Pre-K funding given to Warren County
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The grants will be used to open 227 more classrooms statewide, extending the pre-K program to 88 of the state?s 95 counties.
Warren County was among the counties earmarked to receive grant money. Warren County, which was alotted funding for two pre-K classrooms, was one of 96 school systems to receive money.
?We?ve come a long way in a short time and I?m proud of what we?re doing,? the governor said in a teleconference with reporters.
The money was approved as part of this year?s budget and brings total funding for the program to $55 million.
A pre-K expansion last year provided classes for about 6,000 students, while the state has an estimated 37,000 disadvantaged children who would be eligible.
Bredesen, a Democrat who is up for re-election this fall, has pledged to expand pre-K access to all the state?s 4-year-olds if he is elected to a second term.
In the recent expansion, West Tennessee will get 67 new classrooms and East and Middle Tennessee will each get 80 more classes.
?I?m pleased that every school system that has applied for pre-K funds has received enough to fund at least one classroom,? Bredesen said.
Preschool supporters have touted research in other states showing children who go to good preschool programs do better in school, graduate high school at a higher rate and are more likely to go to college.
?This is an attempt to close that achievement gap so more of our children will be successful throughout school,? said Barbara ?Bobbi? Lussier, director of the new Tennessee Office of Early Learning.
Bredesen has said the state is not only emphasizing access, but the quality of the state?s pre-K education.
In a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Thursday, the Tennessee Alliance for Early Education was awarded the 2006 Pre-K Champion Award by the national advocacy group Pre-K Now.
Davida McDonald, a public policy coordinator with the National Association for the Education of Young Children, acknowledges Tennessee is doing a good job focusing on the quality of preschool.
She said she hopes Bredesen’s recent pre-K expansion will also benefit other child care programs, such as those that affect children from birth through age 5.
?When we see quality raised across the spectrum, we support that,? McDonald said.