Measure would destroy preschools already serving two-thirds of eligible children

LOS ANGELES – The Libertarian Party of California (LPC) adopted a resolution at its state convention this weekend opposing Proposition 82, the "California Preschool for All Act," and urges all Californians to vote against the measure. The resolution condemning Prop. 82 was passed unanimously. The delegates who voted represented Libertarian Party county affiliates from all corners of California.

The measure, if it passes in June, would increase the state income tax on high-income earners by 18 percent, creating the nation's highest state-level top income tax bracket rate. The tax would siphon off an estimated $2.5 billion a year of Californian's wealth to be transferred to the state for facilities enhancements, preschool teacher training and teacher certification programs, as well as administrator and teacher salaries. The act would make half-day, tax-supported preschool available to California 4-year olds. Estimated participation would be 70 percent of the eligible preschool age children; around 385,000 children statewide.

According to the Legislative Analysts office, 66 percent of California 4-year olds are currently enrolled in preschool. Besides state-supported programs, there is a wide variety of Montessori, religious-run and other private preschools that offer rich choices for parents and competition among schools, contributing to low cost and high quality.

Said LPC Chair Aaron Starr, "Hundreds of thousands of California parents are already providing preschool for their children with little or no support from taxpayers. Prop. 82 would increase that number by only a few percent, but in the process would effectively kill off our current private-sector preschools and replace them with an expensive and dysfunctional state-managed system.

"Other means of making preschool accessible to a higher percentage of students, such as educational tax credits, could better accomplish the policy objective without destroying what is already working."

Added LPC Executive Committee member Kevin Takenaga, "The pressure for private preschools to accept government subsidies so they can compete financially with the new free public preschools will be tremendous. But, it's a devil's bargain. Once a school accepts any funds, the government will tell them what to teach, who to hire and how much to pay them."

The universal preschool plan requires that teacher salary levels follow the current teacher's union collectively-bargained K-12 salary schedule, greatly increasing the operating cost for most private preschools.

"In short order we will spiral down to a one-size-fits-all system, similar to the near-monopoly system of California's failing K-12 grade levels," said Allen Hacker, one of the resolution's authors. "Limiting choice for parents, teachers and children is a sure recipe for increased costs and declining quality. Surely, if we value our children and our children's education, we will not replace the good private schools they go to today with inferior public schools. If anything, we should be offering more school choice at the higher grade levels."