Welcome to Tennessee's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program.

The Facts About Pre-K Education

I recently traveled across Tennessee to announce the first awards in the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K Grant Program.

It was an announcement that would not have been possible without the countless people and organizations across the state … especially the members of the General Assembly who, through their leadership, voted to make sure we take the next important steps to ensure every Tennessee child arrives on the first day of school ready to learn. I thank you all for your continued support for the most important thing we do in government … educating our children.

I want you to know that I am committed to keeping education as our state’s highest priority.  Education is not only the key to success for our young people … it is the key to the future success of our state … and it starts with our support of Pre-K.

Since we unveiled our plans to expand Pre-K late last year, I’ve visited classrooms across Tennessee and spoken to dozens of teachers and principals. To a person, they told me one important thing: Each of them said they can tell immediately which children have participated in a Pre-K program and which ones have not.

Their anecdotal observations are supported by extensive research, which shows that children begin to form basic cognitive abilities in their earliest years, and those who are not exposed to letters, numbers and social skills quickly fall behind those who are.

That’s why I believe it is so important that we have a strong, high quality, voluntary Pre-K program for all 4-year-olds in Tennessee .  Providing all children – particularly at-risk children – the opportunity to learn basic skills earlier can change the course of hundreds of thousands of lives.

In June, I signed into law the piece of landmark legislation that will allow us to take the next important steps in ensuring every child in Tennessee arrives on the first day of school ready to learn. Today, we celebrate one of those steps.

In this first year, 106 school systems requested funding for new Pre-K classrooms through the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K Grant Program. And I am happy to tell you that all 106 of those school systems will receive funding for at least one new Pre-K classroom each.

This year our voluntary program will provide over 24 million dollars in funding for 300 new Pre-K classrooms across Tennessee .

As I have said before, our voluntary Pre-K program is not a silver bullet. We must continue to fully fund K-12 education and focus on teacher pay and meaningful professional development, direct parent involvement, intensive intervention for struggling students, and specific job creation strategies. But, I believe early childhood education must serve as the foundation.

Thank you for visiting our website to learn more about Pre-K in Tennessee, and thanks to all of you for everything you are doing to improve education and make Tennessee a better place for our children to learn and grow.