Republican Senator takes debate about voluntary preschool to new level with comparison to Nazis, Soviet Union

Click here for an MP3 of Senator Chelgren’s remarks. (Right click to download.)

A Republican State Senator took the debate about the state’s voluntary preschool program to a new level today at the Statehouse.

Senator Mark Chelgren of Ottumwa

Following comments by State Senator Matt McCoy of Des Moines about Governor Branstad’s proposal to sharply limit access to Iowa’s successful statewide, voluntary preschool initiative, State Senator Mark Chelgren, an Ottumwa Republican, offered these comments about the current voluntary preschool program.

Here’s the full text of Senator Chelgren’s opening remarks today:

“I’d like to thank Senator McCoy for pointing out something near and dear to my heart.  When you talk about education, it’s a vital responsibility because our children are very important. As Senator McCoy pointed out, the Chinese are taking 2- and 3-year-olds and educating them.

“And as a student of history, I also know the Nazis, the Soviets, a whole variety of groups, a whole variety of countries, take their children because it’s not just up to age six they’re so malleable. The day after they’re born is when they learn the most percentage wise. And so what question I have for this body and the question I have in general, if it is all about indoctrinating a child, I would use the exact same arguments that the Nazis used, that we should take children immediately, as soon as we recognize they have potential.

“What I would challenge us with instead is to put the responsibility on the parents. Because it is parents’ responsibility and families’ responsibility to make sure that in the formative years of growing as a child, they are taught the values and they are taught and educated by their families and they have that bond, that maternal and paternal bond, that is developed during that time. It is not the role or responsibility of this government to take that away from families and to replace it with an indoctrination process by teachers.”

Senator McCoy – as well as Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs and Senator Tom Courtney of Burlington – responded by pointing out that (1) Iowa’s preschool program is voluntary and (2) early childhood programs in Iowa have historically been designed to ensure that parents are children’s best teachers.

Senate Democrats have rejected the Branstad proposal because it would reduce the access and quality of the successful Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for thousands of middle-class Iowa families.