North Carolina's pre-K programs got good grades. 

With its More at Four program, it was one of only two states — Alabama was the other — to meet all 10 quality standards for pre-kindergarten programs as set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, Lynn Bonner reports.

The institute, based at Rutgers University in New Jersey, looked at standards for teacher education, student-to-teacher ratios, and class sizes.

The report, which was written before the Senate budget was released Monday, included this observation:

We are concerned that unless funding per child increases in North Carolina, programs will be forced to undercut quality in some other ways (with unreasonably low teacher pay for their qualifications, for example).

The Senate has proposed cutting $40 million from the program and cut the amount it pays per student.

The state began offering More at Four in 2001. The pre-school program is open to children from low-income families or those who have other risk factors, such as educational or developmental delays.

Women lost a little ground in the legislature.

After the November elections, the number of female state legislators will go down next year by one, from 45 to 44, according to the principal House and Senate clerks.

Six women will serve in the 50-member Senate; 38, in the 120-member House.

That leaves 25.9 percent of the legislature female, the same as in 2007.

The 2008 session will remain the high water mark, with 26.5 percent women, according to statistics compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The national average was 23.7 percent.

The center's rankings for 2009 are not yet available, but North Carolina was the 19th most gender-balanced state legislature in 2008. Vermont was first; South Carolina, last.

Since the group began tracking legislative women in 1975, the low for North Carolina was 11.8 percent in 1985 and 1986. The number has been steadily climbing since and has been above 20 percent — or one-fifth — since 2003.

There is a silver lining, however. Two of the women who left the legislature — Sens. Kay Hagan and Janet Cowell — went on to higher office, while Rep. Debbie Clary moved to the Senate.

Cheri Beasley is running for the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Beasley has served as a District Court judge in Cumberland County for the last nine years. A Democrat, she was appointed by former Gov. Jim Hunt.

Previously, she worked in legal departments for several corporations in Research Triangle Park and briefly served in the Wake County District Attorney's office.

She also worked for five years in the Fayetteville Public Defender's office.

She attended Rutgers University and went to law school at the University of Tennessee. While in law school, Beasley studied comparative law at the University of Oxford in England.

She will be running against the incumbent Doug McCullough for the 12th Judicial District.