Gov. Tina Kotek continued her assault on Multnomah County’s effort to offer tuition-free preschool Thursday, doubling down on her criticism of the program and the tax that funds it and suggesting it is doomed to fail.
It’s another swipe in an ongoing series of attacks on the county’s highly-scrutinized attempt to offer tuition-free preschool to 11,000 3- and 4-year-olds by 2030. But unlike her first jab, which largely attacked the tax that funds the preschool seats, this time Kotek went after the program itself.
“From the beginning of my discussions with the county chair, my north star has been the sustainability of the program because one of the reasons I ran for governor was to make things better for our youngest learners,” Kotek wrote in a statement. “The program as it stands cannot fulfill its promise to Oregon children.”…