[Vision2020] Power to the Preschoolers

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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June 5, 2013
Power to the Preschoolers By GAIL
COLLINS<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/gailcollins/index.html>

“Spread the word about President Obama’s plan to provide high-quality
preschool for every kid in America,” twittered the White House on
Wednesday. We all know that nothing on the planet compares to the awesome
power of social media. But it may require more than a hashtag to bring this
one home.

You may remember that earlier this spring, the president unveiled a budget
plan that included a big initiative on early childhood education. Universal
pre-K for 4-year-olds! More programs for low-income infants and toddlers!
Big push for higher quality! And to help pay for it all, a new
94-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes.

Everybody was so excited. “This is going to be wonderful,” said former Vice
President Walter Mondale. (We will stop here for one minute and recall that
when Mondale was in the Senate, he successfully led a bipartisan effort to
make quality preschool programs available to every American family. Then
Richard Nixon vetoed the bill. Flash forward 42 years, and here we are,
backward.)

But about Obama’s plan. How could this not work out? The nation’s fabled
upward mobility has come to a screeching halt because low-income kids start
behind in kindergarten and never catch up. Nobody has come up with a better
idea for fixing the problem than early childhood education.

“People in my home state are like — ‘Oh, my God! I’m so glad you’re talking
about this,’ ” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington.

Residents of Washington, you are really doing an excellent job of lobbying
Murray on this issue. But, honestly, she is not your problem. Patty Murray
used to be a *preschool teacher*. If you happen to have any relatives in
Kentucky, call them up and tell them to start nagging Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell.

“The Leader opposes tax hikes,” a McConnell spokesman said when asked about
the president’s plan. Notice that he did not say *cigarette* tax. Kentucky
lawmakers are so committed to tobacco that former Senator Jim Bunning once
single-handedly held up President Obama’s nominee for deputy U.S. trade
representative because he was angry at Canada for banning the sale of
candy-flavored cigarettes. But there’s something about saying “I oppose
using a tax on Marlboros to fund education of low-income 4-year-olds” that
people seem to find unpleasant.

I am telling you all this because nothing major is going to happen for
early-childhood education without an enormous groundswell of public demand.
This is a cause that’s extremely popular in theory. But its advocates have
no power to reward or punish. Lawmakers who labor on behalf of preschool
programs may get stars in heaven, but they don’t get squat in campaign
contributions. And the ones who eliminate money for infant care programs
have no fear whatsoever that they’ll lose an election over it.

Look at McConnell. The Head Start programs in his state are already
shrinking because of sequestration cuts. In western Kentucky, Audubon Area
Community Services has had to close 12 classrooms and lay off 42 staff
members. McConnell is running for re-election, but you do not see him
sending out press releases demanding more money for preschool teachers. No,
he’s bragging about killing an amendment to the farm bill that would have
eliminated tobacco subsidies. (“I was happy to lead the fight to protect
our farmers from another assault by Washington to go after our home-state
jobs.”)

If you want to lobby, I’d start with the Senate. The House is impossible,
working under a budget that cuts spending on health and education about 22
percent below last year’s level. This is part of Representative Paul Ryan’s
plan to free Americans from the chains of government dependency, which
proved so popular during last year’s presidential race. (In this chapter,
we liberate 4-year-olds from the shackles of learning the alphabet.)

In the Senate, the budget is committed to expanding early-childhood
education. But to do something big, you need new revenues, and there’s no
mention of specific taxes. “I’m not going to say that we have to have a
cigarette tax and lose it that way,” said Murray.

This is really a job for the Senate Finance Committee. So you might want to
reach out to Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman. Tell Max Baucus
you want a cigarette tax! And then there are the reasonable Republicans.
These days, to get a big breakthrough, you have to start with a bipartisan
clique, like the Gang of Eight on immigration reform. If you have a
Republican senator, feel free to write a note saying something like:
“Quality preschool! Join a gang!”

There are plenty of ways to lobby without big money. Go to your
legislator’s next town hall and speak up forcefully, while trying to avoid
sounding like the people in the back of the hall who think the United
Nations is after their assault rifles.

If all else fails, there’s always Twitter.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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