Huffington Magazine Issue 11 | Page 73

HUFFINGTON 08.26.12 AP PHOTO/AL GOLDIS (HUNT) SMART START? IS IT POSSIBLE to lower the costs of pre-K and still retain the qualities that make it so beneficial to low-income children?  In the kidfilled courtyard of the Frank Porter Graham Institute, Kate Gallagher offered a blunt reply: “No.”   Many advocates hope that the November elections might bring in more legislators willing to raise taxes on people in the upper income bracket. Last spring in Raleigh, Governor Bev Perdue attempted something along those lines when she proposed a sales-tax hike of threequarters of a cent. To no one’s surprise, the Republican legislature shot her down. Thom Thillis, the speaker of the house, called her plan “more of the same failed approach that led to the fiscal mess the Republican legislative majority inherited.” Recently, local politicians in both parties have accused each other of exploiting the debate for political gain. Democrats say that Republicans have tried to play on people’s fear of Big Government; Republicans say that Democrats have pandered to people’s affection for children without providing enough evidence that the system actually works. In an attempt to save it, some advocates have tried to tamp down the rhetoric, noting that one Above: Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt talks about early education in 2007. Left: Attorney Robb Leandro is an advocate of early childcare education. of the most outspoken supporters of North Carolina Pre-K is Robert Orr, a retired state Supreme Court justice and a Republican. They also point to Governor Jim Hunt, a popular Democratic governor who helped lay the foundations for the state’s investments in early childhood education back in the 90s and recently pushed to save the program by befriending Justin Burr, a Republican legislator 50 years his junior. Robb Leandro, a 33-year-old lawyer in Raleigh, has a unique per-