"You really have to sell them on theimportanceof pre-K and kindergarten: It's not what is used to be, " said John Crabbe, the Buffalo school district's attendance services supervisor.
Its importance has grown in recent years after the banking crisis forced two ofthe U.K.'s largest financial institutions, Lloyds Banking Group PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, to halt dividend payments after the government bailed them out.