March is Women’s History Month but don’t mention that to Republican lawmakers in Idaho.
On Tuesday, one Idaho state representative voted against accepting federal grants to help kids get ready for kindergarten because it “makes it easier or more convenient for mothers to come out of the home.”
This is impossible to make up.
Rep. Charlie Shepherd (R-Pollock) testified against House Bill 226, which would allow the State Board of Education to use nearly $6 million in federal grants to increase early childhood education in the Gem State by making it more available and accessible.
But for the first-term Republican, he made it clear where he stands on bills such as this.
“I don’t think anybody does a better job than mothers in the home, and any bill that makes it easier or more convenient for mothers to come out of the home and let others raise their child, I don’t think that’s a good direction for us to be going,” he said.
The bill failed on a 34-36 vote, but it is expected to be reconsidered.
Rep. Shepherd thinks this chance to help kids get ready for kindergarten, not necessarily raising them, would do damage to the family unit by making it easier for mothers to get out of the home and live their lives.
GOP state Rep. Barbara Ehardt also argued that the best place for young children was the home, rather than child care or preschool.
Ehardt reportedly told the House she had recently heard a group of women talking about mothers who were being “forced to remain home.”
She said: “You mean mothers raising their children? Have we gotten to the point that it is so denigrating and such a hardship for a mother that decides to remain home with their children that we have to disparage that?”
Another GOP state lawmaker, Priscilla Giddings, said she was concerned the funds would be used to introduce lessons that do not align with conservative values, reported Idaho Press.
Her fears related to the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children—a branch of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, whose catalog contains the line: “Whiteness, for example, confers privilege, as does being male.”
Giddings said she was concerned that the organization supported a “social justice curriculum,” adding: “I do not believe that you are privileged based on your gender or your race.”
State Rep. Tammy Nichols told the House that the aim of the measure was to “take our children from birth and be able to start indoctrinating them.”
House Bill 226 was seeking to approve the $5,980,500 early education grant, allocated by the Trump administration in January, so the state could access the funds.
Beth Oppenheimer, executive director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, denied the suggestions that the money would lead to the indoctrination of children.
She told the Post Register: “There were a lot of things said that were simply not true … It was turned into something that has nothing to do with the grant.
“We do not tell local collaboratives what to teach and what not to teach. We are not engaged in teaching children transgenderism or anything of the kind.”
Oppenheimer added that 65 percent of children under the age of 8 in Idaho have both parents in the workforce. She said: “We don’t all have the luxury of having one parent stay at home.”
Happy Women’s History Month, Idaho!