The legislative session may be over, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop hearing about pre-kindergarten any time soon. The issue was a major flashpoint between Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration and legislators, including DFLers in the Senate. It came down to this: Should the Legislature set aside millions to fund pre-kindergarten in all public schools or boost overall school spending and target other dollars to families who are least likely to be able to afford quality early education? Ultimately, Dayton and legislators settled on the latter option, passing a $17 billion education bill. But in the final hours of the special session, Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, said the money isn’t well spent in the first place. “It’s a great babysitting service. But you have no empirical evidence to prove that pre-K doesn’t wear off by third or fourth grade,” he said during debate over the bill. 
PoliGraph: Cornish pre-K claim misses mark
['Mark_Dayton', 'Minnesota_Democratic–Farmer–Labor_Party']