Emergency Alert: Stand up for parental rights

VICTORY! AB 1444 VETOED: A win for parents

CLICK HERE for our response & message for you from Randy

THIS ACTION ALERT HAS EXPIRED. Jerry Brown vetoed AB 1444!

Emergency Alert: Parents' rights under attack

Your phone call needed now -- urge Jerry Brown to veto AB 1444

Call before 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26.

Tell Jerry Brown:

"Veto AB 1444, mandatory kindergarten,
which eliminates a parent's right to decide"

Call Brown's office: 916.445.2841

(Call M-F 9a-5p. If the line is busy, try again. His veto deadline is Sept. 30)

5 reasons why your call today could produce a veto by Sept. 30

(Brown is iffy about AB 1444)

1. This is the election season.

2. This is a parental rights issue, and is not about abortion, homosexuality, or other "sacred cows" of Democrat lawmakers.

3. This year in his state budget, Brown discontinued the experimental "transitional kindergarten" program for 4-year-olds, saying, "It isn't time to just embark on a whole raft of new initiatives...Wisdom and prudence are the order of the day."

4. Two years ago, Brown OK'd a school vaccination exemption for parents with religious objections; this month, he vetoed 2 bills requiring diaper-changing tables at businesses and in public areas.

5. SaveCalifornia.com and others have already been generating "Veto AB 1444" calls, so today's the day for you to make your call to 916-445-2841 to urge Brown to veto this anti-parent bill. Please call by 5 p.m. today, Friday, September 26.

Why you should be concerned about government forcing kindergarten and trampling parental rights

1. AB 1444 would eliminate a parental right: Currently, California fathers and mothers can decide whether or not to start formal education of their child at age 5 or age 6. Despite conscientious parents with justified objections, AB 1444 would force every parent to do kindergarten -- whether public school, private school, or home school.

2. AB 1444 would mean more government control of the family and open the door to the removal of more parental rights: AB 1444 requires 13 years of "compulsory education" instead of the current 12 years. And if government can take away another parental right by mandating kindergarten for 5-year-olds, why not mandatory preschool for 4-year-olds? Mandatory daycare? Mandatory new parent classes? The sky's the limit.

3. AB 1444 would expand the government's unconstitutional "de facto parent" role: The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents have a fundamental right to determine the upbringing and education of their own children. Yet AB 1444 would replace this God-given family role with "nanny government." AB 1444 would actually make police look upon good, loving parents of 5-year-olds as outlaws if they delayed formal schooling and first grade until age 6 (a parental choice that has been legal all the 164 years that California has been a state).

4. AB 1444 would regard anti-kindergarten parents as criminals: Because the bill would eliminate a parent's choice on kindergarten, and make it a state mandate under force of law, dads and moms who believe it's best for their child to delay school until first grade (when their child turns 6) would be regarded as criminals.

California Penal Code, Section 270.1: The parent or guardian of a chronic truant "is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment."

What's more, AB 1444 would actually permit authorities to take into custody 5-year-olds whose parents are conscientiously delaying school until first grade, when their child turns 6 years of age:

California Education Code, Section 48264: "The attendance supervisor or his or her designee, a peace officer, a school administrator or his or her designee, or a probation officer may arrest or assume temporary custody, during school hours, of any minor subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education found away from his or her home and who is absent from school without valid excuse within the county, city, or city and county, or school district."

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In light of this extensive precedent, it cannot now be doubted that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.
United States Supreme Court decision in Troxel v. Granville (2000)