Santorum: Government Wants to 'Indoctrinate' Kids

GOP candidate decries early education programs
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2011 2:39 PM CDT
Rick Santorum Says Government Wants to Indocrinate Kids with Early Education
Rick Santorum speaks during the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference in this June 17, 2011 file photo.   (Getty Images)

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. (More Rick Santorum stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X