Meathead Agonistes

Rob Reiner's universal (mandatory?) preschool initiative hit the skids yesterday in California:

California voters soundly rejected Proposition 82 Tuesday, crushing the hopes of early childhood education advocates who hoped to make universal preschool public policy in the nation's most populous state.

Throughout much of the evening, returns showed that 60 percent of voters statewide opposed Prop. 82 while just 40 percent supported it, making it nearly impossible for the measure to ever get the simple majority it needed to pass.

"It doesn't look good," admitted Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who spoke to about 200 supporters at a Los Angeles hotel ballroom shortly after 10 p.m. But he vowed to fight on, saying that the push for universal preschool would not go away. "This is important, and if it is not today the train has left the station."

Whole account here.

As Lisa Snell of the Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes Reason Online) laid out in the great detail, Prop. 82 was a ridiculous waste of money that would have cost some $100,000 per new preschooler incarcerated. So good riddance to bad rubbish.

Reason beseeched Reiner to stifle himself way back in aught-two, '98, and '96.

Gloria and Mike Stivic gallery here.