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Mitt's Parenting 101

By Philip Klein on 10.18.07 @ 10:29AM

I have to say, I was utterly stunned when I read this about Romney's speech to the Club For Growth:

Romney also proposed a training seminar for the parents of children enrolled in schools that rank in the bottom 10 percent. The former governor said that he would like to see a national program enacted similar to one that he failed to get enacted in Massachusetts, where "before a parent can send a child to school for the first time, they've got to go to a weekend where they learn about being prepared to support their child in school."

Ironically, this came in the same speech that he likened Hillary Clinton to Karl Marx. I'm not sure whether Romney sees this as a way to reach out to evangelicals, and he accidentally mixed up the speech he was supposed to give to the Value Voters Summit, or what, but the idea of spending taxpayer money on federally-mandated parenting classes is like taking a dagger to small-government conservatives. It would take the idea of a paternalistic government to a whole new level.

I did some initial research, and this looks like the Massachusetts proposal Romney was referring to:

All parents of children enrolled in state-subsidized child care are already required to meet with an intake counselor every six months. For parents in these programs with children under five, $1.7 million will provide individual parenting orientation sessions as an integral part of this mandatory process. Counselors trained in child development will share information with parents on what to expect at various stages of their child's development, how they can participate in their child's school, and what they can do to encourage their child to learn and grow.

These parents will also receive a guidebook developed by the Department of Education, the Office for Child Care Services and other organizations, to help them better understand what they can do to help their child. The Governor's Budget includes $300,000 to publish this guide in five languages for the parents of over 60,000 children.

I'd like to find out more details about how his federal plan would work.

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Education