State Pre-K Spending on the Rise

12/26/2005

State Pre-K Spending on the Rise

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
Charles deGaulle

The budgets for state prekindergarten programs have increased or are expected to increase in more than half the 50 states this fiscal year, according to the annual report from Pre-K Now reported in Education Week (November 30, 2005; www.edweek.org). The rise in funding — roughly $600 million nationwide — is the largest single-year increase in the past five years.

The Pre-K Now report shows that the Southeast continues to lead the nation in expanding and paying for early childhood education. Six of the ten states that increased their fiscal 2006 Pre-K budgets by more than 30 percent over the previous year are in that region — Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Funding stayed level for preschool programs in three of the most populous states — California, New York, and Michigan; and funding decreases were made in New Jersey and Vermont.

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