Wednesday is the first day of school for some Georgia pre-kindergarten students. The lottery-funded program is beginning its 20th year. The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning says 84,000 children are enrolled in Georgia’s pre-k programs this fall. Susan Adams is the program’s assistant commissioner. She says it’s grown by leaps and bounds since it began in 1992.
“In the first year it was a pilot program that served about 800 children,” she says, “Over the last few years, we added about 1000-2000 slots every year up until this past school year when we had the budget cuts.”
Those cuts included shortening the school calendar by 20 days and increasing class size. Governor Nathan Deal restored half of those days this year. Adams says she’s hopeful the remaining half will be restored as well.
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