California educators and childcare advocates are protesting Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to scrap a new program for children who are no longer old enough for kindergarten, the Associated Press reports. In his plan to close the state budget deficit, Brown proposes to cut funding for “transitional kindergarten,” a new grade level created when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that raised the starting age for kindergarten. Kellie Little, a salon owner who lives in Marin County, said she was planning to send her son, who turns 5 in November, to the new kindergarten program at her local public school…