Missouri Worst State When It Comes To Pre-K Education According To Study

With only 11 states currently offering universal pre-K education, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on States with the Best and Worst Early Education Systems.

12 key metrics were used for the study including…among others…the share of school districts that offer a state pre-K program to the number of pre-K quality benchmarks that were met and total reported spending per child enrolled in pre-K.

As for Missouri, the Show-Me state has a lot of room for improvement being ranked 51^st in the study which included the District of Columbia. Montana and New Hampshire were also at the bottom of the list.

At the top of the study with the best early education systems, according to WalletHub, are Arkansas, the District of Columbia and Maryland.

Read the full report here:

With only 11 states currently offering universal pre-K education, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s States with the Best & Worst Early Education Systems, as well as expert commentary.

In order to determine the best early education systems in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 12 key metrics. The data set ranges from the share of school districts that offer a state pre-K program to the number of pre-K quality benchmarks met and total reported spending per child enrolled in pre-K.

Quality of Early Education in Missouri (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• Overall Rank: 51^st
• 38^th – Share of 3- and 4-year-olds Enrolled in pre-K, pre-K Special Education and Head Start
• 40^th – Total Reported Spending per Child Enrolled in Preschool
• 15^th – Total State Head Start Program Spending per Child Enrolled in Preschool
• 43^rd – Share of School Districts that Offer State Pre-K Program
• 45^th – Pre-K Program Growth – Change of Preschool Enrollment for 3- and 4-year-olds

For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-and-worst-early-education-systems/62668