If state legislatures pass all of the budget proposals for prekindergarten before them this year, 45,000 more children will have access to state-financed preschool programs, according to a report by Pre-K Now, a Washington-based advocacy organization.
Read “Leadership Matters: Governor’s Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2007,” posted by Pre-K Now.
“Leadership Matters: Governors’ Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2007,” released May 10, shows that 24 governors are recommending spending increases for pre-K programs this year. Governors in all regions have proposed increases, according to the report, but as in previous years, Southern governors are the most likely to push for expanded pre-K programs.
The report also gave the label “wilderness states” to the 10 states that do not provide any public pre-K. But the authors also noted that in two of those states, South Dakota and Wyoming, efforts to design state pre-K programs are beginning.