Last year, Lydia Kiesling and her husband decided they couldn’t afford to live in San Francisco anymore. Her husband made a steady income, and Kiesling knew she could bring in a certain amount of money every month as a freelance writer, but housing in San Francisco is notoriously expensive. Just as expensive were preschool and childcare for their two daughters: At one point Kiesling and her husband were paying $3,145 a month for this care, what Kiesling told me would be considered “cheap” for San Francisco prices.
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Kiesling’s husband began a job search that eventually landed their family in Portland, Oregon, where preschool was slightly cheaper, but still a significant chunk of a family’s income. It was also where a years-long campaign for free universal preschool was beginning to ramp up for the 2020 election, led in part by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. After hearing about the campaign from another writer, Kiesling logged onto the Port