posted March 13, 2008
Stand for Children Thursday called on the Education Committee of the Tennessee State Senate to make funding for Pre-K a priority. The move comes in response to remarks by Committee Chair Jamie Woodson of Knoxville who said yesterday, “We have important decisions to make next week within Pre-K.”
Woodson’s comments came after the committee voted to delay action on a resolution that would have made Pre-K funding a priority of the committee. The measure was offered by Sen. Joe Haynes of Goodlettsville.
“Our members strongly support Pre-K,” said Andy Spears, Director of Policy and Outreach at Stand for Children. “We want the Senate Education Committee to make Pre-K funding a priority. We’re asking them to do the same thing for Pre-K that they did for higher education last week.”
Mr. Spears noted that the committee has been following a practice of passing resolutions to indicate its priorities. For example, early in the session, the committee set $22 million as a figure they would use when negotiating changes to the lottery scholarship program. Last week, the committee adopted a resolution by Sen. Jim Tracy of Murfreesboro to make funding higher education capital projects a priority.
“We’re asking for bipartisan support for a program that is widely supported across the state,” said Mr. Spears. “There is increasing demand for Pre-K classrooms and there is strong evidence that people of all political persuasions support expanding the program to meet that demand.”
Mr. Spears referred to a recent public opinion survey commissioned by the Tennessee Alliance for Early Education. The survey found that 69% of Tennesseans support expanding the state’s voluntary Pre-K program to all four-year-olds. 80% of Democrats, 69% of independents, and 60% of Republicans surveyed supported expansion.
“The demand for Pre-K is high because the program is working,” said Mr. Spears. “Our state gets high marks for the quality of our Pre-K program and that makes it attractive to parents.”
Stand for Children is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to ensuring that every child has a fair chance in life. The organization has five Chapters across the state in Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Rutherford County, and Sumner County. A sixth Chapter, in Knoxville, will launch in April.
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |