This American Life was a rerun this weekend, but it contained a short piece that’d be an entertaining and informative listen for anyone tracking Seattle’s path toward universal preschool.
In the ’90s, a lawmaker snuck universal preschool into Oklahoma state law—that’s Oklahoma, one of the most conservative states in the country. And the state legislator who snuck it in, Joe Eddins, says to the TAL reporter that it would’ve been aboslutely impossible to pass otherwise:
Eddins: I don’t see it ever being funded if you had to do it like other states do. If you had to say, “Here’s a program that we want to implement, here’s how much money it’ll take.” Whew! Where are you going to get the money? Okay? If you would have to have a line-item appropriation, nobody would’ve supported it except the young mothers, and they have no political clout.
Alex Blumberg: Say other stayes want do something like this—
Eddins: They don’t have a prayer. They don’t have a prayer. They don’t have a prayer. Because it’s expensive, and state legislatures are run by people who want to cut programs, not add programs.
As Goldy’s mentioned, “everybody agrees”—even Republicans—that quality early learning gets results. It’s undeniable. But just like Eddins says, our legislature just doesn’t have the balls to fund it. So, like other cities, Seattle’s gonna have a go at it ourselves, thanks largely to leadership from city council member Tim Burgess.
Check out the TAL story if you have 20 minutes to kill today: