facilities, I was quickly targeted by some who did fervently support the concept. When asked why I oppose this legislation, I simply stated that parents in our organization have concerns about the degree of intrusion into their homes and how much will this bill take away parental rights. Roger McDaniel, the Department of Family Services Director, when speaking about the opposition to Nancy Freudenthal, called opponents of the bill (including myself) "right wing zealots who are on the outer fringe of their political party." After explaining my position in the first task force meeting in Cheyenne, one of the task force members stated, "Who better to raise our children than the United States Government?" I was so shocked and stunned at what I heard; I could not believe my ears. I left that meeting infuriated with the naivety of this person and the entire task force. How does one think that the government is a better parent, nurturer, and teacher of a child than the parents that conceived, birthed, and are raising that child? Why is this country so willing to turn over parental responsibility to the government? A few months later, during a teleconference conversation, I overheard a task force member ask, "When do we introduce the educational portion of this bill?" My first impulse was to assume that she was talking about the daycare providers getting more education for the "quality" portion of this bill. But the shocking reply made me sit up in my chair and take notice. It went something like this: "We have to be careful and introduce things little by little. The legislature won't pass a bill if we include that too soon." This conversation, and the "matter of fact" manner in which it was made, provide sufficient proof that this bill is about universal preschool. Otherwise, why should it take such an effort to sneak the "education" portion of it past the legislators? The first bill, introduced to the legislature in 2006, was written as an emotional appeal, supposedly on behalf of the children and how they are all are "at risk" and need the government's benevolent interference. The second version, being presented in 2007, is now written to sound like it is all about economic development. Now we are being told that we can't attract workers if we do not have more daycares available. What happened to the "at risk" children? Clearly both of these "reasons" amount to nothing more than a "smokescreen" meant to legitimize the notion of universal preschool. Then there is the "dirty politics". Senators Scott and Massie introduced an amendment in the Senate that stated that the Oversight Legislative Committee and taskforce would need to investigate other alternatives to this bill including a voucher system. Many of the legislators who had serious reservations with this bill proceeded to vote for the bill, because of this amendment. Yet at the very first Oversight Committee meeting, Senator Scott made a motion to disregard this portion of the bill. Apparently, Senator Scott feels free to ignore a significant portion of a "law" voted on by 90 legislators, signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and also signed by Governor Dave Freudenthal. Senator Scott had the audacity, along with those who supported his motion, to discount something that was instrumental in getting the bill passed. His explanation is, "Senator Massie and I sponsored the amendment, therefore we can disregard it if we choose to." What about the other 28 Senators who voted on that amendment and voted to pass it in the Senate? Such a blatant usurpation of the legislative process should not be tolerated in Wyoming, with this bill or any other. Senator Scott should not be allowed to chair any committee when he treats the legislative process (and thus the people) with so much contempt and disregard. Serving on this taskforce was stressful but enlightening. Was I able to change this bill for the better? No. Was I able to influence the bill? No, I was out numbered 13 to 1. Did I learn a lot? Yes. In fact I learned far more than I wanted to. It causes me great concern that our state has become a place where logic, reason, and the citizen's rights are no longer dominant factors in our governing process. You can contact your Wyoming legislators at the following links: Senators ____________________________________________________________________ |