That’s the question that the City Schools of Decatur is asking parents of would-be Pre-K students next year, after Georgia Governor Nathan Deal released his plans for the HOPE scholarship – which currently funds all Georgia Pre-K programs – earlier this week.

With Deal’s plan likely to pass, CSD is already informing families that Pre-K would most likely be cut to a half-day without an additional payment of $3,055 from families.  Head Start will pay the additional costs for their 20 Pre-K spots, according to a note from a parent on a local message board who spoke with Assistant Superintendent Thomas van Soelen yesterday.  Additionally, the roughly $3,000 tuition will not cover after-2:30p Chex Mix/Animal Crackers childcare.  Those costs will remain incremental, according to the note.

As a result of this massive, likely change in funding, CSD has canceled the current Pre-K lottery for the coming school year.  The number of full-day and half-day spaces/classrooms won’t be determined until CSD can get an accurate measure of how many students are willing to pay the $3,055 for full-day care.

Parents have until March 7th to let CSD know of their intentions.  UPDATE: You can read the full letter sent out by Superintendent Edwards HERE.  (h/t: KMT)

Gov. Nathan Deal announced his plan this morning to keep the HOPE Scholarship program alive as education costs continue to rise.  From the AJC…

Only the brightest of college students – those with at least a 3.7 high school GPA – will see HOPE cover all tuition, Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday morning as he released a drastic plan to cut escalating costs to the popular lottery-funded program.

For those earning at least a 3.0, the scholarship will cover at most 90 percent.

As for pre-K, parents will see the free program cut from 6 ½ hours to four, Deal said, adding that the change will allow the state to open more slots to the program.

According to the AJC, Democrats also support the proposal.  More details on the entire plan can be found in the AJC article linked to above.