[sportutegrl]

This year both Reiner and Hastings are back. For the June ballot, Reiner has qualified Proposition 82 that would increase taxes on high income Californians to provide preschool for all at a cost estimated by the Reason Foundation of $109,000 per year for each additional child that the program would cover.

Am I reading this wrong? 109K per child for a preschool. This seems outrageous. There is a very good preschool here in Pennsylvania that I was looking into that charges 575 a month for 5 half days per week. That works out to at most 4000 to 5000 per year. Full time boarding schools for grade school kids don't cost 109K. I question this number.

[Bob]

Full time boarding schools for grade school kids don't cost 109K. I question this number.

Privately-run boarding schools don't cost 109K but, remember, this is a government-run program. That cost figure doesn't surprise me in the least.

[calcowgirl]

For the June ballot, Reiner has qualified Proposition 82 that would increase taxes on high income Californians to provide preschool for all at a cost estimated by the Reason Foundation of $109,000 per year for each additional child that the program would cover.

The key is in the wording.

Since most children already attend preschool (at the expense of their parents), the Reason Foundation estimated how many additional children might attend, then divided the total of the First 5 funds by those additional children. Here is an excert from their website:

California Universal Preschool Plan Would Cost $109,000 Per New Preschooler

Los Angeles (February 22, 2006) – If California's $2.4 billion Preschool for All initiative meets its goal of 70 percent enrollment, just 22,000 new four-year-olds would enroll, meaning it would cost taxpayers a whopping $109,000 per new preschooler, according to a new Reason Foundation policy brief that analyzes the preschool initiative that will be on California's statewide ballot in June and existing universal preschool programs across the country.

The Legislative Analyst's Office says 66 percent of California's four-year-olds are already attending preschool, so why should taxpayers spend $2.4 billion a year on a new universal preschool plan that only hopes to get 70 percent, just an additional 4 percent of four-year-olds, into preschool? They shouldn't.

(snip)