Near-Universal Enrollment In All-Day Kindergarten

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — More than 57,000 Minnesota children have enrolled in all-day kindergarten in its first year.

That's according to Gov. Mark Dayton and his education commissioner, Brenda Cassellius. They're trumpeting the figure as a sign of success for a major priority of the administration last year.

They say every public elementary school except one is now offering free all-day kindergarten, amounting to 99.6 percent of kindergarteners. Dayton says the figure was only 54 percent before that.

The state is spending some $134 million to make all-day kindergarten possible.

Democrats at the Capitol have proposed funding all-day preschool as the next step in helping children succeed early.