The Washington Post's The Fix blog provides a guide to the primary elections across the nation today. For a Califronian like me, the most significant ballot item is not mentioned: Proposition 82, which would create a state—funded (and controlled) universal day care ("preschool") program, supposedly financed by an extra 2% income tax on "the rich." (Should "the rich" decide to move en masse to Nevada, or simply not earn as much in capital gains, guess who is on the hook?)

The program would be outrageously expensive and would add an unnecessary bureaucracy, which would drive Montessori and other existing preschool providers out of business, thanks to curriculum supervision. A terrible idea, courtesy of Rob Reiner, who, by the way, used taxpayer funds to run tens of millions of dollars in TV ads touting the importance of daycare.

Thomas Lifson   6 6 06