Threat to church daycare autonomy may materialize

Senate bill aims to create ratings system that may pose a danger

JEFFERSON CITY – Church daycare facilities could come under control of the state if one Senate bill becomes law during the current session of the Missouri Legislature.

Senate Bill 161 would develop a quality rating system for 100 percent of all child care facilities and early childhood programs operating in the state. Currently, church-operated daycares do not receive government funding and are exempt from any kind of state regulation.

The bill would authorize the Department of Health and Senior Services, in collaboration with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to develop a system by which the facilities and programs would be rated. Parents could check the ratings when selecting a program for their child.

For non-religious facilities, these outcomes would determine how the state would reimburse facilities. For religious facilities, it could mean low ratings for facilities that do not use state-approved curriculum.

Kerry Messer, lobbyist for the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Christian Life Commission, says churches have had a 21-year struggle to maintain the freedom of their child care ministries. The bureaucracy and the child care industry have sought to bring church-run facilities under state regulation.

“The secular child care industry does not like the fact that ministries are competing with them. They have a financial interest as a business as opposed to ministry,” explained Messer.

“The forces opposed to churches having curriculum freedom have apparently given up that battle the last few years. Now those same organizations are working on this rating system.”

If SB 161 receives passage, Messer believes church-run daycare will fall victim to the rating system. “Churches compete with secular facilities in regard to curriculum and daily content. They won’t get a decent rating if they focus on religious instruction,” he said.

Messer is concerned that church child care ministries not be entangled with any government intervention whatsoever, adding that government intervention on one front results in government intervention on other fronts.

“We have to watch out for legislation that creates an environment that could later say these ministries come under control of the state.”

As an example, he cites Senate Bill 260, which deals with daycare credits. In a recent committee hearing, some on the committee presumed that non-licensed daycares receive government funding. Messer said he had the opportunity to correct this misconception, but it could have impacted on SB 161 if he had not been there.

“We’re not opposed to quality. We’re not opposed to competition. We’re not opposed to accountability,” he said.

“But we are opposed to having our religious liberties threatened by the state by being lured into…a state accreditation where the vast majority of everybody else participating has a historic agenda (of wanting) to control the content of religious child care ministries.”