A group of California lawmakers are advancing legislation to mandate kindergarten for all California families. Currently, California law does not require children to report to school until the first grade, effectively making kindergarten optional.
With waves of new sex and gender education curriculum now in schools, many parents question the move. The demand would allow the left to indoctrinate children with their sex-centric worldview a year earlier than before. Some also believe it may be an effort to pull more money into a public school system that continues, in many places, to hold out from actually providing an education.
Either way, SB 70 creates problems for parents who want to exercise control over their child’s early education. Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee sent the bill to the suspense file, where the bill will wait for another vote before it will go to the full Senate for a decision.
Our friends at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) issued an Action Alert for SB 70. “Under current law, parents can choose to have their child skip kindergarten and begin schooling at the 1st grade SB 70 would eliminate this option by mandating that every child attend kindergarten for one school year before being admitted to the 1st grade,” HSLDA’s release said. “SB 70 would effectively lower the compulsory school age and expand government control over children—for both public and private school (homeschools).”
CFC joins HSLDA in urging parents to call their senators and ask them to halt progress of this kindergarten mandate – and to vote NO when it comes before them on the floor. We’ll keep you posted on this developing story.
