Governor Tom Vilsack’s most difficult sales job in the area of education is turning out to be his call for more state spending on pre-school programs. Some republicans are reluctant to give state financial rewards to parents who dump their kids off at preschool while doing nothing to reward the parent who stays home with their child. Mike Connolly, a democrat from Dubuque, is co-chair of the Senate Education Committee and he downplays the difference with republicans. “I think we can look for a difference (with republicans),” Connolly says. “What we’re really looking for is common ground and I think we can find it.”Connolly says democrats would use some of the 39 MILLION dollars worth of preschool spending Vilsack on programs that teach parents how to parent. “We believe the mother and the family is the child’s first and best teacher,” Connolly says. “We want to support that.” There are 25 democrats and 25 republicans in the state Senate.
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