September 20, 2006 - Gov. Phil Bredesen will participate in a national teleconference today on prekindergarten programs, and three Memphis pre-K supporters videotaped segments for it.
Bredesen and Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell are featured speakers in the conference sponsored by the national pre-K advocacy group Pre-K Now. It will be beamed by satellite to about 100 sites across the country where advocates of preschool programs will participate. The Tennessee Alliance for Early Education is hosting a site at Vanderbilt University here.
Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton; Memphis Regional Chamber President and CEO John Moore; and Dr. Ruth Carr, director of the Memphis Learning Academy, a private prekindergarten, were interviewed for their views on the benefits of preschool. Portions of their remarks will be shown during the national conference.
Bredesen said last week he will seek funding for a third consecutive year of expansion of Tennessee's prekindergarten program when the state legislature convenes in January. The program has been a priority of his administration.
He won approval in 2005 for the first expansion -- using $25 million in state lottery proceeds -- of a small "pilot" program launched in 1998 with 150 classrooms for 3,000 students. The legislature approved another expansion this year, with $20 million from general tax revenue, pushing the total to 673 classes serving 13,500 statewide.
There are 61-state-subsidized pre-K classes in Memphis City Schools and seven in Shelby County schools.
Enrollment is voluntary on the part of parents. The program is aimed at children from low-income households and those with special needs.
In Carr's videotaped segment, the Memphis educator says that even though she is a private provider, she supports expansion of the state program "because it's in the best interest of the children. I want these children to have the best education they can get."
About 20 of Memphis Learning Academy's 45 students this year are subsidized by the state program, through Memphis City Schools. "Working with the city schools has helped me upgrade the services I provide. Our focus is on literacy and language. Those are two areas that really hold our children back and they are necessary if they are going to succeed," Carr said.
