At Jefferson Elementary School, teachers Helen Pitton and Barbara Ellison showed preschoolers how to count with beads, measure with water, and identify different types of animals.

The hands-on activities will help the kids be better prepared for kindergarten, where they must learn how to read and write and count to 100, they said.

"Kids need preschool," Ellison said Friday, "or otherwise they will be lost."

That message set the stage for Fresno County schools chief Larry Powell, who wants to give every 4-year-old an opportunity to be in preschool within the next seven years.

His goal is daunting -- only 34% of Fresno County's children attended preschool, compared with 42% statewide, according to a study by Children Now.

With the state considering budget cuts to education, Powell said at a news conference Friday at Jefferson school that "now is not the time to retreat and give up on our children."

Instead, he invited the public to a meeting Jan. 31 to give input on how to accomplish the task.

Experts agree that preschool will help kids succeed in school and lower the achievement gap and drop-out rate. But getting kids enrolled in preschool isn't easy.

School districts, churches, nonprofits and private companies offer preschool, but many times there's no space available or the cost is too high for parents, said Powell, county superintendent of schools.

For example, in Fresno Unified School District, 1,800 students attend preschool at 47 campuses, but there are hundreds of children waiting to get in, said Cindy Tucker, an associate superintendent.

The problem is complicated by a family's economic status.

The state and federal governments give school districts and other agencies money to run preschools. But families must be living in poverty to become eligible for free preschool. Working-poor families, or those just above the poverty line, often don't qualify for the preschool programs, said Powell's deputy superintendent, Jim Yovino.

Powell's idea is timely, said Carolyn Goosen, of New America Media, which helped organize the news conference. "The governor said this was the year of education," she said. "Now we're all worried and bewildered about the budget cuts."

Ernesto Saldaña, field director of Preschool California, agreed.

"Our kids can't wait," he said. "We need to expand preschool, starting with kids who need it most."

Powell said he has hired Karen Hill Scott, a child development expert, to help develop the preschool plan. And until a plan is developed, he said his office will start video-taping preschool lessons that can be given to families so they can teach their children at home.

"Our position in the world depends on our children being successful," he said.