Ga. House Speaker pushes legislation to increase pre-K teacher pay, reduce class size

ATLANTA — Georgia’s House Speaker is pushing new legislation that could make pre-K teacher pay equal to that of kindergarten teachers and reduce pre-K class size.

“We can’t just maintain what we’re doing as far as educational opportunities,” State Rep. Jon Burns, (R-Newington) said. “We must improve.”

Burns appointed the Speaker Pro Temp, State Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton) to head the study group.

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Jones said she looked into all aspects of pre-K education to try and find ways to improve it.

“We really haven’t done a full evaluation of pre-K in Georgia in a long time,” Jones said.

Her group is recommending things like reducing the maximum pre-K class size from 22 to 20, increasing the amount of start-up funds available to open up classrooms from $8,000 to $30,000, providing more funding for the capital costs of opening new classrooms, and raising pre-K teacher pay to make them equal to other teachers.

“What are the qualifications to be a pre-K teacher?” Jones said. “It turned out that it’s the exact same to be a kindergarten teacher. You have to have a four-year degree in early childhood education, but yet, the salaries are not commensurate with kindergarten teachers.”

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Burns is expected to take the recommendations and propose legislation to implement them.

“It’s my belief that one of the best predictors of educational success is having a strong foundation at the pre-K level,” Burns said. “To me, that just makes a lot of common sense.”

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