1. Access to high-quality, universal public Pre-Kindergarten is a core socialist demand that advances educational equity, gender justice, racial justice, and working-class power;

2. Families in Columbia, Missouri face unaffordable childcare costs, long waitlists, and inequitable access to early childhood education, disproportionately harming working-class families, women, and caregivers;

3. These conditions are not accidental, but reflect systematic political choices to starve public services while protecting concentrated wealth, leaving working class families to bear costs that should be shared collectively;

4. Columbia Public Schools and the City of Columbia currently lack a dedicated, permanent local funding stream sufficient to guarantee Universal Pre-K for all three- and four-year-olds;

5. Missouri state law restricts municipal taxing authority, including prohibitions on new local income, earnings, or payroll taxes outside of Kansas City and St. Louis, and limits the use of citizen-initiated ordinances to levy or appropriate funds;

6. Despite these constraints, Missouri law permits municipalities like Columbia to fund public priorities through property tax levies (with voter approval when required), statutorily authorized local sales taxes, and the layering of state and federal funds;

7. Columbia’s City Charter prohibits voters from directly levying taxes or appropriating funds by initiative, but does allow voter-initiated ordinances that establish policy priorities, mandates, timelines, and accountability requirements for City Council action;

8. Winning durable, progressive reforms under restrictive state preemption requires a dual strategy of local mass organizing and long-term pressure for expanded democratic and fiscal authority at the state level.

1. Mid-Missouri DSA formally adopts Universal Public Pre-K as a priority local campaign, recognizing it as a cornerstone demand for working-class families in Columbia;

2. The chapter commits to pursuing a Missouri-legal strategy centered on winning a voter mandate through a policy initiative that:

   • Declares Universal Public Pre-K a binding public priority of the City of Columbia;

   • Establishes, in principle, a dedicated Early Childhood Education Fund;

   • Requires City Council to identify, adopt, and maintain lawful funding mechanisms sufficient to fully implement Universal Pre-K;

   • Sets clear timelines, transparency requirements, and public reporting obligations for implementation;

3. The chapter affirms that the campaign will not attempt to directly levy taxes or appropriate funds by initiative, recognizing the legal limitations of the City Charter and Missouri law;

4. The chapter supports a progressive funding framework for Universal Pre-K that prioritizes:

   • Property tax levies designed with strong income-based circuit breakers or exemptions to protect low-income, fixed-income, and working-class households;

   • Limited and carefully structured use of statutorily authorized local sales taxes only as supplemental funding, if necessary;

   • Continued use and expansion of state and federal early childhood education funds layered on top of local funding;

5. The chapter commits to framing this campaign as a class conscious political fight, emphasizing the material realities of childcare access and cost, who has access and who does not, and the political choices that have starved public services while protecting wealth, rather than focusing narrowly on technical questions of local taxing authority;

6. The chapter will organize this campaign as a pressure campaign, mobilizing members, parents, educators, and allied organizations to:

   • Build overwhelming public support for Universal Pre-K;

   • Force City Council to act on the voter mandate;

   • Hold elected officials accountable for fair and timely implementation;

7. The chapter commits to using this campaign to build long-term power, including:

   • Strengthening relationships with labor, parent groups, educators, and community organizations;

   • Developing leadership among caregivers and working-class families;

   • Laying the groundwork for future state-level fights to expand municipal taxing authority and local democratic control.

The chapter authorizes the formation of a Universal Pre-K working group or campaign committee to:

1. Draft ballot-ready policy language consistent with this resolution;

2. Develop political education materials explaining Missouri’s legal constraints and the class roots of the childcare crisis;

3. Coordinate coalition outreach and endorsement efforts;

4. Report regularly to the chapter on campaign progress and strategic decisions.

This resolution affirms that Universal Public Pre-K is both necessary and achievable in Columbia, Missouri. By organizing within existing legal constraints while openly challenging their legitimacy, this campaign advances immediate material gains for working-class families and strengthens the long-term fight for democratic control over public resources.

Adopted by Mid-Missouri DSA February 2026.