Stand for Health Freedom has been tracking the rapid expansion of School-based health services in schools for the last several years. We have been sounding the alarm bells of the federal government’s well-funded agenda to put full-service health centers in every school. Holcomb also made this a priority and now years later four bills have been filed to make this a reality in Indiana.
HB1238 requires the state to help schools establish school based health centers. This is dangerous because schools are not situated to oversee and govern a child’s healthcare relationships.
We have spoken with medical doctors who are concerned that schools getting into healthcare territory will guarantee that the care provided is at the lowest level (because a school’s primary function is to educate children, not treat medical problems). If schools across the state adopt these healthcare programs, the most accessible level of healthcare will be of the lowest quality. We should not settle for reduced standards in healthcare. Schools have already fallen short of standards time and time again, being forced to lower the bar further each time they do. Our children are already suffering from the poor quality of the standardization of education; let’s not standardize the lowest quality of healthcare, too.
Many advocates of healthcare expansion in schools justify the erosion of the school day by saying it will have a positive impact on the economy when parents miss less work. But bringing health services into schools under the guise of increasing the parent’s work productivity is not a compassionate approach. The most compassionate approach is to empower and support parents to meet the needs of their children.
Click to email your Indiana state senator and the education committee today to ask them to oppose HB1238 requiring Indiana to support the expansion of school based health centers for Hoosier children.