The Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced grants totaling nearly $2 million to four organization in Fayette County, Kentucky, to improve the education and development of preschool-age children from minority and low-income families.

The grants are the latest in a series of long-term investments by the foundation to Lexington-area organizations working to ensure that all children in the community get a quality education. The organizations awarded grants include One Community, One Voice, which will receive $395,000 over three years to provide intensive parental outreach and teacher training; the Fayette County Public Schools, which will receive $547,850 to develop two full-day model preschool centers for three- and four-year-old children; the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, which will receive $539,000 over three years for a program to train parents to become more involved and engaged in their children's schools; and Success by Six, which will receive $442,950 to expand its public and mental health outreach services to increase parents' knowledge of immunizations, nutrition, and other medical issues affecting children.

"To make it an equal playing field, we need to start with preschool," said Vivian C. Neal, the Knight Foundation community liaison program officer in Lexington. "And we need to engage the parents and teachers, not just the students themselves, if we really want to create the means necessary to change their lives."