How Fast We've Fallen

From universal preschool to this in just a few years:

Sherry Tam doesn't know where her son will go to school next year.

The Elk Grove boy, who is 15 days too young to start kindergarten in August, was signed up for transitional kindergarten, a new grade level slated to start in the next school year.

But Gov. Jerry Brown pulled the multicolored classroom carpet out from under thousands of California families when he proposed permanently eliminating funding for the program in next year's state budget.

We can no longer pretend we can afford whatever we want.