States Size Up Obama Pre-K Proposal

Well before President Barack Obama vaulted early-childhood learning to the top of the education agenda in his recent State of the Union address, states were taking steps to bolster their own preschool programs.

More than a dozen states—including some, such as Hawaii and Mississippi, that have had no state-financed preschool programs in the past—are currently eyeing proposals to launch or expand early education.

Leaders in those states say that they're interested in the president's still-evolving proposal to provide incentives for states to create or expand high-quality birth-to-5 programs, with a focus on low- and middle-income access. But some say they don't want any such federal money—the amount of which has yet to be specified, let alone appropriated—to...