▶ Key Takeaways
- Community schools are another tactic in a long-term ideological war to undermine and split apart families, and to usurp the parental responsibilities of child-rearing.
- The proposed Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026 will expand federally funded community schools to provide not only education, but also health, social, family, and community services through public schools.
- The legislation will authorize approximately $3.65 billion over five years to support the planning, implementation, and expansion of full-service community schools serving low-income students.
- The legislation has been introduced by several Democratic members of Congress and is supported by major education organizations and teachers’ unions, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
- Teachers’ unions in states such as California have advocated for shared governance structures that include educators, parents, students, and community members in community school decision-making.
- Supporters argue that community schools help address barriers to learning by providing wraparound services such as healthcare, nutrition assistance, counseling, after-school programs, and family support services.
- Critics contend that community schools increase government involvement in areas traditionally handled by parents and families, potentially weakening parental authority and responsibility.
- Stable family environments—particularly engaged two-parent households—have a significant impact on children’s academic achievement, emotional well-being, and long-term life outcomes.
- The ideological war can be won only if Christians dedicated to following biblical principles live by example in their spheres of influence and also speak out against relativism and secular humanism.
There are people in leadership positions in government who want the government to raise your kids for you.
Why?
They don’t think you have the time or the skills necessary to raise them yourself.
Are they right? Is the government a better parent of your kids than you are?
If you disagree, you need to speak up now – loud and clear.
If you don’t speak up now, it will be too late to stop them.
Here are 8 critical facts you need to know about what has been taking place in public education in the U.S.:
1. Conservatives, Christians, Republicans and Libertarians are asleep regarding the changes in public education.
An ideological shift has been taking place in public education for the past 30 years…
Quietly… behind the scenes…
Unnoticed by conservatives, Christians, Republicans and Libertarians.
The ideological shift is being disguised as an educational reform movement called community schools.
The advertising “talking points” are that community schools will:
• Reduce absenteeism and school dropout rates
• Improve academic performance
The hidden agenda is that community schools are designed to bring socialism and collectivism to public education.
Government employees will not only teach your children the three R’s…
They will become your children’s nanny – feeding them, playing with them, taking care of them when they’re sick, counseling them when they need help, and more.
The concept of public schools replacing parents as the primary caregivers in the upbringing of children was first proposed by John Dewey in 1902.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that community schools came into existence – first in New York City, Philadelphia, and in Indianapolis.
Today, between 8,000 and 10,000 public schools in over 100 school districts nationwide identify as community schools.
The largest concentration of community schools is in New York City, where 258 of the district’s 1,800 schools are community schools.
2. Why community schools are a bad idea.
Community schools do nothing to improve the failing public school “one-size-fits-all” education model.
Public schools are failing to properly educate kids and prepare them for life in the real world.
Kids are being told what to think, not how to think.
They are being taught moral relativism.
They are being taught that there is no objective truth or objective reality, but that each one of them creates their own truth and their own reality.
Community schools don’t change any of these false ideas…
Instead, they encourage the state, local school districts, local education associations (LEAs), and other social service and community organizations to take over the primary roles and responsibilities in child-rearing.
Community school structures encourage government employees to undermine and contradict any parental guidance that disagrees with their relativist and collectivist ideas.
The bottom line of community schools is that they create the maximum possible erosion of the parent-child relationship.
They also encourage parents to abdicate their own responsibilities to teach and train their children in life skills.
Some parents will rationalize that if the community school is going to meet not only my child’s educational needs, but also his or her mental, emotional, psychological and healthcare needs, I don’t have to be very involved in my child’s upbringing.
Here’s a truth that government power-hungry elites and teachers’ union leaders don’t want you to know…
Government programs claiming to “help” families have been destroying the traditional family structure for the past 6 decades – since President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on
Poverty agendas of the 1960s.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan – serving as Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations – analyzed the impact of government welfare programs on black Americans.
He discovered a sharp rise in single-parent black families, caused by government welfare programs that penalized marriage and rewarded the absence of fathers.
The late economist Walter Williams wrote in his 2010 memoir that 75% to 85% of black children grew up living with both of their biological parents until the 1950s.
But today, 70% of black children are born to single mothers.
“The welfare state has done to black Americans,” Williams said, “what slavery couldn’t do, what
Jim Crow couldn’t do, what the harshest racism couldn’t do. And that is to destroy the black family.”
Community schools – despite the language of the legislation – are the latest government welfare program for children, designed not to unite families but to divide and conquer them.
3. What the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act is and what it will do.
This is proposed federal legislation aimed at turning public schools across the country into local full-service institutions designed to meet all of the physical, mental and emotional needs of children.
There are 4 key pillars of the bill:
1. Integrated Student Supports: At-school physical and mental health care, nutrition, mentoring, and social services.
2. Expanded Learning Time: Early childhood education, after-school programs, plus weekend and summer programs.
3. Family and Community Engagement: Adult education classes (ESL, digital literacy), citizenship preparation, housing/eviction assistance.
4. Collaborative Leadership: Creating Community School Coordinators to manage partnerships between local education agencies (LEAs), nonprofits and community organizations.
The Act calls for federal expenditures of $3.65 billion over 5 years “to plan, implement, expand, and support full-service community schools serving low-income students.”
The money supposedly will be spent on the following vague goals:
• Renewable grants to “build collaborative leadership structures and strengthen wraparound services”
• Build community school infrastructure “by funding the establishment of state-level teams” to “provide professional development opportunities and resources” for school staff.
4. The education organizations that want more government overreach into the education of children.
The Full-Service Community School Expansion Act is strongly supported by the teachers’ unions and by several advocacy groups:
• National Education Association (NEA)
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• Maryland State Education Association
• Coalition for Community Schools
• Institute of Education Sciences
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers asserts:
“Every day, the challenges that students and families face outside the classroom reveal themselves inside the classroom – challenges like poverty, food insecurity, and a lack of access to healthcare. That is why the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act is so critical; it invests in the proven strategy of wrapping services around students – from mental and physical healthcare to nutrition and after-school programs…”
5. Why union leaders want shared governance of community schools.
Union leaders want to negotiate the shared governance of community schools as an integral part of collective bargaining agreements.
What’s happening in California is a good example of this strategy.
In 2021, the California state legislature passed the California Community Schools Partnership Act.
A $4.1 billion California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) was created, calling for students, families, school staff, school administrators and community members to share decision making and leadership on all aspects of school governance and operations.
But the State Board of Education in 2022 adopted a California Community Schools Framework to design the organizational structure of the CCSPP and to drive its implementation strategies.
This causes local teachers union leaders to fear that policies will be dictated by the state and by school district officials, and that teachers will be left out of community school decision making.
The teachers unions therefore want the provisions of the original California Community Schools Partnership Act written into their contracts by school district officials.
They want to ensure that the thousands of new community schools that will be rolled out in California over the next few years will be governed by school staff, students, parents and community members, as well as by school administrators.
West Contra Costa Unified teachers’ union, Oakland Unified and Los Angeles Unified teachers have successfully negotiated the governance of their community schools.
San Diego Unified and Sacramento Unified teachers unions are among those currently negotiating similar agreements.
6. Why family structure has a greater effect on student outcomes than school programs.
Family stability positively impacts student learning more than any other educational program or activity.
A 2025 report from the University of Virginia, titled “Good Fathers, Flourishing Kids,” states that the presence and engagement of a child’s father has a powerful effect on the child’s academic and emotional well-being.
Goldy Brown III – a professor of education, researcher and former K-12 teacher and principal – writes,
“Children raised in stable two-parent homes—across race and income—enter school better prepared, regulate their behavior more effectively, and recover more quickly from setbacks.
“Over time, they are far more likely to graduate, remain employed, avoid incarceration, and form stable families of their own.”
She also says that while strong schools and effective teachers do matter…
No educational program or reform can compensate for “deep instability in the homes children return to each afternoon.”
7. Why stable, two-parent families are becoming the exception rather than the norm.
In early American culture, the education and upbringing of children was always viewed as ultimately a parental and/or extended family responsibility.
Parents willingly bore the cost – both in time and money – of educating their own children as best they could.
Children, as they grew older, took the initiative to educate themselves by reading everything they could get their hands on.
Why?
Because they had been taught the importance of initiative, perseverance and responsibility by their parents at an early age.
For nearly 200 years – since the 1830s – states have attempted to undermine parents by:
• creating taxpayer-funded, government-controlled public schools
• enticing parents to voluntarily send their children to public schools by claiming they are free
• passing compulsory school attendance laws
These efforts to undermine the traditional family and replace parental education with government-controlled education have been spurred on by the rise of secular humanism.
The core belief of secular humanism is relativism – the idea that there are no objective moral absolutes because there is no God other than self.
This religion and philosophy has been taught to public school students since at least the 1970s.
This is why marriage rates have declined drastically, divorce has skyrocketed, and living together outside of marriage is common.
In 1965, only 8% of children born in the U.S. were born outside of marriage – about 3% for white children and 24% for black children.
Today, 40% of children are born out of wedlock – 30% for white children and 70% for black children.
8. How to win the ideological war against stable, two-parent families.
Only elections are won by a majority.
Real change takes place by a dedicated minority of people who are determined to:
• make a difference where they live
• never give up or give in, no matter what the cost
The disciples of Jesus were that kind of people in the first century.
Those 11 disciples, plus the apostle Paul, changed the world.
So can dedicated followers of Jesus in the 21st century.
First, we must refuse to conform to our culture’s ways of thinking and living.
We must determine to follow Jesus as parents and grandparents, and to be examples:
• to our children and grandchildren
• to our neighbors
• to our coworkers
• to our local communities
• to any other sphere of influence God gives us
We must also speak out whenever we have an opportunity:
• to encourage fathers to care for and protect their daughters
• to encourage fathers to guide and discipline their sons
• to encourage parents to be engaged in the children’s education
• to discourage out-of-wedlock pregnancies and births
• to encourage married couples to not give up on marriage
Action:
1. Pray for the bold leadership of the Christians in government, that they would speak out –boldly and with grace and wisdom – against harmful, relativistic policies, and for godly, biblical principles.
2. Contact your state and federal representatives and senators and urge them to vote against the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act. Here’s some useful information you can use when you call or write:
The bill is called Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026, and is identified as S.3360 in the Senate and H.R. 8752 in the House.
The Act was introduced in the House by Susie Lee (D-NV). Cosponsors are: Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Becca Balint (D-VT)
In the Senate, Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) introduced the bill. Cosponsors are:
* Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)
* Cory Booker (D-NJ)
* Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
* Dick Durbin (D-IL)
* John Fetterman (D-PA)
* Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
* Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
* Tim Caine (D-VA)
* Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
* Alex Padilla (D-CA)
* Bernie Sanders (D-VT)
3. Get my Voter Guide for recommendations on who to vote for based on their values – especially federal judges nationwide. Click HERE.
4. Get my book, The Christian Voter: 7 Non-Negotiables for Voting For, Not Against, Your Values. Click HERE to order the book online.
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What do you think? Email me at [email protected].
FAQs:
Q. What is the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026?
A. The Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026 is proposed federal legislation that would expand community schools nationwide by providing $3.65 billion in funding over 5 years for educational, health, social, and family support services.
Q. What services would community schools provide?
A. Community schools are designed to provide integrated or ”wraparound” student supports such as healthcare, mental health counseling, nutrition assistance, mentoring, after-school programs, summer programs, adult education classes, housing assistance referrals, and other community-based services.
Q. Who supports the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act?
A. The legislation is supported by several education organizations and teachers’ unions, including the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Coalition for Community Schools, and various state education associations.
Q. Why do critics oppose community schools?
A. Critics argue that community schools expand government influence over children and families, shift responsibilities away from parents, and encourage schools and government agencies to assume roles that traditionally belong to families and local communities.
Q. How do community schools weaken parental involvement in child rearing?
A. When schools provide an expanding range of services traditionally supplied by families, parents may think they can be less involved in raising their children, leading to a weakening of parental authority and responsibility.
Q. Does a traditional family structure and parental involvement affect student success?
A. Numerous studies have found that family stability and parental involvement are strongly associated with positive educational outcomes, including academic achievement, emotional well-being, graduation rates, and long-term success in adulthood.
Q. What has caused the decline of the traditional family structure in the U.S.?
A. The rise of secular humanism and the relativism it espouses has been taught in public schools since the 1970s. This has caused a rejection of absolute moral standards, which has resulted in declining marriage rates and a sharp rise in out-of-wedlock births.
Q. Can anything be done to improve the family structure and increase parental involvement in their children’s education?
A. Yes. Small groups of dedicated and determined people can bring about large cultural changes if they live by example and speak out to their spheres of influence when they have opportunities. Christian parents and grandparents need to start setting an example for their own families, and speak out against relativism and for biblical principles whenever opportunities present themselves.
About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and publisher of The Huey Alert and Direct Marketing Update. He is also the author of The Great Deception: 10 Shocking Dangers and the Blueprint for Rescuing the American Dream, exposing the lies of socialism and defending America’s founding principles. Craig appears on national media such as FOX, FOX Business, Newsmax and more. He also co-hosts The Huey Alert Podcast with his wife Shelly and helps business leaders, Christians, conservatives, libertarians, young people and more understand the intersection of faith, politics, and freedom.