Rob Reiner was in the Bay Area today promoting his latest nanny government initiative, Preschool for All. According to the Oakland Tribune, he is scheduled to submit 1 million signatures today to put his initiative on the June 2006 ballot. The initiative proposes to increase the income tax of individual making more than $400,000 a year, and couples making $800,000 a year, by 1.7 percent.
Reiner fielded questions about his proposal on the Ronn Owens show, a top-rated moderate radio talk show host here in the Bay Area. While I will admit to having a knee-jerk reaction to any political that comes out of Reiner’s mouth, it was interesting to hear him try to sell his universal pre-school ideas—particularly, when the calls coming in were predominantly against him.
Reiner’s pitch is fascinating: universal preschool will fix the K-12 system and will save money (less money will be needed for remedial learning classes). And he is promising that universal preschool will eliminate the problem of children entering the K-12 system without speaking English.
Here’s what scary about Reiner’s proposal.
Quality is the magic word. A recent UC Berkeley/Stanford study that showed that although preschool does help lower and middle income children with the math and language skills, it also showed that “all children who attended preschool at least 15 hours a week displayed more negative social behaviors such as trouble cooperating or acting up, when compared with their peers.” When questioned about this study, Reiner and his campaign spokespeople start talking about “quality.”
"Absent any information about what kind of quality the kids in this study were getting, the findings are meaningless," said Susanna Cooper, director of communications for Preschool California, told the San Francisco Chronicle when the study was published. "There may very well be these social (problems), but I don’t know what they’re from. Maybe these kids were in mediocre low-quality childcare situations. Were they overcrowded? What was the ratio of kids to adults? What was the training of the adults they were with?"
In her lame response, Cooper didn’t even attempt to answer why kids from wealthier families showed the most harm from preschool. These are not likely to be kids in overcrowded, mediocre childcare programs.
But in every document they create and every speech give, Reiner and his campaign spokespeople talk about “high quality.” They know what “quality” preschool your child needs—you don’t. They plan to dictate a “quality” curriculum for this new state-run program.
Right. And the State Department of Education knows what “high quality” K-12 education is too. Just ask ‘em. But don’t ask the parents stuck in any number of the failing schools in my public school district—Oakland Unified. A quality public school education in most neighborhoods in
An Educational Continuum. Reiner is a strong proponent of early childhood education and says that his universal preschool idea is “is part of a continuum, a learning continuum, that starts even at birth.”
He went on to say that he “looking to create a continuum from a child is born” to the end of their “school career.”
As I see it, universal preschool is Reiner’s foot in the door to state-sponsored, universal child care centers.
Friends & Foes
Interestingly, the California Teachers’ Association has not yet endorsed Reiner’s initiative. And the common wisdom says that they probably won’t. Why? One word: money. If approved, the money raised by this initiative would be set-aside in a special account that can only be used for the universal preschool program. There wouldn’t be any easy way for the CTA to make any kind of grab for the preschool money.
They’ll take the tack they are taking with Schwarzenegger’s after-school program (which could start in the next budget year since revenues are up, meeting a trigger requirement in the law).
Bob Blattner, an education lobbyist, told the San Diego Tribune that the education community doesn’t support the after-school program, not when “…the core educational programs – the muscle and bone – have been starved.”
When, oh when, will the taxpayers finally tire of the CTA’s cries that
The official proponents for the Preschool for All measure, according to Secretary of State documents, are attorneys with the Bay Area law firm of Remcho, Johnsen & Purcell. Remcho, Johnsen & Purchell worked on Reiner’s Tobacco Tax initiative in 1998 and has a leftist who’s-who client list of the clients: Consumer Attorneys of California, the California Teachers Association, the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, the Service Employees International Union, and the State Department of Education.
Reiner is touting his endorsements from big business entities, such as the
According to Reiner, selfishness is the only reason someone might oppose this initiative.
If Reiner is so convinced that preschool is the answer to society’s problems, why doesn’t he just raise millions of dollars (or donate them) and create a private program that can help families based on need.
I wish I could oppose this initiative because it would increase my taxes (it won’t). I oppose this silly measure because it unnecessarily expands government while illogically raises taxes on just one segment of society. I hope that the majority of voters in June 2006 agree.