How the narrative gets moved

Gov. Dayton wants his pre-K and he wants it now. We know that. What's interesting isn't that he wants to drive out private preschools and replace them with more foot soldiers for Education Minnesota. What's interesting is how his pals in the media help him out. Look at this little bit from J. Patrick Coolican in the Star Tribune:

Further complicating the budget fight is the possible ­fallout should Dayton reject the education bill. Budget officials have warned that without an E-12 bill, the state Department of Education would shut down, schools would be forced to lay off teachers and applications for teacher licenses would go unprocessed, among other repercussions.

Emphasis mine. We now have a new term -- notice that? It's not K-12 anymore, it's E-12, and if Dayton doesn't get what he wants, the entire education system would be plunged into a lake of fire or something.

Never mind that a lot of school districts don't even have the space for such a program, let alone the teachers hired. Dayton wants what he wants and if you don't give it to him, you hate 4-year olds. Yes, the governor said that:

"So they're not going to help four-year-olds because they don't like public schools?" Dayton asked.

What a demagogue. Remember, he's the reasonable one.

I've had 4-year-olds. My kids attended a wonderful preschool at Salem Covenant Church here in New Brighton. The teachers and staff at Salem were fantastic and they've been doing oustanding work since 1971. I would recommend the Salem program to anyone and have done so with great enthusiasm since my kids were young. There are hundreds of similar schools in the state and they do great work. But they don't have any particular fealty to Mark Dayton, so they are disposable.