No state prekindergarten program has received more acclaim and attention from policy makers than Georgia's. However, there has been no systematic effort to chronicle its evolution or to draw lessons from its experience. This paper, therefore, has two aims: first, to document the processes that translated a set of ideas into concrete public policies affecting large numbers of families; and second, to cull lessons relevant to other state early education initiatives. As the first case study of a large-scale early education program, the paper dwells at some length on the program's history and evolution, describing not only policies but also the political forces and relationships that shaped them; not only progress toward key goals, but also the resistance met along the way. Readers who are more interested in the policy implications and next steps are invited to move quickly to the executive summary and to Section 10, which summarizes lessons that can inform policy and practice in other states.