The Bi-Partisan Tentacles of Big Brother
- On a voice vote with zero opposition, the GOP House acts to violate the 10th Amendment and dictate the hiring policies of every school district in the United States.
- Increasingly the bi-partisan Federal Big Brother is telling schools what they are allowed to teach, what children are allowed to eat and now who they are allowed to hire.
The so-called Conservative "small government" Republican Party strikes again.
In yet another "Think of the Children" campaign, the GOP House voted to unconstitutionally expand the power of the centralized State. Congress is telling public schools who would be allowed to be teachers and other workers.
The foot in the door excuse is keeping sex offenders against children and those convicted of other violent crimes out of schools. As if local schools are somehow hiring sex offenders left and right.
Like all Federal programs, once the principle of Federal control is established it will grow ever larger and more powerful.
The measure would force school systems to check state and federal criminal records for employees with unsupervised access to elementary and secondary school students, and for people seeking those jobs reports ABC News.
Workers refusing to submit to the checks would not be allowed by the Feds to work in local school jobs.
It also found that state laws on the employment of sex offenders in schools vary. Some require less stringent background checks than others, and they differ on how people with past convictions are treated, such as whether they are fired or lose their teaching license.
The bill has run into objections from major teachers' unions like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. In letters to lawmakers, their criticisms included concerns that the measure might jeopardize workers' protections under union contracts.
In addition, the NEA wrote that criminal background checks "often have a huge, racially disparate impact" — a reference to critics' complaints that minorities make up a disproportionately high proportion of people convicted of crimes.
Despite those concerns, the House approved the measure by voice vote.
"Keeping children safe is not a partisan issue," said the chief sponsor, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "It's a moral obligation."
"Every school employee, from the cafeteria workers to the administrators, to janitors to the teachers, principals and librarians, that every one" is subject to background checks including the FBI fingerprint identification system to the national sex offender registry, said Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind.
No one said they opposed the bill.
But Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said that by imposing lifetime bans and ignoring the ability of people to overcome criminal backgrounds, "We do run the risk of doing a good thing, but doing too much of a thing." He said he'd continue seeking changes in the measure as it moves through Congress.
Think of the Children
Think of the Children - the rallying cry of every political hack who worships the
authoritarian power of a centralized, all-powerful, Big Brother State.
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