Idaho Values Alliance: Making Idaho the Friendliest Place in the World to Raise a Family

July 29, 2010

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Nampa Planned Parenthood clinic closes

The Idaho affiliate of the American Family Association

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Friday, January 11, 2008

Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

For a printer-friendly version of today’s Update, please visit our website, Idaho Values Alliance

PLANNED PARENTHOOD NAMPA CLINIC CLOSED

Good news on the pro-life front: the Nampa Planned Parenthood clinic has closed, its last day December 8.

The “40 Days for Life” prayer campaign, held last fall on-site in front of the Boise Planned Parenthood clinic, had as its goal bringing abortion to an end in local communities and in America. Every pro-life Idahoan can be grateful that there is one less location dispensing the dangerous Planned Parenthood message.

Organizers, including the IVA, are making plans for another “40 Days for Life” prayer vigil next fall.

Planned Parenthood - Nampa Saturday Express Clinic

UNIVERSAL PRE-K: NOT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF IDAHO’S CHILDREN

As the education lobby ramps up for its annual push for universal pre-K in Idaho, it’s worth noting a Washington Policy Center white paper that indicates clearly that the educational effect of pre-K fades out over time – in most cases, by the end of third grade - and thus provides no long-lasting learning benefit to children.

Even full-day kindergarten, compared with half-day kindergarten, produces only short-term gains that erode virtually altogether in grades one through three.

In fact, social researchers are now recognizing that there are detrimental effects of too much institution-based care on the social and emotional development of very young children.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health discovered that sixth graders who had spent the most time in child care centers in their formative years showed comparatively more aggressive and disobedient behavior in school settings than their home-centered peers.

Stanford and Berkeley researchers found that children enrolled for 15-30 hours a week in institutionalized day care showed retarded social and emotional development, demonstrating aggression and a lack of impulse control.

Plus, too many hours in an institutional setting which requires too much rigidity and routine will prompt kids to begin to shut down emotionally which slows their cognitive growth and turns off their natural curiosity.

A RAND Corporation study suggests that developing the non-academic readiness skills of children, especially minority children, offers the best chance of raising overall achievement. Such skills include a child’s disposition toward learning, self-control, positive interaction with others, and avoidance of negative behaviors. All skills, it ought be noted, best learned at home.

Thus minority children may actually suffer the most from too much institutionalized care, which may further reduce their chances for academic success.

Full-day pre-K, according to RAND, actually hinders the development of these non-academic readiness skills, and thus contributes to an eventual achievement gap in both math and reading. Children who act out, have poor impulse control and are defiant are simply not in a good position to learn.

Even RAND suggests that it would be better to direct public policy efforts toward enhancing parental skills rather than pouring more money into full-day kindergarten or universal pre-K programs.

It makes better sense to resist expensive pre-K programs, which will inevitably lead to higher taxes which in turn will only pull more Moms out of the home and into the workforce. It’s best for Idaho’s children to keep taxes as low as possible to make it possible for as many Moms as possible to be in-home caregivers for their own children.

Research shows that a secure attachment to loving parents is critical for young children to fully develop their academic potential. Pulling three- and four- year old children away from their parents is not the best way to foster that kind of attachment.

Parents make the best early educators for their children, and are the ones to whom we should look to train their children in the kind of self-control and relationship behaviors that will make it possible for them to maximize their educational experience when the time comes for them to go off to school.

As the concluding section of the WPC paper puts it, “research shows that providing institutional universal preschool and full-day kindergarten will not help most children, and may actually suppress their normal social and emotional development.”

Further, “research indicates that success in early childhood learning depends first and foremost on family support, especially from parents, and not on institutional programs. Any public early education policy that does not build on a supportive home life for children is unlikely to succeed.”

Bottom line: If we truly want to do what is best “for the children,” we will resist efforts to push universal pre-K on the public and instead prefer policies that strengthen the family, which as a child development psychologist says, is “the most effective and economical system for fostering and sustaining (a) child’s development.”

Washington Policy Center • Reviewing the Research on Universal Preschool and All-Day Kindergarten

QUIZ ON ROE V. WADE

If you have a spare moment or two, take this quiz on the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. You might discover you know far less about this decision than you thought.

Roe IQ: Do you really know Roe? (Hat tip: Jim Hollingsworth)

IVA IN THE NEWS: CARTOON IN SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Rep. Steve Thayn, who chaired the Family Task Force, and I come in for some ribbing in a recently posted cartoon on the Spokesman-Review’s website (note the use of Rep. Thayn’s name and mine in the language bubble:

Huckleberries Online: Noah: Covenant Marriage (Hat tip: Adam Graham)

LATEST IVA COLUMN ON RENEWAMERICA:

Reforming the presidential selection process

Due to the generosity of an IVA donor, we are able to extend our offer of a complimentary copy of Dinesh D’Souza’s outstanding new book, What’s So Great About Christianity, for each first-time gift to the IVA of $100 or more. See the following note for more information about how you may contribute to the IVA.

If you appreciate the work of the IVA, would you please support us with a tax-deductible gift? It’s now possible to set up automatic monthly online donations to the IVA. You may send surface mail contributions to the IVA at P.O. Box 44873, Boise, ID 83711. Thank you for your kindness and generosity!

BONUS BYTES

Ø Despite stories in the old media today indicating that a new process has been developed to obtain stem cells from embryos without destroying embryos, the fact is that there is still significant risk of harm to the embryo under this new technique. Most of the embryos used in the research did not in fact survive, and none of those that did were followed to birth. Another recent breakthrough is ethically benign, as it involves developing embryonic-like stem cells from skin. (Cloning Company Claims to Have Made Ethical Embryonic Stem Cells)

Ø A new best-selling video game (Mass Effect), which is marketed to minors, allows characters to engage in explicitly graphic sexual intercourse in full digital nudity. Sellers of the game in Idaho may be in violation of state law, which prohibits the distribution of material which is harmful to minors. (Sex in Video Game Makes Waves Through Industry)

Ø A new “gay hate law” in England is such a threat to freedom of speech, religion and conscience that even some homosexuals are opposing it. It could potentially send Christian pastors to jail for seven years (longer than the sentence rapists receive) for teaching a biblical view of homosexual behavior. This, of course, is further evidence of the danger all hate crimes laws pose to religious liberty. One retired couple was interrogated by police officers in 2006 for over an hour for complaining to their local council about its promotion of civil partnership ceremonies. (Fury over new gay hate laws which 'threaten free speech' | the Daily Mail)

Ø The health risks among men who have sex with men is so great that Canada has adopted a new rule that a man who has had sex even a single time in the last five years with another man may no longer function as an organ donor. This, of course, is another common sense reason to oppose the normalization of homosexual behavior, and further shows that homosexual behavior is hardly a victimless crime. Innocent recipients of donated organs may pay a terrible price for such behavior. (Canada bans organ donation from gay men- from Pink News)

Ø It was inevitable, but environmental fascists in California now want to remotely control the thermostat in your home through a “non-removable” FM receiver. Consumers will have no ability to manually override settings during “emergency events.” Homeowners are likely to use bypass methods such as window units and space heaters which ironically could use more energy than traditional units. (WorldNetDaily: Big Brother to control thermostats in homes?)

Ø Quote of the day: “Religion and liberty are the meat and drink of the body politic. Withdraw one of them and it dies. Without religion we may possibly retain the freedom of savages, but not the freedom of New England. If our religion were gone, our state of society would perish with it and nothing would be left worth defending.” ~ Timothy Dwight, president of Yale University, in 1798