Initiative for Texas Information Bulletin # 17

Voters reject Prop. 82 --- June 7, 2006
By Dana Hull, San Jose Mercury News

California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state.

Throughout much of the evening, returns showed that 60 percent of voters statewide opposed Prop. 82 while just 40 percent supported it, making it nearly impossible for the measure to ever get the simple majority it needed to pass.

``It doesn't look good,'' admitted Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who spoke to about 200 supporters at a Los Angeles hotel ballroom shortly after 10 p.m. But he vowed to fight on, saying that the push for universal preschool would not go away. ``This is important, and if it is not today the train has left the station.''

Though voter turnout was low across California, by 1 a.m. it appeared that Prop. 82 failed in every county except Alameda and San Francisco. It was evenly split in Imperial County.

Many San Jose area voters took their skepticism about the measure to the polls.

``Prop. 82 sounded really good, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized it was subject to shenanigans,'' said David Yomtov, a San Jose resident who said he voted against it. ``Kids should go to preschool, but it didn't sound like Prop. 82 would help the families who most needed the help.''

The ``No on 82'' campaign claimed victory shortly before midnight.

``We're grateful for this vote of confidence by California voters,'' said Pamela Zell Rigg, president of the California Montessori Council, which campaigned against the measure. ``In the meantime, the state education system can focus on serving K-12 students.''

Prop. 82 would have taxed the state's wealthiest residents to provide a free year of preschool to every 4-year-old. The tax-the-rich initiative, which had the support of Hollywood activists and labor unions, seemed a sure winner when it was first unveiled earlier this spring.

Proponents argued that making high-quality preschool available to the state's nearly 500,000 4-year-olds would be a huge boost to working families that struggle to pay for preschool, which often costs thousands of dollars a year.

Supporters also said investing in preschool would improve K-12 education by bridging the achievement gap separating wealthier children from their low-income counterparts.

Silicon Valley opposed

But Reiner and his campaign aides overestimated the breadth of their support -- and misjudged the depth of the opposition's.

Prop. 82 was attacked by anti-tax activists and Silicon Valley's vast venture capital community, which donated heavily to the ``No on 82'' campaign. Critics also warned that the measure would not do enough to help the state's poorest families.

Another salvo came from private preschools, notably many Montessori schools, over concerns that increased competition from a state-run program would threaten their business and their education philosophies.

The television commercials against Prop. 82 deftly capitalized on those fears, consistently warning it would do little to raise preschool enrollment while creating a ``preschool bureaucracy.'' The ads also urged California to fix K-12 schools before taking on the role of educating even younger children.

Reiner, who along with his wife and father, director Carl Reiner, spent more than $4 million on the campaign, came under relentless attack in the spring. As a result, the proposition's No. 1 pitchman was sidelined before the campaign even got off the ground.

``The `No' side ran a pretty effective campaign,'' said Jack Pitney, an American politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. ``Opponents did a very skillful job of raising doubts. If Rob Reiner wants a future in California politics, he will have to work to rebuild his image.''

Reiner resigned March 30 as chairman of the state's First 5 California Children and Families Commission. He had already taken a leave of absence amid conflict-of-interest allegations stemming from his dual role as chair of the state commission and the main person behind Prop. 82.

First 5 California spent $23 million in state money on ads touting the benefits of preschool just as signatures for Prop. 82 were being gathered. That lead lawmakers to order an audit that should be completed this summer. The First 5 California flap was an enormous distraction that, for weeks, put Reiner and his campaign aides on the defensive.

``The First 5 controversy cost them a huge amount of good will,'' said Republican strategist Dan Schnur. ``It put Reiner on the sidelines, and they lost all of the positive media.''

Though defeated, universal preschool proponents vowed late Tuesday night to never give up the fight. While another ballot initiative is unlikely, many hope that local and state officials will take steps to further expand access to preschool.

``Hundreds of thousands of kids will still be without quality preschool,'' said Maryann O'Sullivan of Preschool California, an Oakland-based non-profit that has been working on universal preschool since 2003. ``We're still going to work at the state and local level to improve quality and expand access to preschool.''