Overview
- State-funded preschool, which NIEER detailed in a report released Wednesday, now serves 1.8 million children as public spending reached $17.7 billion with states supplying most of the money.
- Six states met all 10 of NIEER’s quality standards for the first time, and Georgia became the first universal program to do so after lowering class size to 20 and moving to a 1-to-10 staff ratio.
- California’s new universal transitional kindergarten drove more than half of the national enrollment gain, adding about 25,000 children, yet it met only two quality benchmarks last year.
- California officials and advocates expect to meet two more benchmarks in the next cycle by requiring early education training for lead teachers and reducing class sizes to reach a 10-to-1 ratio.
- Access and funding vary widely as 17 states cut preschool spending and six states still have no NIEER-defined state program, leaving families with very different options and pressures on private providers.