The Los Angeles Times (5/30, Mcgreevy) reports that a bill to “expand publicly funded preschool programs to tens of thousands of 4-year-olds from low-income families” cleared the California state Senate on Thursday “despite Republican lawmakers’ concerns that the change would strain the state budget.” The article reports that sponsor Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D) “said the status quo puts low-income children at a disadvantage,” but notes that Senate Republican leader Robert Huff argued that “there are other, higher priorities in education funding.”

The AP (5/29, Thompson) reports that the bill passed by the Senate “represents a proposal that is far less than what its author had originally intended,” noting that Steinberg “modified his original $1 billion-plus proposal for universal preschool, which would have made the program available to all California children.” Reuters (5/30, Chaussee) also covers this story.