INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ Most poor families who applied for Indiana's new preschool pilot program were turned away due to limited funding.
Demand was particularly acute in Marion County, where roughly 70 percent of 2015 applicants weren't accepted to a joint program run by the city and state.
Many were also turned away in Allen, Lake, Jackson, Vanderburgh counties, where the state is the sole operator.
Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed the pilot program into law in 2014, setting aside $10 million a year to send 2,500 low-income children to preschool. He initially sought to make the program statewide, but fellow Republicans in the Legislature balked.
Pence surprised some last year when he decided not to seek an additional $80 million in federal funding for the program.
