These crazy teabaggers could have been better people with an extra year of preschool, I think. As it is, they're all worried about protecting private preschools from those evil public preschools all children would have access to. After all, we wouldn't want the poors to have access to decent preschool, would we?

I have to agree with Montana's governor here. They really must hate 4-year olds that much.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) recently took on Republican lawmakers who he said “might hate 4 year olds” after they called to block $40 million in federal pre-school grants because they said it was unfair to private schools.

Bullock, who has been pushing to take Montana off of the list of six states which do not invest in pre-schools, told teachers at a conference last week that he had been discouraged after receiving a letter opposing public pre-schools from about 50 Republican lawmakers in August, according to the Billings Gazette.

After Republicans killed a plan to add $37 million in pre-school funding in April, Bullock recalled thinking that Republicans hated him, not 4 year olds. But he said that he changed his mind after the most recent letter.

“I start to worry that some of them might hate 4 year olds too,” he admitted.

In the letter, GOP legislators argue that the “creation of government-provided ‘free’ preschools will most certainly drive existing private preschools from the market.”

Update: In Montana, preschools are not required to be accredited. Now it starts to make sense. Federal funds would almost certainly wipe out all the incompetents operating for-profit preschools in the state. (h/t BlueGal/Fran)