Preschool for Everyone

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Just what form this preparation should take is still being developed. "You have to let these kids be as creative and as free as they want," says New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, whose state funds public pre-kindergarten in 136 districts. Standards vary from state to state. Georgia's pre-kindergarten curriculum includes language, literacy and math concepts. At Brooklyn's P.S. 200, a go-at-your- own-pace approach seems to apply. After a brief lesson, pint-size pupils roam among a playhouse, a game corner, an art center and a library. Says principal Neal Opromalla: "These children learn through play."

Play, according to some conservative critics, is precisely what four-year-olds ought to be doing--at home with Mom. "It's a transfer of funds away from the mother taking care of the child," says Patrick Fagan, FitzGerald fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "It's a double taxation on the mother at home. She takes care of her own kids and pays for others'."

Then there is the potential cost to the nation's overcrowded and underfunded school system. Georgia has thus far relied on funds generated by its state lottery and, like New York, partnered with private preschools to provide more teachers and classrooms. But in New York City, where there is a shortage of school buildings, some educators think pre-K is a luxury they can't afford. "The real question is, over time, whether we will be able to find enough space," says J.D. LaRock, a spokesman for New York City's board of education.

A final grade for public pre-K is yet to be determined. When the initial class of Georgia four-year-olds reached first grade, they logged higher test scores than kids who had not gone to pre-K. For the Morreales of Brooklyn the benefits have hit home. With the money they saved, they bought Johnny a computer.

--With reporting by Leslie Everton Brice and Greg Fulton/Atlanta