Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K: Fiscal Year 2006

More children than ever now have access to state-funded preschool thanks to record spending increases by state legislatures in 2005. At least 180,000 more children have access to preschool this year after lawmakers in 26 states boosted pre-K funding by $600 million during 2005 legislative sessions, the largest single-year increase for preschools in five years, according to this study. Only three states -- Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma -- have statewide preschool programs, but another 36 states offer preschool for some the state's neediest children.... But the quality of programs varies widely state by state, and state-funded and supervised pre-K reaches fewer than 10% of 3- and 4-year-olds nationwide.