When Philadelphia’s Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney took office earlier this year, he made universal pre-K one of his policy priorities. Now, children as young as three can begin their government indoctrination in the City of Brotherly Love.

But, oh Mr. Mayor. How far behind the times you are. Three years old? To truly get ahold of our kids and mold them into tiny state subjects, government must start much earlier.

Not surprisingly, that’s exactly what some are suggesting.

As The Federalist’s Joy Pullman reports, a new research paper co-authored by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman suggests eight weeks old is about the right age to hand children from low-income households or born to unmarried parents over to the government. Eight weeks. It turns out that shipping four-year-olds off to the state for pre-K isn’t quite doing the trick.

Heckman blames the failure on the fact that by the time kids hit pre-K, it’s already too late to affect their language development. This is a predictable cop-out for the abject failure of pre-K programs to deliver the educational utopia promised. In fact, Pullman notes that “the most recent research shows mass early childhood programs have even made more kids hate learning and commit more crimes.”

Even more, the push toward infant indoctrination is a predictable shift in strategy to achieve the true goal of government education: Advancing the philosophy of the state to produce global citizens who fully embrace a humanist ideology devoid of objective truth.

Those who scream “alarmist” at this claim have their heads stuck in the sand or in another bodily crevice. Just consider the move toward “social emotional learning” (SEL) standards, already in use in several districts across the country, including Atlanta, Austin and Chicago. As if Common Core weren’t disastrous enough, SEL standards measure kids from kindergarten (or one might say as early as eight weeks old if “experts” like Heckman get their way) through high school on “non-cognitive” factors, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Yes, government now wants to psychoanalyze our children and, of course, store this analysis in government databases. What could go wrong?

A lot, say American Principles Project’s Jane Robbins and pediatrician Dr. Karen Effrem. “Who might want to get their hands on that data? Would a college or employer be interested in whether a particular applicant shows curiosity or ‘grit’? Would a prosecutor like to know if a young suspect lacked ‘relationship skills’ in high school?” In no universe is it sane to invite the government into a child’s psychological development.

Beyond tracking children’s mindsets, SEL gives the government greater ability to shape kids’ views on issues ranging from climate change to gender and sexuality. Robbins and Effrem note, for example, that one of SEL’s major financial backers is the NoVo Foundation, whose mission includes “changing social attitudes, relationships, and institutions that perpetuate injustice.” Last year, NoVo launched a five-year initiative with the Arcus Foundation to “improve the lives of transgender people.”

Now, consider that NoVo hopes SEL will “play a significant role in shifting our culture of systemic inequality and violence toward a new ethos.” Did you catch that? NoVo wants SEL to help change cultural views. It’s hardly a stretch to realize this includes views on so-called “LGBT” issues. As Robbins and Effrem write, “[M]ight a student’s ‘relationship skills’ be deemed deficient if, in keeping with the influence of his family and faith, he rejects the LGBT agenda such as same-sex marriage and normalization of gender dysphoria?” Indeed, one sample lesson given by an SEL partner urges students to “take action toward transgender equity.”

Where are the parents in all this? Not interfering, if the government has its way.

Parents may think school standards are purely academic, but they would be dead wrong. Communist Dictator Vladimir Lenin wasn’t kidding when he said, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

Leftists want your kids from Day One to plant their seeds. And far too many parents are handing their children over without a second thought.