On Pre-K Quality, Funding, “Virginia has lost traction and needs to change course”

Yet again, heckuva job by Bob McDonnell! (not)

According to “The State of Preschool 2011: State Preschool Yearbook”… Virginia spent $3,808 per student in 2011, the smallest amount in the report’s 10-year history and an 11.5 percent decrease from 2010. The commonwealth had the resources to enroll just 16 percent of 4-year-olds.

“Virginia has lost traction and needs to change course. If I’m a parent of a preschooler, I’m going to look to live in D.C.,” Barnett said. “It’s not quite ‘man bites dog,’ but it’s a different story where D.C. truly is the leader.”

McDonnell’s approach is in stark contrast to that of Tim Kaine, who put enormous emphasis on the importance of pre-K education. Here’s what Kaine had to say, back in December 2011, about McDonnell slashing spending for this crucial program.

It represents a short term approach to expense cutting that will actually prove fiscally unwise in the future…The more we do to help our youngest succeed, the more the commonwealth succeeds. Saving at children’s expense is always the wrong approach.

So true; as usual, the priorities of Republicans like Bob McDonnell are bass-ackwards, shortsighted, and counterproductive. What would you rather have, universal pre-K for Virginia kids or tax breaks to attract super-wealthy companies, like Northrop-Grumman, which end up actually cutting jobs (or possibly, to be generous, adding a tiny handful) in Virginia? Gee, that’s a tough one.