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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report Finds Too Many Children Left Behind

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Monday, February 29, 2016   

ALBANY, N.Y. - In 2014, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged to make pre-K for 4 year olds universal in New York, but a new report says many upstate children still are going without.

The report, called Too Many Children Left Behind, says in the first year the state added $340 million of funding for pre-K, but $300 million of that went to New York City, while the rest of the state got only $40 million.

Marina Marcou-O'Malley, policy director of the Alliance for Quality Education, says last year only 1,200 new spots were added outside the city.

"There are still almost 90,000 4 year olds waiting for pre-K outside New York City," says Marcou-O'Malley. "They have no seats."

Sixty-three percent of 4 year olds in low-income upstate districts can't get full-day pre-K. The governor's executive budget for the coming year only would increase pre-K spending by $22 million, and only for 3 year olds.

Marcou-O'Malley calls that totally inadequate.

"The Board of Regents came out with a proposal of over $150 million," she says. "Advocates across the board are calling for $125 million - $150 million, primarily outside of New York City, to get fully universal."

Marcou-O'Malley says there are numerous studies showing that early childhood education improves school performance, graduation rates, even the health of children and reduces costs for remediation and special ed.

"It is a program that there is indisputable evidence that it works," she says. "And actually, there's very little disagreement on that across the board."

The advocates also are calling for an additional $190 million for child care services, saying 78 percent of eligible children are currently being denied subsidized child care.


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