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Our response to Rob Reiner

In the wake of Proposition 82’s decisive defeat, chief benefactor Rob Reiner issued this open invite:

"I want to extend an invitation to our opposition, to those who voted against universal preschool, who have all said preschool is the right thing," Reiner said. "They might not agree with how we wanted to do it, but I’m here to ask them to help us — come up with another way."

Fair enough.  Here’s what we propose.   

First off, it’s important to examine just what Proposition 82 contained:

Prop. 82 would have taxed the state’s wealthiest residents to provide a free year of preschool to every 4-year-old. The tax-the-rich initiative, which had the support of Hollywood activists and labor unions, seemed a sure winner when it was first unveiled earlier this spring.

But at make-or-break time at the polls, this comment seems to sum up voter sentiment:

"Prop. 82 sounded really good, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized it was subject to shenanigans,” said David Yomtov, a San Jose resident who said he voted against it. “Kids should go to preschool, but it didn’t sound like Prop. 82 would help the families who most needed the help.”

For more nitpicky dissection of the initiative, we heartily suggest checking out last month’s Edspresso debate between Joanne Jacobs and Universal Preschool’s Susanna Cooper.  In any event, the upshot is this: California voters clearly weren’t enthused about forking over a big chunk of cash for a program that wouldn’t help those who need it most and would foist help upon those who need it least. 

But as Alan Bonsteel points out, this idea isn’t going away:

It’s very clear that an intelligently-drafted universal government preschool initiative in a high-turnout election in California, and without the baggage of political scandal, would have passed.

Throughout the nation, the debate that the K-12 school choice movement will face is whether we try to hold off government-run universal preschool forever, or whether we fight back with parental choice for universal preschool, including private and religious preschools. My own point of view is clear: if we do nothing, universal government-run preschool will overrun us and make K-12 school choice that much harder to achieve. We should counter with intelligently-designed universal preschool, or preschool for the disadvantaged only, that empowers families with freedom of choice.

In that vein, let’s look at Florida’s voluntary pre-K program.  Unlike California, this program, as noted, is voluntary.  Unlike California, parents may choose to take their kids where they like.  Unlike California, the program primarily uses private providers instead of creating a whole new government infrastructure.  Unlike California, providers have a wide range of flexibility in terms of how they design their programs and the sorts of personnel they can hire.  Unlike California, this program didn’t require a tax increase.  And unlike California, Florida’s voter-approved state constitutional amendment (!) won handily at the polls.  Is it any surprise the program is popular with parents?

So union hyperventilation over Florida vouchers aside, we ask the folks at Universal Preschool to consider what the state has achieved.  Why wouldn’t it work in California in 2008?  The comment thread is wide open.  Better yet, if you want to submit a guest article to respond, drop me a line at rbootsREMOVETHIS at allianceforschoolchoice dot org.