Re: San Diego UT on Prop 82

[Lisa Lisa <teacher_davis2002@yahoo.com>]

I can't believe that anyone is for this prop 82. I am
an educator with a Master's degree and I have worked
in preschools as I was obtaining my education degree
many years ago.  I have seen firsthand the conditions
that are out there.  

Prop 82 is a pipedream!! If our schools are already
below budget and underfunded, WHO IS GOING TO TRAIN
AND PAY the preschool teachers and upgrade the
preschools??  Who is really going to give a quality
education to children when they are making minimum
wage, or close to it??  In case you haven't checked
the salary or requirements of the majority of
preschool teachers, you just might want to.....
Also, how many early childhood experts are actually
for this??  It just makes me sad that we think we are
going to FIX THE FAMILY by taking the kids away from
it and forcing them with more structure and less time
to just be kids...this is simply backwards thinking. 
UGH!

--- George Sheridan <learn@jps.net> wrote:

> Governor Schwarzenegger opposes Proposition 82. Any
> time one of us finds 
> himself or herself on the same side as the Governor,
> we need to look again 
> at our reasoning and the potential outcomes of our
> actions. I like 82 
> because I know that in most families with young
> children both parents are 
> working and they scramble to patch together any kind
> of care for their 
> children. A clean safe place with people who have
> some training in child 
> development and will not use the TV as a babysitter
> is a huge advance. I 
> support 82 because my sister is a preschool teacher
> and I'd like her to 
> earn a decent salary. And I support 82 because I am
> a primary teacher and 
> it's so obvious which of our children have had
> preschool and which have not.
> 
> I think Jo Behm is mistaken in seeing the interests
> of preschool children 
> and high school students as opposed to each other.
> To me, passage of 82 
> actually makes it more likely that politicians will
> have the courage to 
> raise taxes on corporations (which is, of course,
> where the real money is). 
> I think the corporate opponents of 82 know that.
> They aren't funding a 
> campaign just to hold down their personal income tax
> rates.
> 
> I kind of enjoyed this editorial from the San
> Francisco Bay Guardian
> 
> *
> Proposition 82: Preschool education and higher taxes
> on the wealthy - YES
> 
> A political coalition headed up by actor-director
> Rob Reiner has been 
> pushing Proposition 82, which guarantees universal
> preschool for California 
> four-year-olds. The case is strong: A wide range of
> studies show that 
> attending quality preschool is a strong indicator of
> future academic success.
> 
> But what's at least as important about Prop. 82 is
> its funding mechanism: a 
> 1.7 percent tax on individuals making more than
> $400,000 and couples making 
> more than $800,000. That would be good in itself,
> restoring incomes taxes 
> to where they were when the state had adequate
> funding for education. 
> Naturally, that provision has triggered an
> opposition campaign led by 
> antitax zealots like the Gap's Fisher family.
> 
> So with a yes vote, you can offer preschool to all
> California children, tax 
> the rich (who actually won't be hurt much because
> they can write off state 
> taxes on their federal income taxes), and take a
> stand against Don Fisher. 
> That's a no-brainer.
> 
> At 09:15 PM 6/5/2006 -0700, Rich Gibson wrote:
> >It seems to me that Defending Public Schools and
> Opposing Prop 82 is 
> >contradictory. Perhaps someone can explain why it
> is not.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It's hard to be activist, but it's also very
> rewarding to feel that you are 
> part of the active citizenry who dare to attempt to
> change the world.
> 
> In attempting to effect change, you have all other
> like-minded individuals 
> who will carry on with the struggle, generation
> after generation.
> 
> Abolition, independence, universal suffrage,
> gay-lesbian movements, 
> etc.--they all took decades and even centuries and
> the world of 1776 has 
> been changed to something which is totally
> unrecognizable in a little over 
> 200 years! History is on the side of those who try
> to change.
> 
> We may be fighting the uphill battle, but surely not
> a losing one.
> 
> - Zarni, founder of the Free Burma Coalition and
> professor at National 
> Louis University in Chicago
>