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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2020)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 15, 2020 | PAGE 3 ...Union-backed universal preschool initiative seeks signatures From Page 1 from engaging in an anti-union campaign, and would have to agree to binding arbitration if ei- ther party requests it if no collec- tive bargaining agreement had been reached after a year of bar- gaining. The program would phase in over five years: It would start in the 2022-23 school year in the highest-need neighborhoods, and be implemented county-wide in the 2027-28 school year. Preschool instruction would be provided by public schools, pub- lic community centers, nonprofit organizations, cooperatives, and family child care providers. If those groups aren’t able to meet the demand, others including for- profit schools could participate for up to three years at a time. The program would be paid for with a tax on high-income county residents that would raise an estimated $260 million a year. Only those in the top 5% of in- comes would pay the tax—3.9% on the amount of taxable income over $165,000 for individuals, or $190,000 for couples. Backers estimate the program would serve 16,000 children. Campaign spokesperson Mary King, a retired economist and the former president of the full-time faculty union at Portland State convened a coalition of unions and community groups to talk about a program of universal pre- school for the county, funded by a tax on high-incomes. Universal Preschool Now’s ballot initiative language was drafted by labor attorney Mar- garet Olney, and its chief petition- ers are Portland Association of Teachers president Suzanne Co- hen, Portland Jobs with Justice executive director Will Layng and Sahar Yarjani Muranovic, a David Douglas school board member and director of the Ore- gon chapter of National Organi- zation for Women. If supporters of the Universal Preschool Now campaign fail to meet the July deadline to get on the ballot in November, they could continue gathering signa- tures and aim for the May 2021 ballot, or they could appeal to the Multnomah County Commission to refer a measure to voters. The latter could be a little sticky. When the Universal Pre- school Now campaign got under way in 2018, its backers came upon an awkward fact: Mult- nomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson was at the same time developing a more modest proposal to expand pre- school, at the instigation of the philanthropic network Social Venture Partners. Pederson’s ef- LOCAL UNIONS BACKING UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL SO FAR Portland Association of Teachers, Reynolds Education Association, AFSCME Local 88, PSU-AAUP, ILWU, CWA Local 7901, Letter Carriers Branch 82. University, calls the Universal Preschool Now initiative a “two generation antipoverty program.” That’s because preschool has long been shown to help students succeed, and parents too: Free preschool makes it possible for parents to work or attend school if they choose to, and saves fam- ilies a fortune. Average preschool tuition in Multnomah County was $1,077 a month in 2018. Free publicly-funded pre- school is common in other coun- tries, and has lately been catching on elsewhere in the United States: Washington, D.C. was the first to offer it, followed by New York City, Chicago, and Boston. Portland’s Universal Preschool Now campaign was launched af- ter a failed 2018 effort to halt the closure of several Portland com- munity centers, including some that offered affordable day care. After that loss, the Portland chap- ter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which had cam- paigned alongside Laborers Lo- cal 483 to oppose the closures, Our Social Security team is highly skilled at getting claims accepted on expedited basis, call to see if you qualify. Raymond Thomas James Coon Cynthia Newton Chris Frost www.tcnf.legal Sydney Montanaro Scott Sell Chris Thomas 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 fort is known as Preschool for All, but unlike Universal Pre- school Now, the preschool pro- gram it’s proposing wouldn’t be free for all students, only those whose households earn below a certain income. For King, “universal” is a vital part of Universal Preschool Now. Open-to-all programs—like the public K-12 system—enjoy over- whelming public support and funding. On the other hand, means-tested programs for the poor tend to limp along with in- adequate levels of funding: Head Start, the federally funded pre- school program aimed at poor children, has never been fully funded in its 55-year history. Means-tested programs also re- sult in administrative hassle and personal hardship: Children often lose eligibility and drop out when their parents get a raise or more hours at work. The Universal Preschool Now and Preschool for All campaigns haven’t been antagonistic toward each other. Several leaders of Universal Preschool Now have also served on committees devel- oping the Preschool for All pro- posal. And key players in the two efforts met in January and Febru- ary to determine what they had in common and see if they could avoid a ballot collision. The Universal Preschool Now initiative does have adversaries. Opponents filed two legal chal- lenges, presumably to kneecap the initiative by delaying signa- ture gathering. The first was filed by Jon Isaacs — a political oper- ative who once worked for Ore- gon House Democrats and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, but now serves as vice president of government affairs for the Portland Business Alliance; he challenged the initia- tive’s constitutionality and lost. A separate challenge to the lan- guage of the ballot title was filed by Katharine Simons, who works as communications director for The International School, a $19,000-a year private language immersion school. A decision on her ballot title challenge is ex- pected any day, at which point supporters can begin to collect signatures. “This is something we can do locally right now,” King says. “We’re so stymied at the federal level, and the state is not much more accessible, but at the local level, we can accomplish this. It’s politically doable.” Find out more and pledge to sign when the initiative is approved at upnow2020.org
