California Primary Election 2006 Results Watch: Rob Reiner’s Proposition 82 Preschool Initiative LOSES BIG
Prop. 82 was spawned by Reiner, who in 1998 led the successful tobacco tax initiative known as Proposition 10, which provides about $550 million a year in “First Five” funding for early childhood programs.
San Francisco Chronicle: Measure to tax rich for preschool for all heading for defeat
A pitch for universal preschool that had split parents, business interests and members of political parties appeared headed for defeat Tuesday night after a hard-fought campaign.
Proposition 82 would have placed California in the forefront of a growing national movement to provide publicly supported preschool.
Supporters of the initiative called it the best fix for a struggling K-12 system by giving all 4-year-olds the basic skills needed to succeed in school. But opponents warned it could merely expand a failed state education bureaucracy and said voters needed to read the fine print of an initiative with natural appeal.
With 44 percent of votes counted statewide, the measure was losing by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.
Prop. 82 champion Rob Reiner sounded defeated as he addressed cheering supporters at a Los Angeles hotel Tuesday night.
“Right now, it doesn’t look good, but it doesn’t matter,” the Hollywood director said. “Win or lose, we have raised the profile of the importance of early childhood education, and it will never go away.”
Reiner called on opponents who said they supported the idea of publicly supported preschool — just not the proposition’s details — to help craft an alternative.
Opponents were optimistic.
“We’re feeling pretty confident the results will hold up,” said Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the No on 82 campaign. “Voters rejected a tax increase to create a $2.4 billion preschool bureaucracy.”
The measure would have levied an additional 1.7 percent tax on the incomes of couples who make more than $800,000 and individuals who make more than $400,000, starting Jan. 1, 2007. Preschools could apply to begin using the funding in 2010.
An estimated 62 to 65 percent of California 4-year-olds now attend some form of preschool, but the proposition’s backers said many of those programs are of low quality and would be replaced by better schools with more highly trained teachers.
Reiner and his LEFT Hollywood friends lost big time with this tax the rich universal preschool scheme.
Everyone knows that preschool is good for children.
And everyone knows that California public schools are some of the USA’s worst. And Reiner wanted to create another under-performing school bureaucracy.
California voters said NO and in a big way.
The Initiative:
PROPOSITION 82
OFFICIAL TITLE AND SUMMARY 
Prepared by the Attorney General
Preschool Education. Tax on Incomes Over $400,000 for Individuals; $800,000 for Couples. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
• Establishes a right to voluntary preschool for all four-year old children.
• Funded by a 1.7% tax on individual incomes above $400,000; $800,000 for couples.
• Administered by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction and county school superintendents.
• Directs counties to prepare reports on curricula, outreach, facilities, childcare coordination,
budgeting, teacher recruitment and pay.
• Limits administrative expenses; requires program audits.
• Requires state Superintendent to develop a preschool teaching credential with financial aid
for credential students.
• Excludes revenue from appropriation limits, Proposition 98 calculations.
Summary of Legislative Analyst’s Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:
• Increased state revenues of about $2.1 billion in 2007–08, growing annually with the economy
to around $2.6 billion in 2010–11, when the preschool program would be open to all 4-year olds in the state.
• Revenues would be used solely for new state preschool program and would be spent to run
the program, pay for facilities, train teachers, and provide an operating reserve
Yes: 1,577,048 – 39.1 %
No: 2,453,578 – 60.9 %
The Hollywood Left and Rob Reiner were repudiated at the polls.
Rob Reiner on the stump for Proposition 82
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