Santorum: Government Wants to 'Indoctrinate' Kids

(Newser) – Apparently, early education programs are a government plot. That’s the impression Rick Santorum gave yesterday at a tiny town hall meeting in Iowa. “It is a parent’s responsibility to educate their children. It is not the government’s job,” the GOP presidential candidate told a crowd of roughly 20 people, according to the Des Moines Register. “Of course, the government wants their hands on your children as fast as they can. That is why I opposed all these early starts and pre-early starts, and early-early starts. They want your children from the womb so they can indoctrinate your children as to what they want them to be.”

All seven of Santorum’s children have been or will be home-schooled, Santorum said, arguing that the federal government should get out of the education game. States, he argued, should focus on “the needs of their child, not children. See, that is the difference. Obviously, socialists love children, just like they love people in groups of 1 million or more.” It’s not the first time he’s made the connection either; Talking Points Memo recalls a May speech in which he described his uncle’s indoctrination in Mussolini’s Italy and quipped, “maybe they called it pre-K." Click for more on that story.