The wheels have been turning (the speed of which is completely debatable) since the Republicans took charge officially last January. With a drastic shift in the worldview of the leadership of the previous administration to the present, we’ve seen an opportunity to undo many of the progressive policies that were promoted in both the Bush and Obama years, specifically in the realm of education.

At the federal level, the appointment of Betsy DeVos shocked many as the Trump administration showed that the current attitude towards education reform would be drastically different from what we have seen in past administrations. At the state level, however, the sentiment isn’t necessarily as uniformed across the Republican Party. In Indiana, Governor Eric Holcomb has already touched an area that is seen as a bipartisan issue- universal and expanded Pre-K. Holcomb has already proposed massive budget increases for the state’s On My Way Pre-K pilot program, which is essentially Head Start with a different name.

In a recent article from FreedomWorks by Brett Heinisch, he pointed out many of the faults with the application of universal Pre-K programs in the United States, yet in the final paragraph states something which is the heart of the issue at hand. In the final paragraph of the article, Heinisch states “people who want to implement Universal Pre-K are well intentioned, but there is no reason to believe it will bring about any of the desired change.” He’s not wrong regarding the aspect it won’t bring the desired change, he is wrong about people who are pushing this concept being “well-intentioned.” This is the same problem with those on the right calling Bernie Sanders supporters good intentioned when your intentions ultimately lead to the confiscation of property and wealth, they quickly leave the category of “well intentioned.”

Especially amongst adults, the quick solution to say the magic words “government will fix it” begins to quickly flee from reality the moment the regulatory state rears its head. Far too often have I heard from even conservative educators “I wish we had a nationwide singular core curriculum” for the sake of continuity so when a child is moved from one state to another, understanding the given material isn’t an issue. Is that logic “well intentioned?” Some may argue yes, yet this has been seen with the corporate virus known as Common Core, a crony capitalist conglomerate made up of the unholy trinity of Pearson, various governors, and the Department of Education.

In approaching the matter of education, the truth regarding the American public school system is that the focus has been for too long to be the arbitrator of obedience training to the state and progressive policies instead of being a forum of developmental thought and the teaching of actual knowledge. For too many communities across our nation, school counselors have replaced the authority of parents, free lunch programs have replaced the responsibility to provide, and universal Pre-K has replaced the tie between a family and a child discovering the world around them. Universal Pre-K isn’t “well intentioned,” it’s simply an excuse to not have to teach your child how to take in the world around them the only way a parent can. Yes, some working-class families need daytime childcare in order to work, but children also need a daytime parent in order to grow and develop not only cognitive skills but also critical thinking as they interact with the world, not just be told in a classroom the step-by-step process. A child isn’t just a dog you can drop off at the vet, children require as much time invested in them as they do financially. Is it well-intentioned to have a child and not even parent them? Why even have a child in the first place?

Is there a free market solution to this? Maybe, but that’s not the point. The issue at hand is that there is almost no emphasis on the benefit to the individual regarding policies of education in the United States because the family unit is treated as more of a hindrance than a foundational structure to a person’s life. Universal Pre-K won’t fix anything or benefit anyone, it only advances the process for the state to mold a person’s personality while formatting the child’s developing worldview so, at the end of the day, the state has assumed the full characteristics of God.

So tell me, is all this still “well intentioned?”