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To end 2025, we assigned each reporter in the WW newsroom to pick two stories by a colleague that stood out in 2025. We then had the recipient of the compliment pass it on-but not before penning an update to the tales. Here’s the first of these stories.
July 29
Why Anthony Effinger loved it: Sometimes I don’t know whether to envy Joanna Hou for being on the education beat, or to feel really sorry for her. Case in point: Preschool for All.
Everyone loves preschool. Being against it would be like hating puppies. But plenty of people hate Preschool for All, the Multnomah County program that aims to provide free preschool to any family that wants it by 2030 by taxing income over $125,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing jointly.
Critics say the levy is driving away wealthy taxpayers with huge bills and isn’t creating preschool seats fast enough. One payer, who declined to be named, got a $50,000 bill for the program, then couldn’t get his kid into a preschool. He moved to Montana.
Joanna added fuel to the debate in July when she broke the news that Leslee Barnes, who oversaw the pre-K program, also owned a preschool that collected $833,494 in state funds from 2020 to 2023 to pay for 63 Preschool Promise seats but enrolled students for just nine.
Readers may not believe this, but it can be tough to call out government leaders, especially if those leaders are heralded as change-makers for a state with a deep history of racism. But as a local paper that polices government spending, we have to call out mismanagement wherever we see it. Joanna stuck to the facts and treated the matter with utmost fairness.
Killer detail: Joanna reported that the number of Preschool Promise slots funded at Village Childcare, Barnes’ school, declined during the pandemic, from 33 in 2020-21, to 20 in 2021-22, to 10 in 2022-23. The preschool never met any of those benchmarks. Rather, it received $464,000 to serve two children, $232,994 to serve four children, and $136,500 to serve three children in those years. On average, Village Childcare collected more than $92,000 per child per year.
**Joanna Hou on what’s happened si