Preschoolers enjoy a variety of break activities at a Head Start Program in Hillsboro, Ore., Thursday August 16, 2007. There has been an unprecedented nationwide boom in public pre-kindergarten programs. In just the past few months, governors and lawmakers from more than a dozen states have sealed deals to send public money gushing into early childhood education. Nearly a million children now attend state-funded preschool, up more than a third from five years ago. States are investing $4.2 billion in such programs, a increase of 75 percent since 2005, according to the Pre-K Now, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)
