It is, at best, useless for children. At worst, it actively harms them. It is a money suck that school administrators, teachers, early childhood experts, and psychologists think is completely unnecessary at best, and counterproductive at worst.
It is, in fact, nothing but a pay off to the teachers union that bought and paid for Governor Dayton.
And it’s the line in the sand that Governor Flint – Smith Dayton is drawing:.
Gov. Mark Dayton stood by his threat Sunday to veto the public schools funding bill, saying he has made his priority of enhanced prekindergarten spending clear for months, and vowing that House Republicans would pay the biggest political cost if it results in a long, messy special session.
“I will, again, I will veto” an education bill if it only includes $400 million in new money for schools, Dayton said in a Sunday afternoon press conference. His pronouncement came after he met separately with GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt and DFL Senate Leader Tom Bakk.
In this next week, look for a lot of editorials, written with furrowed brow, commenting on “reckless Republicans” “shortchanging” “the children”, almost as if the DFL and the various editorial boards had coordinated their approach to the issue (perish the thought).
Question: Was this a primary issue in Gov Flint Smith, err, Gov Dayton’s last campaign? Answer: No, it wasn’t.
Interestingly, on KFAN yesterday, the predictably reliable Liberal Dan Barriero came out strongly against it and even featured a caller (for what that’s worth) who claimed to be a solid DFL’r with early child edu. degrees who has managed day cares and done public pre-school instruction as well who said this enhanced pre-K is a terrible idea with all kinds of known / unknown consequences. She included that most day care centers lose money on infant care and need those 3-4 years olds to balance their P&L. In addition, if it’s not all day, who cares for the kid after “school”? So much for “free” if you then have to pay a day care to do after school care too.
I heard that call, Seflores. It was surprising, to say the least.
I’ve found Barriero to be a pretty even-handed guy as these things go. He naturally leans left, but he’s willing to ask questions – especially of inane premises or actions. His shows with Ron Rosenbaum are generally pretty good and interesting. His show has become the only one on KFAN that I can stand to listen to anymore.
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