State Representative Mary Beth Canty (D-Arlington Heights) is working to amend the state’s compulsory school attendance laws in order to capture the hearts and minds of innocent and impressionable children. She is the chief sponsor of two bills expanding government school influence on young children. HB 3143 lowers the compulsory age and HB 2396 mandates all-day kindergarten.

In 2013, Springfield lawmakers lowered the compulsory school age from 7 to 6 years-old. Now they want to drop the mandatory age for school attendance in Illinois from 6 to 5 years of age. Some elected officials want the age to be dropped to 3 as further reading will reveal.

In last week’s State of the State and Budget Address, Governor JB Pritzker announced he wants to invest hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in a new expanded education program called “Smart Start Illinois.”  According to his speech,

Smart Start is comprised of four elements: pre-K, childcare, early intervention, and home visiting…

Smart Start Pre-K is a four year plan that will allow access to preschool for every three and four year old in Illinois. It will increase our funding for the Early Childhood Block Grant program this year by $75 million. That’s $179 million more than when I took office.

It is clear that our government officials want to push parents out of the way. They believe that they can better educate and care for our children by teaching them the secular beliefs and values they think they should be learning.

Parents, grandparents, and church leaders have got to understand that the earlier the godless left have our children as a captive audience, the more likely the indoctrination will stick. One hour of Sunday school cannot compete with 35 hours per week of godless indoctrination. Parents, grandparents, and church leaders must understand how important it is that we remove our children from these indoctrination camps.

There is no reason for parents to hand their children over to the government that wants to usurp the God-given authority parents have to direct the upbringing of their children. Parents are best suited to decide when their children are socially, emotionally, and cognitively ready for formal education.

State lawmakers are not going to fix what’s wrong with education by forcing kids to start school a year earlier. In fact, there is evidence that education isn’t about more seat-time for kids.

Moreover, we all need to realize that there isn’t much education going on in many of our government schools. On average in Illinois, only 30 percent of students meet proficiency levels in math and only 26 percent in reading per the Illinois State Board of Education. And it’s in the single digits in many school districts. Furthermore, eight graders are now mandated to be proficient in LGBT history in order to graduate.

IFI continues to calls for Christian families to rescue their precious children from these indoctrination centers. Instead of being taught reading, math, and science, too many of our schools are focusing on social engineering, humanistic training, sexual immorality, revisionist history and other godless subject matters. In short, children are being trained in wokeism instead of a biblical worldview.

As for the legally mandated age of schooling, the decision to begin formal education rests with parents, not State Rep. Canty, JB Pritzker, or any other politician.

**UPDATED**

Take ACTION on HB 3134: Click HERE to fill out a witness slip to oppose HB 3143 – to lower the compulsory school age to 5 years-old. The Elementary & Secondary Education: Administration, Licensing & Charter Schools Committee is set to vote on this bill at 2 PM on Wednesday, March 8th.

-Fill out your name, address, email and phone number. Leave everything else blank or put self.
-Highlight “Opponent” and “Record of Appearance Only.”
-Check Terms of Agreement and click Create Slip.

HB 2396 was passed in the The Child Care Accessibility and Early Childhood Education Committee by a vote of 14-1 on Thursday, March 2nd. It will now be sent to the Illinois House floor for consideration.

MORE ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your state representative to ask him/her to vote against the expanding role of government in the lives of Illinois children and families. Ask him or her to vote NO to both HB 2396 and HB 3143. .

You can also call him/her by Clicking HERE to find their name and number or call the Capitol switchboard.

The phone number is (217) 782-2000.