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House Budget Proposal Eliminates Pre-K Waiting List

The North Carolina House Chamber. Photo by Jeff Tiberi, WUNC

Relief could be in store for thousands of North Carolina parents without child care. The latest House budget proposal would eliminate the waiting list for the state's free preschool program.

Nearly 5,000 children were on last year's waiting list for NC Pre-K, the state-run program that prepares 4-year-olds for school.

The News and Observer reports there is now bipartisan agreement to eliminate that waiting list.

Rep. David Lewis, a Republican, is vice-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Lewis says that if the proposed House budget passes, there will be enough new classroom seats so that no children are turned down.

This development would also fulfill Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's campaign promise to expand NC Pre-K.

The program serves military families, low-income families, and those whose children have special needs or other “at-risk” circumstances.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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