It wasn't a press conference, but Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani was hammered with questions just the same.

"What do you like to eat?" asked one of the about 20 students in an afternoon class at Merced City School District's Galen Clark Preschool. "What's your favorite color?" queried another youngster. A third asked the 44-year-old Assemblywoman what kind of cars she liked best.

And from a child-sized yellow chair at the front of the classroom, Galgiani had no problem answering the hard-hitting interrogation.

The Q&A session highlighted Galgiani's Friday visit to the southeast Merced preschool, which was the district's attempt to make sure this state official keeps pre-kindergarten programs in mind during upcoming budget wrangling.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a 10 percent across-the-board cut for all state-funded projects, including child development programs. According to the San Francisco-based Child Care Law Center, the governor's 2008-09 budget proposes a $198.9 million cut to child-care programs. This cut, the law center estimates, means that child-care spaces at state-funded preschools will decline by nearly 8,000 spots.

Despite the cuts, Merced City School District's preschool parent advisory committee hopes Galgiani's continued support of pre-kindergarten programs will help keep their program running smoothly.

Delores Alarcon, a Merced mother and committee member, said without the program her son would have never been successful in kindergarten this year. "It's not day care anymore, it's an actual class -- they're learning. They even have homework."

The group presented Galgiani with a certificate of appreciation during her Friday visit.

Galgiani said she was impressed to hear that Merced City School District hosts a preschool at each one of its 16 campuses.

Merced County Superintendent of Schools Lee Andersen said Merced City is "one of the very few" districts in the state that can claim that distinction. The district, he said, "is way out in front when it comes to preschool."

And for good reason, according to those who research the subject of pre-K education. In a recent poll of kindergarten teachers in the state, child advocacy organization Preschool California found that 88 percent said they spend extra time working on basic skills with children who didn't attend preschool. Children who attend preschool are also less likely to repeat a grade or require remediation later in their educational careers.

Unfortunately, a majority of the state's children are not getting that head start on learning. Children Now, a national youth advocacy organization reported earlier this month that only 47 percent of the state's of 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool. A 2007 report by the same organization showed only 28 percent of Merced County's kids in that same age group are enrolled in a preschool or day-care program.

But those children that are attending one of Merced's many preschools, Galgiani said, are bound to benefit from the experience. The assemblywoman said she was struck by the preschool classroom setting and the routines teacher Stephanie Roe had created for her young charges. "I think that's a very healthy thing for children," she said.

Not so healthy, however, were Galgiani's answers to the favorite food question posed by the preschoolers. "Pizza and ice cream," she said. "Ice cream is my favorite."