SB1 creates the Department of Early Childhood, “centralizing” all early childhood education, care programs, and services “into a single State agency.”
The House passed SB1 on May 9, 2024, by a vote of 93 to 18. We have assigned pluses to the nays because neither education nor “social welfare” is the role of government. Educating and caring for children is a responsibility of the family, not the state. This bill not only reinforces the state’s monopoly over preK-12 education, but consolidates it with so-called “entitlement programs,” such as Medicaid, which is unauthorized under Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution. It relies on immoral and anti-constitutional forms of taxation (e.g., property and income taxes) that unjustly provide benefits to “eligible” low-income persons, who have little or no tax liability, at the expense of other hard-working citizens. The reality is that “cradle-to-grave” or “nanny-state” policies result in more debt, dependency, and poverty. Educational and economic freedom cannot be obtained in Illinois by forcing citizens to fund big-government “handouts” in addition to a compulsory and failing government-run school system.
