Summer vacation is a perfect time to reflect on the achievements of the students who just graduated from high school and to imagine what they will accomplish. It's also a good time to think of the students who didn't make it to the ceremony because they fell behind and dropped out.

On Tuesday the Georgia Lottery Corporation launched its 15th anniversary celebration with a ceremony at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Also on Tuesday a report from the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation said Georgia which was once a national leader in its pre-kindergarten program was no longer a leader. Other states, like Oklahoma and Kentucky, were doing better.

"Let the wild rumpus start," said 5-year-old Jane Petit as she and a preschool mate played with cloth characters to act out scenes from Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are."

Four-year-olds in a state pre-kindergarten program showed dramatic improvements in pre-reading, pre-writing and pre-math skills and outperformed their peers in a similar federal program, a new study shows.

Many of the teachers who educate San Joaquin County's youngest students are working to earn specialized degrees that policymakers hope will help improve the quality of publicly funded early-childhood education.

Now is the time. Another generation of students should not be cheated. The S.C. Supreme Court has before it an historic opportunity to decide whether all of South Carolina’s children will have the opportunity to enter school ready to learn.

Louisiana's state legislators have taken the first step in making Louisiana's children a priority by passing Senate Bill 286, legislation that would make all pre-school programs readily available to Louisiana's 4-year-olds by 2013.

We are born wired to learn.