On a panel promoting pre-Kindergarten programs at a conference recently in Austin, Texas, a pair of government officials–one local, one federal–made their case.
Representing the City of New York, Richard Buery suggested that employing universal preschool is the number-one issue for Mayor Bill de Blasio.
To critics of increasingly centralized learning schemes, Buery had something to say. “There are people who do not want us to succeed for a variety of reasons,” he acknowledged. “People speak ill of government so often.” But apparently there is nothing about which to worry because “[g]overnment is doing big things for people.” Far-left Democrats “control the levers of government,” stated Buery proudly. Perhaps Mayor De Blasio can console himself with that thought the next time he gets booed at a Mets game.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Libby Doggett thanked Congress for its latest budget appropriation. However, not all is well. “With the political winds the way that they are,” Doggett noted, it is imperative that universal pre-K is implemented immediately.
While “recently in Alabama, of all places,” relayed Doggett condescendingly, she discovered that the Yellowhammer State has an early educational platform. Governor Robert Bentley, a Republican, reportedly promises to have every four-year-old enrolled in preschool.
More money is another bureaucratic battle cry. Doggett complained of having to educate on a so-called shoestring. “Quality [education] costs,” she asserted, adding that America must “get more investment in this underfunded field.” In this public servant’s mind pre-Kindergarten schooling ought to be funded normally, “through really good taxpayer dollars.” If only really good taxpayers had any.
