Letter: Parenting tips from government

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003 | 9 a.m.

"I'm from the government; I'm here to help you." Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, with its explosive growth of socialist federal programs, that refrain has carried ominous meaning.

But how can anyone oppose a federal program "for the children"? Under the No Child Left Behind Act, federal nannies in the education bureaucracy have come up with a batch of new manuals for parents: Helping Your Child Become a Reader; Helping Your Child With Homework; Helping Your Child With Adolescence, etc.

Is there really a basis for believing that a federal government that fails to control our borders or balance the budget -- both necessary and proper constitutional functions -- can competently perform the functions for which it has no authority, such as tutoring parents on parenting skills and responsibilities?

KEN HOVEY

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