The New York State 2008-2009 Budget Briefing Book discusses increased funding of Universal Prekindergarten:

Commitment to Universal Prekindergarten. The 2007-08 Enacted Budget renewed the State's commitment to full implementation of Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) and provided significant funding to expand the program. During the current school year, over 93,000 children had access to UPK services, an increase of 30,000 over the prior year.

The Briefing Book suggests that the funding increase will provide for 120,000 children.

It is a well kept secret that the Newburgh School District has an outstanding pre-k program. The teachers at the Newburgh Prekindergarten Center have the highest average years of experience (and salaries) of any school in the district. Many of the teachers in the program are superb.

An even better kept secret is that a full day prekindergarten program was introduced at St. Francis on Renwick Street in September, 2007. Despite operating in stealth mode (St. Francis is not even listed as a school on the district website), the full day pre-k program was quickly oversubscribed and parents were turned away.

The State DOE says pre-k is valuable, funding is available, there is demand in the community for full day pre-k, the Newburgh School District has a high-quality (half day) pre-k program. The district says...