Today on Educate For Life Radio, Kevin has California Senator Joel Anderson. Senator Anderson has served four years in the State Assembly and four years in the State Senate. After four years of service in the State Assembly and four years of service in the State Senate, in 2014 Senator Anderson was re-elected to represent San Diego county for a second term in the Senate.When first elected to the Assembly, he promised his constituents, “I am not going to Sacramento to be a potted plant.”

Senator Anderson is here to sound the warning bell about Senate Bill 18. Known as the Bill of Rights for the Children and Youth of California, it resolves to invest in all children and youth in order to achieve specified goals, including having safe and healthy environments. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the needs and well-being of children and youth in California. The bill would create, until November 30, 2024, the Joint Legislative Committee on Children and Youth, with 18 members appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules and the Speaker of the Assembly, as specified. The bill would require the committee to develop “California’s Promise to its Children and Youth,” a framework for the care and welfare of children and youth in various contexts, including, but not limited to, health care, nutrition, homeless assistance, education, and foster care, as specified. The bill would require the committee to consider an unspecified Senate Concurrent Resolution, the Bill of Rights for the Children and Youth of California, if it is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2018, for purposes of developing the framework.

On the surface, this may not sound bad, but Senator Joel Anderson believes this bill provides the framework for parental rights to be taken from parents and given to the state. Much of the text of the bill is vague and open to subjective interpretation. This bill would allow the state to impose arbitrary rules about the proper care of a child in nearly every area of life imaginable. Imagine if CPS knocked on your door and took away your child because the State decided that you were not providing your child with “appropriate” nutrition because he or she had a soda with lunch?

Tune in to hear Senator Anderson make his case against this bill. If you would like to read the bill yourself, you can go to https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB18. If you would like to sign a petition to stop this bill from being enacted, you can visit http://anderson.cssrc.us/.

This episode first aired on April 15, 2017.