DENVER PRESCHOOL TAX by Phil Goodstein - December 2014 Naysayer

The Denver preschool tax once more narrowly gained voter authorization. Since its adoption in 2006, it has been used to fund a coalition of self-styled improvers and babysitters who have embraced preschools as both salvation and a business.
From the beginning, advocates of the preschool tax have not addressed the most fundamental of issues. If preschool is a positive good for society, why should it be in private hands? In particular, why should parents wanting their toddlers in preschool have to pay for enrolling them? Why should not preschools be part of a universal public school system? For that matter, why, instead of drawing on the reactionary sales tax, should they not be financed with the rest of the public school system? By once more avoiding these issues and perpetuating their empire, the champions of the preschool tax show themselves to be the Naysayer of the Month.
(The Naysayers will meet at Javier’s, northwest corner of W. 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street, Saturday, December 6, 4:30 PM.)