Skip to main content
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.
“No Children”
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. Instead, 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 since: Less than two days after WW published its story on her, Barnes resigned as the county’s director of preschool and early learning. But the questions didn’t stop there. It turned out many top officials at the county weren’t aware that Barnes was still an owner of her preschool, and commissioners were quick to term this a conflict of interest. After some initial back-and-forth, County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson in August launched an external investigation into the county’s ethics and conflict-of-interest policies. Vega Pederson’s own knowledge of Barnes’ potential conflict of interest has also come into question. (Barnes, for her part, seemed unconvinced the chair was unaware of her continuing role at the preschool.) As of Dec. 19, county spokesman Ryan Yambra said both the report and recruitment of a new director are still in progress. “We expect that the report will be final and available for release soon,” he said. “Same with the recruitment.”
Read the next story on Dec. 27.
