Political Nanny : Universal Pre-K

The Edwards Matrix

Madeline Holler — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:34:00 GMT

Think of it as the grown-up version of picking a prom date.

An Edwards supporter who doesn't know which box to check on her absentee ballot has come up with a cheat sheet to figure out which candidate she will support. She has posted the Edwards Matrix for all to see.

Problem is, the matrix is inconclusive. The mom who designed it gets all the important stuff -- Iraq, healthcare, experience, hair. But the would-be dates are still in a dead heat.

Political Nanny is looking for something definitive -- a gun to her head, marching orders, whatever you got. Clinton, Obama ... Obama, Clinton. To hell with choice. Could somebody help her decide!

Seems like Republicans are less undecided than Democrats, but there are still plenty who are (but with much less consequence, since McCain seems to be far enough ahead of the others). Apparently, we undecideds are not alone. Salon's Rebecca Traister brilliantly describes how millions of Democratic voters are feeling right this very minute. And this minute. And this one too.

Guess Who Ralph Nader Just Endorsed!

Madeline Holler — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Who cares what the governor of New Hampshire thinks, right? Or the editor of Iowa's largest daily. Or, sorry to say, Sean Penn. Political Nanny listens to Political Nanny when it comes to who she'll vote for in the primaries.

Endorsements, with a couple of exceptions, just haven't been that interesting. Until now ...

Public citizen, consumer advocate, sometimes presidential candidate, one-time election spoiler, and Babble "Timeout" subject Ralph Nader made an endorsement, just in time for the Iowa caucuses. He's throwing his support to John Edwards.

We're no experts, so who knows whether Ralph is a good or bad playmate for John. But Political Nanny adores Ralph and respects his opinion. His support feels like a gut-check: she's long suspected John really means what he says and contrarians like Ralph are the first to smell the BS, yet he thinks John, for the most part, is the real deal.

From Politico:

Nader said he has watched Edwards from afar and sees his more pugilistic brand of populism as a "glimmer of hope."

"It's the only time I've heard a Democrat talk that way in a long time," Nader said, acknowledging what was, for him, a rare moment of praise for a Democratic leader.

"Iowa should decide which candidate stands for us," he added. "Edwards is at least highlighting day after day that the issue is who controls our country, big business or the people."

Not the most unflinching of endorsements -- indeed, he's used the endorsement mostly as a way to criticize Hillary for being too Republican. But what's notable is that it's not himself that he's endorsing. Can we assume he won't be making a bid? Or does that depend on whether John Edwards gets the Democratic nomination?

In any case, Political Nanny is excited that Ralph Nader has come out to play.

Nanny Approves: Someone's Talking Preschool

Madeline Holler — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:31:00 GMT

Show of hands: who out there are filling out preschool applications and asking themselves, why? Why is this so hard? So expensive? So random? Who knows a Reggio from a Waldorf? A Montessori from a Co-Op? A church school from a Parents Day Out? Who just wants some damn daycare?

Some experts are concerned about the lack of uniformity and oversight for the nation's preschool programs and are backing mandatory preschool. They hope to create a more uniform early childhood learning curriculum.

The notion of Universal Pre-Kindergarten is apparently on the radar of just a couple of the presidential candidates. Ann Hulbert lays out the debate over UPK nicely in a New York Times piece and says the idea is backed by Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

While Hulbert doesn’t give specifics of the candidates’ plans, she gives a general overview of what UPK means now: basically an attempt to overhaul the patchwork of preschools around the country and back a curriculum that stresses academics and school readiness.

Now, I might quibble with the huge push for academics that is a part of the UPK idea. I, along with many education experts, think it is totally unnecessary to read and write before Kindergarten and think young kids learn through play.

However, one goal of UPK is to shrink the achievement gap between poor kids and their wealthier peers, who get so many of the advantages of educated parents with money that they won’t suffer if they start school on the pre-literate side.

UPK might be a tad too rigid, but it might also be a part of the solution for another problem, this one extending deep into middle-class family’s lives: affordable, quality childcare. Some sort of taxpayer-funded preschool would mean one or two fewer years of paying the nanny/sitter/daycare center.

Should Americans seriously consider UPK? Or do we need to fix our schools first? Or would the former be part of a solution to the latter?