Gail Collins writes in a column in today's Times:
Nothing major is going to happen for early-childhood education without an enormous groundswell of public demand. This is a cause that's extremely popular in theory. But its advocates have no power to reward or punish. Lawmakers who labor on behalf of preschool programs may get stars in heaven, but they don't get squat in campaign contributions.
The teachers unions, who would get a huge influx of new dues-paying members with an expansion of publicly funded preschool programs, make plenty of campaign contributions, and have plenty of political power. Ms. Collins pretends that they don't exist or that they do not care about this issue, when in fact, they do.