The Joint Interim Education Committee of Wyoming’s state lawmakers met in Casper on Aug. 28. At the top of the agenda was 25LSO-0097, Preschool and kindergarten readiness. The title says it all. It is a bill designed to create a new category of childcare facility called “preschool,” and to require that these facilities teach a state-designed curriculum called “kindergarten readiness.”
Under current law, a “Child caring facility” means “any person who operates a business to keep or care for any minor at the request of the parents, legal guardians or an agency which is responsible for the child,” including “nurseries, nursery schools, kindergartens or any other preschool establishment not accredited by the state board of education.” This bill draft would delete preschools from that definition.
Next, the proposed bill adds a new certification requirement applicable only to the new entity called “preschool.” This is defined as “an educational program that provides instruction to children who have not enrolled in school and who are less than seven (7) years of age.” These preschools—formerly “child caring facilities”—will be shut down unless they add a new “kindergarten readiness program” to their curriculum.
By these moves, any and all existing childcare facilities can be recategorized as preschools. All it takes is for that facility to provide instruction to a child. Once recategorized, these facilities become state indoctrination centers.
Current certification standards are limited to the moral character and competence of the caregivers together with the safety of its facility and food preparation. The bill draft adds a requirement to teach state-mandated content, giving the “local school district” power over the certification of private businesses (14-4-102(d)).
Naturally, the Wyoming Education Association (WEA) was first in line to push this power grab. Immediately after the proposal was presented, the WEA’s government relations director introduced two Ivy-league professors to promote it.
They complained that Wyoming does not yet have state-funded preschool for 4-year-olds. They showed charts showing only 21 percent of Wyoming’s 3-year-olds are enrolled in “Public ECE (Early Childhood Education).” They lamented that 65% of 3- and 4-year-olds are not yet institutionalized in preschool programs.
Last year the education lobby tried to introduce a bill that would lower the age for compulsory school attendance from 7 to 6 years old. It failed an introductory vote by 7-24. Now, the education lobby wants to compel not only 6-year-olds, but 3-year-olds, as well.
Parents are wise to be wary. Recent years have pitted the education lobby against parents in areas ranging from facemasks to library books and from sex education to history.
As parents began to show up at school board meetings to press for accountability, the National School Board Association sicced the “U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, and its National Threat Assessment Center” on them. Such betrayals will not easily be forgotten.
While the Wyoming School Board Association claimed to have no involvement in the affair, it did little to stand up to its parent organization. It should have been doing backflips to regain the confidence of parents who care.
The same goes for the WEA. Its parent organization, the NEA, “engages and mobilizes activists in the effort for racial, social, and economic justice in public schools and on campuses.” This boilerplate woke-ism does nothing to instill confidence in Wyoming parents.
But, instead of mollifying the concerns of parents, the WEA seemed deliberately to jab a stick in our eye. As its director of government relations sat before the Joint Interim Education Committee, last Wednesday, he was sporting a pair of socks that was hard to ignore.
Just above his elegant dress shoes and below the cuff of his suit pants was an image of Baphomet. This horned, hermaphrodite goat figure is a familiar deity in occult circles. It can be found on Tarot cards depicting the devil. Last December, the Satanist Temple of Iowa set set up a statue of its likeness in the state capitol in time for Christmas.
I reached out to WEA’s director of government relations for a comment on his unusual apparel. He didn’t answer, but the message seems clear enough.
Every move to expand state power deserves the utmost care. When that power would compel the indoctrination of the most innocent children, lawmakers and parents should be on full alert. When the devil makes an appearance, heaven help us all.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
