Plan for Free Preschool Divide Old Allies

Beyond the scores of primary races that dominate the June 6 election, California voters will decide whether to tax the rich to provide free preschool to all the state’s 4-year-olds.

Proposition 82 would raise an estimated $2.4 billion annually by taxing individuals who earn more than $400,000 and couples who earn more than $800,000. By 2010, that would fund a free year of voluntary, half-day preschool at public schools and private learning centers for all children, regardless of family income. Classes would be limited to 20 children, tended by a credentialed teacher with a bachelor’s degree and an assistant.

“Proposition 82 is a historic opportunity to invest in California’s children and strengthen our schools,” said campaign spokesman Nathan James. “Right now in California, only one out of five children have access to quality preschool. Proposition 82 will make quality preschool programs freely available to all 4-year-olds.”

Opponents argue that though the measure is well-intentioned, its details are fatally flawed: The billions of dollars it would raise would be better spent on the state’s public school system, they say, instead of providing a subsidy to the middle-class and well-off who can afford to pay for preschool.

“I like preschool. I think it’s a great idea and I would like to see more of it. But 82 is not the way to go,” said Rick Claussen, campaign manager for the opposition. “If you’re going to raise taxes this much, there are certainly a lot of better ways to spend it than on this program.”

Voters strongly backed the measure after it qualified for the ballot, but support dropped when proposition architect and filmmaker Rob Reiner stepped down as chairman of the state’s First Five Commission after it was revealed that the panel spent $23 million on ads touting preschool as signatures were being gathered to place Proposition 82 on the ballot.

Reiner has since been noticeably absent from the campaign to push the measure. But his money, and his family’s, has not: Reiner, his wife and his father have contributed at least $4.7 million of the $13.2 million that supporters have raised. The Reiner family’s contributions are surpassed only by labor unions’, which total at least $4.5 million.

The opposition has raised slightly more than $7 million, largely from business interests and wealthy individuals, including Gap family heir John Fisher and venture capitalist William Bowes.

Unlike many recent California ballot measures, which were supported or opposed along party lines, Proposition 82 has split traditional allies and has proponents and detractors in both Republican and Democratic camps.

The state Chamber of Commerce opposes it; the Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco chambers support it. Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa and Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides are in favor, but other liberal lawmakers, including state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland and former state Sen. John Burton oppose it. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also opposes the measure, but his former education secretary and fellow Republican, Richard Riordan, not only supports it but is a co-chairman of the pro-82 campaign.