By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis – The parade of Democratic presidential candidates continues to stream into Missouri. Friday it was former Vermont governor Howard Dean's turn.
Dean said the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act is the wrong plan for the nation's schools.
Dean also promoted early childhood home visit programs for new mothers, saying Vermont's program dramatically lowered child abuse rates.
"The cost not only for this program but for universal zero through five child care, child education and kindergarten is 110-billion dollars over 10 years," Dean said. "That's about $10 billion a year--one-eighth of what we're now spending in Iraq. I think this president's got his priorities absolutely upside down."
Missouri is a key battleground for Dean and the other Democratic contenders, as it carries with it 74 delegates.