Counties collaborate on Pre-K classes

Georgia does not have the Pre-K slots needed to serve all the state’s four-year-olds. However, the actions of people like Dr. Donnell Carley, director of Mu-Dear Pre-School in Thomas County, are worth noting. He’s making sure all the spots out there are used.

Like many counties across the state, Grady County doesn’t have enough lottery-funded Pre-K spots to serve all its four-year-olds. Neighboring Thomas County, on the other hand, has too many slots. Fortunately, instead of letting county lines stand in the way of education for Georgia’s four-year-olds, the two counties have joined hands.  Carley has offered up the remaining spots at his center to Thomas County kids. He truly understands the importance of strong foundations for Georgia’s kids.

THOMASVILLE, GA (WALB) – Its a program growing in popularity all over the state. So much so, in Grady county, they don’t have room for the 40 children on the waiting list.   “We did request 2 expansion classes from Bright from the Start and as of this date we have not received them and I don’t think we will,” says Sandy Mudra, Grady County Pre-K Director.

Some of the pre-k programs in Thomas County on the other hand, have been struggling to fill their classes.   At Mu-Dear Pre-School in Thomasville, Administrative Director, Dr. Donnell Carley says pre-k is popular, but isn’t growing quite as fast.  “We’ve had a low rate of children. It was told to us a few years ago that its due to a low birth rate in Thomas County.”

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Can’t ‘poor mouth’ this

Today’s Rome News-Tribune comments on Georgia’s once vaunted pre-K program based on the Southern Educations Foundation’s report issued two weeks ago.  With an abundant funding source in the state lottery, it’s hard to accept the lack of enrollment slots and decrease in per student spending.

GEORGIA’S government has gotten quite talented at using the “poor mouth” excuse for all that ails the state. It goes this way:

“We just don’t have the money to do that without raising your taxes. We love you too much to do that and, besides, we think we’re taxing you too much already.”

OK, let’s grant that there are some citizens who prefer keeping the jingle in their pockets to having good schools, smooth roads, sufficient water, adequate health care and so on. But how does Georgia explain the decay of a program that doesn’t involve any tax money at all and whose bank accounts are as flush as those of King Midas?

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Clarke, Barrow may get pre-K boost

After developing the national model for early education, Georgia is now playing catch-up with other states that have surpassed it in pre-K enrollment.  One thousand new slots have been added for the coming school year, but it’s not known how many kids are on waiting lists.  There’s no accurate tracking of waiting lists and they vary from county to county.  There is plenty of money, as the state lottery reserve fund has ballooned.  The issue appears to be a matter of physical space.

Georgia has changed the criteria for deciding where to add pre-kindergarten classes, and Barrow and Clarke counties will be at the top of the list this year as officials prepare to divvy up money for 1,000 new seats for 4-year-olds.

State administrators will use enrollment figures, the number of students on waiting lists for filled classes and the graduation rates of high school seniors to decide what parts of the state most need additional pre-K seats.

Pre-K administrators used to dole out funding based only on enrollment figures – also referred to as the saturation rate – said Mary Mazarky, an assistant commissioner of Bright From the Start, the state agency in charge of childhood education.

Registration for pre-K, which is intended to help 4-year-olds learn the skills they need to know before kindergarten, started at Clarke County’s 13 public elementary schools and private child care centers in March and should continue until the first day of school in August.

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