After-school programs provide some benefits for children. Proposition 49 would provide up to $455 million to create more programs for children before and after school, ranging from service groups to enrichment and tutoring programs.

That being said, the state budget is already in trouble, and California already has a variety of before- and after-school programming for students. Proposition 98, passed in 1988 by California voters, already set aside money for programs similar to those outlined in Proposition 49.

Also, if this measure were coupled with existing conditions set by Proposition 98, it would generate favoritism for those programs created by Proposition 49. Because this measure does not generate any new revenue for these new programs and instead depends on the economic recovery of the state, all pre-existing programs outside of Proposition 49 would be vulnerable to funding cuts if the economy took a bad turn.

It’s unfair; it’s frivolous. The only purpose this measure might serve is as another step for its author, Arnie Schwarzenegger, into the political arena.

The Daily Nexus strongly opposes Proposition 49.