LONE TREE - Fifty three Iowa school districts find out more money is coming their way to provide preschool programs.

It's the Governor's effort to offer better early education to children and ease the financial burden on parents.

Teachers and parents are praising Governor Chet Culver's announcement today which will allow an additional 3,000, four-year-old children receive a quality preschool education.

The Lone Tree School District was ecstatic to learn that they'll be receiving some of that money the Governor handed out.

For them, this extra cash means more children learning sooner and more parents able to afford preschool.

This preschool classroom at Lone Tree Elementary is quiet now after dozens of four year olds graduated.

Now, thanks to more money coming from the state, this school will see twice as many young learners.

"That's the most essential place they should invest," said Amber Jacque, Principal of Lone Tree Elementary. "As an educator, as a parent, I see the most opportune time to invest in kids when they're young."

Principal Jacque sees first hand how a good preschool prepares children to become life long learners.

"By the time they leave preschool they know their letters, their sounds, their numbers, can sometimes count by fives, know their colors, some of them are reading and some are even writing sentences with a capital letter and period," said Principal Jacque.

Parents also notice the difference.

"Oh absolutely," said Amanda Daufeldt whose son attends preschool at Lone Tree. "I don't think a day passes where we don't have 50 questions in the car or at home about why something is this way or why something is that way. He's constantly asking questions and wanting to know more and more all the time."

Daufeldt also teaches here at Lone Tree and says she notices when children are not taught at a young age.

"Those who haven't had preschool are just a little behind the rest of the students," explained Daufeldt.

That's why early child education experts say preschool is so important.

"There's much research to show that the earlier we intervene or educated the better in the long-run so it's a foundation for the schooling we do throughout life," said Dr. Susan Lagos Lavenz, Associate Dean of Teacher Education at the University of Iowa.

The Lone Tree four year old preschool program used to cost $125 each month.

But thanks to the school's hundred thousand or so in new funding, parents can now enroll their child for free.