When Preschool = Free Daycare

In the Spring of 2007, I had a couple of letters to the editor published in The Des Moines Register. The letters decried a bill in the Democrat-controlled Iowa legislature that would create a statewide, taxpayer-funded preschool program. The bill was paassed and signed into law by our goofball governor at the time, at a then-estimated first year cost to taxpayers of $15 million. (Actual cost since then: $156 million.)

I was reminded of this again this week, as the now-Republican controlled legislature attempts to end this program along with many others, to cut spending. Actually, it wouldn't be eliminated, but replaced by a voucher system with income/means testing. Sounds reasonable, right?

Well, the tax-and-spenders don't think so. Nor do the parents who want to use the preschool program. They want us to believe that the tax money is worth it, that we're getting better-prepared kids out of this deal. They have better 'social skills' you know. And they can really fingerpaint up a storm.

The thing is, there's no independent study that can verify that preschool leads to a better civilization, and certainly no way to justify the cost. Regardless, if a person truly believed it was worth it, they should be willing to pay for it themselves. Why socialize the cost to taxpayers who don't believe in it?

My argument against what some call 'free' preschool today is the same as it was in 2007. If we're being intellectually honest, a program with no means testing is all about dual-career parents who don't want to pay for daycare.

Here an exerpt of the letters I wrote:

"Unless someone gives Iowa a golden goose or a money tree, I doubt Iowa taxpayers will consider it to be 'free' preschool. At a projected cost of $75 million annually by 2013-2014, that isn't free preschool, it's taxpayer-funded daycare. A statewide preschool program is simply a natural evolution from all-day kindergarten, another taxpayer-funded creation that didn't exist entil dual income parents decided they didn't want to pay for another year of full-time daycare. If it's so worth it, why stop at preschool? Just set up a program that makes Iowa taxpayers fund an educational program that starts at birth."

I should submit those old letters to the Register now - they're still accurate.