...With liberty and preschool for all.
Tomorrow, Californians will vote on Propostion 82, the "Preschool for All" Act. The ballot initiative , if passed, would would tax the wealthy to pay for free preschool for all 4-year-olds for at least three hours a day.
As Jennifer Roback Morse so clearly states it, "The fate of Proposition 82 matters, even if you don’t live in California. Bad ideas have a way of oozing out of California and into the rest of the country."
Morse also say Prop 82 is bad for California in a couple of ways:
1. It "mandates that the state determine curriculum standards for preschool. Remember, this is the state that micromanged the curriculum to the point of requiring history textbooks to include the contributions of gays, lesbians and transgendered persons. The state legislature has no common sense about the curriculum they are already responsible for, so it's important not to put the little kiddies into their hands any sooner than necessary."
2. ...".supporters of Prop 82 say it will have no impact on 99.4% of the taxpayers, because the program will be funded by a special tax on the highest income bracket. Prop 82 requires a 1.7% tax on individuals with incomes over $400,000. But this claim is misleading... these same taxpayers already pay one third of the state’s annual income taxes. Remember that the state’s solvency is deeply dependent on this handful of people. Last time we had a big recession in California, tax revenues went to hell in a basket. The burst of the "Dot Com" bubble drained wealth from the wealthiest, so these high income people no longer had the income to tax. Besides paying the taxes, these are the people who create jobs in our state. Prop 82 says, "let’s tax them some more." We might as well have a contest to see how many wealthy people we can drive into Nevada."
So, if you're a Californian, if you have no other reason to vote tomorrow, go just to vote no on Prop 82. If you live outside of our great state, take heed of the outcome of this election. If it passes, it may be coming to your state soon.
