Preschoolers in the Metro East are the latest casualty of the Illinois budget crisis.

School districts including Alton, Bethalto, Belleville elementary, Collinsville and East St. Louis either have or are considering cutting back their prekindergarten education programs.

These moves reverse a much-touted state initiative to serve all 3- and 4-year-olds in Illinois. The initiative, called Preschool for All, was adopted by the Legislature in 2006. It bumped Illinois to the head of the class in a national 2008 study of preschool programs. Illinois ranked first in the nation that year for providing free preschool access to 3-year-olds and 12th for 4-year-olds.

Early childhood education is still on the governor's high-priority list, but with the state owing school districts statewide an excess of $1.4 billion in back payments, some are skeptical that the promised allocations will make it to the bank.

Bethalto is axing all but its special-needs preschool program because the state owes the district $1.8 million.

That leaves parents like LaWanda Hamby without options. Her 4-year-old daughter hasn't been to day care, and Hamby was hoping preschool would help her make the transition to a full day of kindergarten next year. Hamby can't afford a private preschool because both she and her husband were laid off from their jobs.

"I was looking forward to the socialization aspect for her and learning the rules of school," said Hamby, 35. "It has me backed into a corner where I'm sure when she does start kindergarten, they are going to have their hands full."

Research suggests that early childhood education is critical in helping many children prepare for kindergarten. Kelley Talbot, policy associate with Voices for Illinois Children, said academic gaps that start in kindergarten often persist throughout a child's education.

"We are hurting education worse than anyone can imagine," said Bethalto's business manager, Russ Clover. He worries about parents like Hamby, but he said the only way to make up what the state has failed to provide is by not rehiring teachers.

Gov. Pat Quinn said last week that funding for early childhood education would stay at $342 million this year, but many districts are wary of such promises.

Districts such as Bethalto were told that even though the state did not deliver second- and third-quarter payments for expenses such as transportation, special education and pre-K, that the fourth payment would be made in full. It wasn't.

"Springfield has lost a lot of trust, so 'the check's in the mail' just doesn't fly anymore," said Clover.

East St. Louis will cut its pre-K program in half because the state still owes the district nearly $1 million for pre-K, and more than $5 million overall.

Instead of serving 600 3- to 5-year-olds, the district will be able to handle just 300.

"This will have severe effects, but the truth of the matter is that we can only do what we have money to do," said East St. Louis Superintendent Theresa Saunders. "We have to run on money we know we have, not money we have been promised and haven't seen."

She said the district will only serve the neediest of preschoolers. She has a list of more than 20 considerations when deciding which children to accept. Some of those include family poverty level, education of parents and the number of caregivers in the home.

Collinsville will offer preschool at just two of its elementary schools, and Belleville probably will have to cut one preschool class. Alton is still deciding how much it will have to eliminate.

Edwardsville, though, has a renewed hope with the governor's recent budget plan for pre-K. District leaders had planned on cutting the pre-K program altogether but will meet later this month to discuss bringing it back because of the governor's approval of allocations last week.

The Alton School Board also will discuss later this month what form of pre-K it will offer this year. Christopher Norman, finance director at Alton, said the district had planned to discontinue the program, but the governor's promise to maintain level funding for it has him hoping for a better solution.

Declining state revenue has struck preschool education in Missouri as well. Included in more than $1 billion that Gov. Jay Nixon has cut in state spending over the last year was funding for the Parents as Teachers program, administered through school districts.

The program, which has provided free early childhood screenings and in-home visits to promote child development and school readiness, will see its funding shrink by about half in this fiscal year.

Granite City is one Metro East district that will continue its current pre-K program. Superintendent Harry Briggs said the district has seen the success rates that come with early preparation for school and has been frugal and saved money over the years to afford the program.

"At this point in time, we felt with the value of the program, we wanted to continue with it as it stands for as long as it possibly could," Briggs said. "But if things don't change financially this year, I don't see us having the same program next year."

Jessica Bock of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.