Governor gets award from national literacy organization

Bredesen received the “Gift of Reading” award from Reading Is Fundamental on Tuesday in Washington, where he was honored for his work to fund preschools and promote reading at young ages.

“My number one priority as governor is providing the best possible education for our children,” Bredesen said in a statement. “And the best investment we can make as a state is to ensure that Tennessee’s children have the tools they need to succeed in school and in life.”

The governor made expanding preschool a priority of his legislative agenda in the last session of the General Assembly. In June, he signed a law allowing $25 million in lottery proceeds to be used to create about 300 new preschool classrooms for some 6,000 poor or at-risk 4-year-olds.

Tennessee has been running a preschool pilot program since 1998, but the state was spending only about $10 million a year and serving about 3,000 children.

Last year, Bredesen established the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation to expand Dolly Parton’s early reading program, Imagination Library. Each month, children in 72 counties receive a new book at no cost to families.