WRAL astutely points out that Dianna Lightfoot, the new state director of Child Development and Early Education in the Department of Health and Human Services runs an organization that is opposed to some of the fundamentals of early education, especially the state’s role in it.
The National Physicians Center, where Lightfoot is currently president, advocates against “institutional” preschool programs.
“In the case of early childhood education programs, available research suggests they may actually be inferior to early learning opportunities at home. In addition, it appears the demand for out of home childcare is not as prevalent as many advocates claim,” says an open letter signed by Lightfoot on the group’s website.
Other interesting items from the NPCFR site:
• The full name of the organization is The National Physicians Center for Family Resources Inc.;
• The chair of its board of directors also chairs the board of a very conservative, anti-gay organization in California;
• The person listed as the Government Affairs adviser for the organization keeps busy as the Senior Director of Policy at American Legislative Exchange Council and Vice President of Government Relations at Family Research Council among other duties.
More later as this snowballs . . .
