Newsflash: “The children belong to all of us.”

Those were the insightful words of Paul Reville, former Massachusetts education secretary. While I expect nothing less from my home state, this brings back terrible memories of Melissa Harris-Perry’s similar comments:

We have to break through our kind of private idea that “kids belong to their parents” or “kids belong to their families,” and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.

Reville, a supporter of the Common Core, claims the core is necessary because, hey, if the kids belong to everyone, then they should all get the same education. The notion that children are an integral part of the basic family unit is far too “bourgeoisie”—just ask Karl Marx. In his Communist Manifesto, he echoed Harris-Perry’s opinion of the family:

Abolition of the family!

The practical measures…such as the abolition…of the family…are of a purely utopian character.

Abolishing the family creates Utopia? Oh, that’s why 63 percent of children who commit suicide, 50 percent of incarcerated adolescents, and 75 percent of teenage girls who are pregnant come from one-parent homes.

“Kids belong to whole communities,” “the children belong to all of us,” “abolition of the family”—these are the battle cries of today’s radical left. One of Marx’s main tenants of his Utopia was “free education of all children in public schools.” Of course, the Almighty State would determine the curriculum.

Not only has the core attacked family education, but Republicans and Democrats alike are supporting huge budget increases for free state preschool:

The case for preschool is increasingly being made on economic terms. James Heckman, a Nobel Memorial Prize winner in economics at the University of Chicago, has calculated that the money spent on quality preschool programs for disadvantaged children generates an annual 7 percent to 10 percent return by boosting their eventual wages and reducing their likelihood of winding up in prison or costly social welfare programs.

We need free preschool because it will keep kids out of jail? I thought preschool “curriculum” included playing with blocks and puzzles. Will another year of state “education” really increase four-year-olds’ productivity 20 years in the future?

Unlikely. What children need is a stable family:

Children raised in intact married families are more likely to attend college, are physically and emotionally healthier, are less likely to be physically or sexually abused, less likely to use drugs or alcohol and to commit delinquent behaviors, have a decreased risk of divorcing when they get married, are less likely to become pregnant/impregnate someone as a teenager, and are less likely to be raised in poverty.

Reville, Harris-Perry, and Marx consciously or unconsciously desire to weaken the family—and they achieve just that by making children into communal property taught a communal core instituted by the government. Stripping parents of their right to educate, support, and nurture their children is a perfect way for the state to take over. Children don’t need communal “protection”; they need involved, supportive parents. They need a father and a mother.

Of course, if that fails, at least one Democratic legislator will legalize and tax marijuana in order to fund these free preschool programs. So you can lose your kids to the state and they can smoke a joint.