Can We Afford "Free" Pre-K?

For more than five years now, Saint Paul City Council member Rebecca Noecker has made her SPARK initiative a priority. Saint-Paul-All-Ready-For-Kindergarten is intended to ensure that all Saint Paul families have affordable access to high quality early learning and childcare.  On this November’s ballot will be a request for additional property tax to pay for this initiative.

I don’t intend to dispute the merits of the idea. My very real concerns are twofold:  budget and prioritization of issues. In terms of budget, I still haven’t seen one. What I do know is that it will be more expensive than the anticipated $20M-over-10-years proposal. As one expression of his opposition, Mayor Carter presented his projected cost analysis to the City Council earlier this year, and he calculated the program could cost over $100M over those same 10 years. To my mind, it’s not yet a policy discussion – is still a math discussion. This on top of a city-wide 7.9% levy increase for 2025, a Ramsey County increase of 4.75%, a new metro-wide sales tax, and a new Saint Paul 1% sales tax to pay for critical infrastructure needs.

Which takes me to my next issue: prioritization. Given that Saint Paul doesn’t even have money for its roads, offering "free" pre-k by raising property taxes even further seems especially unwise. The City is challenged to serve its residents’ needs within existing city departments and programs. And those needs are growing. We need to focus on the more immediate issues of public safety and infrastructure improvements.  

See you in the trenches,

B