Minnesota’s widely debated preschool scholarship program may reach fewer children next year despite millions in new spending.

The anticipated dip in recipients may be short-lived. It would follow Monday’s announcement by Brenda Cassellius, state education commissioner, that she will increase the scholarship cap to $7,500 per student.

That means eligible families receiving assistance will likely get more money to cover the cost of public and private preschool programs. The scholarships are aimed at boosting kindergarten readiness to close the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their classmates.

During the last school year, with a cap of $5,000 per student and a budget of $27 million, about 6,400 students received aid. Increasing the scholarship ceiling to $7,500 per student will fund about 5,700 recipients with a budget of $44 million, projections show.

The new funding won’t go far because state education leaders expect 90 percent of scholarships to go to children in top-rated four-star programs, which are eligible for the full $7,500 scholarship. Lower-ranked programs are eligible for less scholarship money.

“Even though you may have a smaller number of kids, you have better quality and a higher percentage of students ready for kindergarten,” Cassellius said. “The underlying goal of all of this is quality and then access.”

Supporters of the scholarship program saw increasing the cap as a good move and said any decline in recipients would be temporary.

Frank Forsberg, chair of the MinneMinds coalition that pushed for more scholarship funding, said they’ve long wanted more flexibility for how much scholarship money families receive.

“We think flexibility helps families make the best choices and cover the full cost,” Forsberg said. “I think it’s still early to make a determination as to how many kids are going to be served. We think this is a good step forward.”

The battle over how to best expand the state’s early learning programs drove lawmakers into a special legislative session. The Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton eventually agreed to increase early learning funding by $79 million over the next two years with more than half going toward scholarships.

State spending on preschool scholarships will grow to $60 million by 2017. School readiness aid, which goes directly to school districts for a variety of early learning programs, will increase from $12 million to $32 million by the last year of the biennium.

The $5,000 cap on preschool scholarships has long been criticized as being far too little for low-income families to afford high-quality programs.

“For a lot of them, it didn’t come close to covering the cost,” said State Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, who chairs the House Education Finance Committee. “I think where they ended up is a good place.”

Loon added that she also would like to see a more nuanced system for awarding scholarships that considers both family income and program cost.

State education leaders consulted a Minnesota Department of Human Services 2014 Child Care Market Rate Survey when deciding to raise the scholarship cap, officials said. The survey found the weekly cost of preschool child care programs ranged from $100 to $267 per student depending on provider and location.

Families can expect to pay anywhere from $5,200 to $13,884 per child for year-round programs. Scholarships are awarded two ways: directly to families and to eligible programs based on community need.

Cassellius was quick to point out that more than half of preschool scholarships go to public school-based programs. She says that’s good reason to reconsider Gov. Dayton’s proposal for a universal system for 4-year-olds supplemented by scholarships for families that want other options.

Scholarship supporters say reliable increases in funding will encourage more private providers and established programs will raise their quality.

“If providers feel like the revenue is reliable, I think we will see more providers stay in business and more providers come online,” Forsberg said.

Christopher Magan can be reached at 651-228-5557. Follow him at twitter.com/chris_magan.