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It\\u2019s a year of major milestones here at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning\\u2026Quality Rated celebrates a Decade of Stars now marking ten years as Georgia\\u2019s Quality Rating and Improvement System\\u2026and this school year Georgia\\u2019s Pre-K Program celebrates 30 years of high quality early childhood education for the state\\u2019s four and five year olds.\\xa0 But sandwiched in between all that is the 18th birthday of our agency as a whole.\\xa0 Prior to 2004, the idea of a state department strictly for children under the age of five was unheard of\\u2026and yet it happened officially on October 1, 2004 with Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.\\xa0 Joining us to talk about DECAL\\u2019s 18th birthday is Ben Scafidi, a former education policy advisor to Governor Sonny Perdue. Today Ben is a professor of economics and director of the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University.\\xa0\\xa0

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