Evaluating State-Funded Preschool Programs

The 2007 State Preschool Yearbook by the NAtional Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) is the fifth in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the US. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2006-2007 school year. Here are a few of the interesting tidbits from the data:

State-funded preschool now reaches more than one million children across the nation, making states the largest sources of publicly funded pre-K. There are, however, large and seemingly growing disparities from state to state, meaning the changes for a child to benefit from state pre-K are largely determined by the state in which a family lives.

Total national enrollment in state pre-K programs was 1,026,037, an increase of more than 80,000 youngsters from the year previous. Thirty of the 38 states with programs increased enrollment of 4-year-olds.

Total state spending for pre-K was more than $3.7 billion, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year. Average state spending per child was $3,642.

The complete report is available online, as are a limited number of copies by NIEER.