Georgia’s prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds is supposed to provide a free spot to any parent who wants to enroll their child.

But that universal guarantee has been voided by a shortage of classrooms in parts of the state.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, says she wants to fill that gap if she’s elected.

Blake Osborne, who lives in Cobb County, is among those who have struggled. He was facing paying $1,600 a month for prekindergarten for his 4-year-old daughter until she came off a waiting list at one of the six state-paid programs the family applied to.

“If it’s universal, that means there should be a spot for every kid,” Osborne said.

Bottoms’ plan calls for providing places for all 4-year-olds, financed by legalizing casino gambling. It projects spending another $330 million on pre-K, a 57% increase over the 2026 budget year’s $580 million. But even as Bottoms’ plan projects a place for every single child, it agrees with experts that not every parent will choose public pre-K.

The cost of childcare is an intensifying issue for Democrats. Last year, New Mexico became the first state to launch free childcare for most children from birth to age 13. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani made universal publicly financed childcare a cornerstone of his campaign.

“As a mother of four, I know every child deserves a strong start in school. Yet each year in Georgia, thousands of 4-year-olds are left behind,” Bottoms said in a statement. “Families face long pre-k waiting lists, and the program reaches only about 60% of eligible children. Faced with a months-long wait, many families are not signing up at all.

“My plan creates a dedicated, recurring funding source, without raising taxes, to ensure that every parent who wants their child to attend Georgia’s pre-k program has that opportunity,” she added.

Georgia was the first state to offer universal prekindergarten for 4-year-olds in 1995, after voters approved Gov. Zell Miller’s plan for a lottery, which also dedicates funding for HOPE Scholarships in college. But the share of Georgia 4-year-olds in prekindergarten plateaued, then dropped during the pandemic, and hasn’t recovered.

The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning said an average of 3,862 children were on waiting lists during the last school year. It projects it will serve 57% of eligible students next school year.

“It’s not getting anywhere to what we would consider a universal program,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an associate research professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research. “We want to see those numbers in the 70s and the 80s to show that all children who want the program can have access to it.”

Both the Child Care Trust and the Center for American Progress have published analyses showing that Georgia, like other states, lack childcare slots.

Some of the drop in 4-year-old enrollment may come from changing parental preferences about sending their kids to school. Department of Early Care and Learning Deputy Commissioner Susan Adams said the department is studying family demand, but said older data showed spaces for 75% of 4-year-olds would meet demand.

Erica Boone sees the need for more capacity in Columbia County, where the state projects it will serve only 47% of 4-year-olds next year. That’s 11th-worst statewide.

Boone directs Cornerstone Academy in Martinez. Her childcare center began hosting a state-paid prekindergarten class last August.

Cornerstone previously offered a 4-year-old class with parents paying $245 a week. But many parents were withdrawing children to seek spaces in the state program.

“Honestly, they just can’t afford it,” Boone said. “But they still want their kids to have that great start.”

Now, the classroom is at the state-mandated cap of 20 and Cornerstone has five children on a waiting list. Boone said parents routinely call seeking spots.

Georgia has been spending more on pre-K, adding $100 million over a four-year period beginning in 2024 to reduce class sizes from 22 to 20, to boost teacher salaries and increase the number of classes.

Cutting class sizes means Georgia now meets all of NIEER’s quality benchmarks, becoming the largest state program to do so.

But Georgia must add 100 new classrooms yearly to maintain total enrollment while decreasing class sizes. On top of that, Adams said the state has been adding an additional 30 to 60 classrooms yearly to meet unmet demand.

Alisha Thomas Searcy is a former state lawmaker and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Strong Public Schools who advised Bottoms on her plan. She said the state needs to do more to prioritize capacity.

“They made a conscious decision to focus on the quality of the program rather than focusing on opening more seats, which is admirable, but it still doesn’t speak to the fact that there are kids who need access,” she said.

Bottoms’ plan calls for creating a space for every eligible child. But others say the level of need is more nuanced, with some counties having plenty of slots and parents unlikely to send every 4-year-old to school. Hanah Goldberg, director of research and policy for the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, said the picture is “complicated.”

“What you see, at least within the metro area, is that there are these pockets where we have supply challenges, but they’re spread all throughout the metro area,” Goldberg said.

To meet her plan’s estimated cost of up to $330 million, Bottoms calls for a state constitutional amendment to legalize and tax casino gambling, requiring a two-thirds vote in each chamber of the General Assembly and approval by a majority of voters. No casino gambling amendment has come anywhere close to passing in recent years.

Alternately, Searcy suggested the lottery could cover increased spending, as it has for the current improvement plan. Some Republicans voice worries about spending the lottery’s surplus cash, threatening the sustainability of existing programs.

But Searcy said the alternative is children going without quality care.

“For low-income families that can’t afford to pay for a quality private pre-K program, how do we make sure those children have access?”

Read more at GeorgiaRecorder.com.