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CHARLOTTE -- Tuesday, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education is expected to vote on whether to cut more than $10 million from the Bright Beginnings program. The move would eliminate 2,000 seats from the pre-kindergarten program aimed at helping students who are not on track for kindergarten.

Two weeks ago the school board took the first steps towards cutting a projected $100 million from the budget but they decided to delay their decision on possible cuts to the Bright Beginnings program citing the need for more time to think over this decision.

Monday, early childhood education advocates called a special meeting at the Knight Theater to serve as a call to action to the community to step up and help save the program. There, David Lawrence, who helped the state of Florida provide pre-kindergarten for every student, said Charlotte Mecklenburg's Bright Beginnings program has served as a successful pre-k model for other school districts across the country. Lawrence also said he realizes the decision of where to cut in these difficult budget times is a difficult one but said the board shouldn't cut its investment in early learning because it has the biggest return.

"What you want are children who have grown emotionally, physically, socially, behaviorally, developmentally, physically, cognitively, even spiritually, in the early years," he said. "Get those years right and you'll have all the years right."

There has been talk amongst some board members of once again to postpone the Bright Beginnings vote in order to allow advocates more time to raise some funds. Meanwhile, CMS Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman says the board needs to push forward with these cuts in order to give affected staff members and families enough time to adjust.