ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers aim to spend more lottery money on Pre-K programs. They said enrollment in the state program has dropped sharply over the last decade.
Pre-K is a program parents use at their discretion – and sometime those children go to private or church or home programs for Pre-K. House leaders want to strengthen the state Pre-K option.
Although Georgia’s population grew by about 10 percent since 2012, state data shows the number of young students attending pre-K classes dropped by 11 percent during the same period.
Pre-K is state program offered to all qualified students. But state House speaker Pro Tem Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton) said there are too few classrooms and too few teachers and their assistants willing to take what are typically lower salaries to teach Pre-K.
"An assistant teacher today earns $20,000," Jones said Tuesday. "She or he would make more working full time at Target."
Jones said she and House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) are pitching 25 percent raises to make Pre-K salaries comparable to those of K-12 schoolteachers.
"They are having a very difficult time finding lead teachers and assistant teachers that will take the job and stay in the job for the salary we offer," Jones said.
Back in the early days of Pre-K, the state only required an associate degree for Pre-K teachers. A working group on early childhood education chaired by Jones reports they bumped up the requirement to a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education – but didn’t bump up salaries.