A low enrollment rate in state-funded preschool programs means Georgia could lose its traditional label as a model for early education, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Southern Education Foundation.

Hampered by a lack of funding even as lottery accounts swell with surplus funds, the program has only succeeded in signing up about 55 percent of Georgia four-year-olds, according to the foundation's report.

"Georgia pre-K is no longer leading the nation," said Steve Suitts, vice president of the organization, a 131-year-old nonprofit focused on improving education. "It is time to lead again."

Suitts, the lead author of "Time to Lead Again: The Promise of Georgia Pre-K," said the report shows that Georgia doesn't lack the money to expand the state-backed education system, which should strive to reach 80 percent of the state's four-year-olds.

"The promise of Georgia pre-K needs the fulfillment of universal, voluntary, high-quality pre-K for every child whose parent wants it," Suitts said. "We also believe the state has the means by which to begin to move decisively to fulfill those goals."

Suitts said the state has about $569.6 million in lottery funds it could tap to help boost the preschool program, which along with the HOPE Scholarship is funded by the proceeds from the games.

While more than 75 percent of four-year-olds attend preschool in some smaller counties, like Glascock and Pierce, some urban counties like Chatham see a smaller share than the national average.

Other metro areas had mixed results.

"While enrollment rates in the counties encompassing Columbus and Augusta were above the state rate, other counties in those metro areas have below-average rates," the report says.

Dr. Holly Robinson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, said she disagrees with the foundation's alarm that Georgia could lose its leadership role, though she noted the report does talk about some of her department's efforts.

Robinson, who took the helm at the agency six months ago, said the department's new vision statement includes an emphasis on getting more children in the program. To that end, the agency targeted 18 largely urban counties when distributing the 1,000 new preschool spots approved by the General Assembly and Gov. Sonny Perdue for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Those counties include counties like Clarke, Chatham, Liberty and Richmond in addition to Atlanta-area counties like Cobb, Gwinnett and Paulding.

"Hopefully, that will begin to impact the high-needs areas," Robinson said. "But will 1,000 slots resolve all of it? No. But we're on the right track now."

Robinson and Perdue's office also said that an infusion of cash might not immediately bring more students into the system, because many of the fast-growing districts with low enrollment rates wouldn't have room for more classes.

"Putting more money in the budget wouldn't help," said Perdue Press Secretary Bert Brantley, "because the space and the demand are not there to go above what we put in (the budget)."

Filling the roles

Enrollment in the state's lottery-funded preschool in selected Georgia counties as a percentage of four-year-olds:

Barrow........47.0 percent
Bryan..........63.3 percent
Bulloch.......71.1 percent
Burke..........57.6 percent
Camden.......72.3 percent
Charlton......58.4 percent
Chatham......50.8 percent
Clarke..........64.3 percent
Clinch..........73.0 percent
Columbia.....64.8 percent
Effingham....69.3 percent
Glynn...........61.2 percent
Greene.........58.7 percent
Liberty.........58.3 percent
Long............69.6 percent
Madison......30.4 percent
McDuffie....71.2 percent
McIntosh.... 64.2 percent
Oconee...... 56.8 percent
Oglethorpe...64.8 percent
Pierce...........84.8 percent
Richmond.....65.9 percent
Ware.............69.3 percent