Or, I should say, my son made it into kindergarten. Not the exclusive, private-school variety, but close - the only all-day kindergarten class at my neighborhood public school.

I thought it would be easy to get in. Surely I wouldn't have to compete with all the stay-at-home moms for a slot.

I was wrong.

At kindergarten registration earlier this month, I started feeling anxious. Only 22 spots. Dozens of hands went up in the crowd of parents. I started thinking about coaching Jack to throw the test. Some of the 35 kids who applied live outside the school's boundaries. Others pulled out voluntarily. In the end, I didn't have to scheme. Last week, our acceptance letter arrived in the mail. I felt the relief of a parent whose child has been wait-listed at Harvard.

Still, I feel bad for all those parents and kids who got a different answer. Obviously, Utah's all-day kindergarten classes can't meet the demand - at least in my Salt Lake City neighborhood.

It's dramatic confirmation of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s two-year campaign to launch all-day classes statewide. In 2006, lawmakers killed the governor's initiative. Last year, they agreed to set aside $7.5 million each year for four years.

Since then, every school district in the state, except Morgan, which is building a new elementary school, has launched either extended-hour, extended-day or extended-year kindergarten classes, or all three. Granite School District has the most full-day classes - 37. Juab and Emery each have one. Every year, the districts will have to prove the benefits of keeping 5-year-olds in school longer.

Some lawmakers are skeptical. Four years ago, in an effort to head off the all-day kindergarten movement, the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank, and then-Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, suggested a $500 tax credit for parents who home-schooled their kindergarten-aged kids. The proposal was pitched as a way to save money. But Dayton also took a swipe at working mothers, calling full-day kindergarten a "baby-sitting option or a state-funded day care."

"I think five years old is very young to be in school all day," she said. "I really endorse the idea of having children at home with the parents as much as they can be."

For the record, all-day kindergarten is five or six hours; half-day classes run three hours long.

A 2005 study by San Francisco-based WestEd found that full-day kindergarten students adjust more easily to first grade and have stronger learning skills. And students in all-day classes are held back less than those in half-day classes.

The conservative Goldwater Institute released a study the same year concluding that the learning gap between half-day and full-day graduates disappears by third grade. But that's still three years of better academic achievement.

Initially, Huntsman targeted state dollars at low-income and minority students. But all-day kindergarten obviously helps kids from middle-class white families, too.

State Curriculum Director Lynne Greenwood says initial tests of Utah's full-day students are finding mid-year test scores equivalent to a full year of kindergarten.

"The full day is making a tremendous difference," Greenwood says. "From all indications, it's been a tremendous success. The districts would like to see it stay."

So would I. In three years, the money will run out. Maybe by then, Utah lawmakers will be convinced.

walsh@sltrib.com