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Friday, May 27, 2011

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Kathleen Sebelius Wants Your Kids to Sit Still

kidsHealth and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is making me question whether the United States really needs a Health and Human Services Secretary to begin with. She told reporters recently:

You really need to look at the range of issues, because if a 5-year-old can’t sit still, it is unlikely that they can do well in a kindergarten class, and it has to be the whole range of issues that go into healthy child development.

To keep children planted firmly in their seats, the federal government is dishing out $500 million dollars in competitive grants to the states as part of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program. Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the program jointly. The money is intended to help children from birth to five years of age.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hope the money helps kids especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, though I suspect that giving low income families grants (read: vouchers) so that their children could attend preschool