Don Perata, Senate President Pro Tempore, has mad some very loud grumblings against Rob Reiner’s preschool initiative.  And good for him.  It’s about time somebody stood up to some of these good sounding propositions which slice money off from the control of the Legislature and the traditional Budget Process.  This program is expensive and there is no reason to spend this money. Perata said the following in an interview:

And I think there are some flaws there that are I think fatal. … There’s no means test, and so it looks to me like it would be really a boon for middle-to upper-middle-class families, though it would not serve equally – it would not provide equal access. There’s no mandate in there for county superintendents to use anything other than school districts, and if you come from a community like mine, where community-based organizations – or what economists call NGOs – they provide a huge swath of social and health care services. … So that’s another flaw. Spending $8,000 for three hours is more than some school districts’ K-12 can spend for an entire day. And, I mean, the list kind of goes on, unfortunately. Sac  Bee 3/1/06

Well, now that somebody said it, does anybody want to convince me that Prop 82 is a good idea.  And if it is a good idea, why shouldn’t it go through the traditional legislative process?