JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — With pre-school enrollment dropping by as much as 17% during the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2021’s States with the Best & Worst Early Education Systems.
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 share of school districts that offer a state pre-K program to number of pre-K quality benchmarks met and total reported spending per child enrolled in pre-K.
Wyoming ranked near the bottom (40th best). Quality of Wyoming’s early education system was decent (#26), but availability (#32), and resources and economic support (#36) contributed heavily to dragging down the state’s overall ranking.
Best vs. Worst
- 12 states, such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina, have the highest share of school districts that offer a state pre-K program, 100 percent, which is 9.7 times higher than in New Jersey, the state with the lowest at 10.33 percent.
- Vermont has the highest share of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, pre-K Special Education and Head Start programs, 84.30 percent, which is 6.7 times higher than in Idaho, the state with the lowest at 12.50 percent.
- Hawaii has the highest income requirement for state pre-K eligibility, $60,120, which is 6.9 times higher than in Minnesota, which has one of the lowest at $8,710.
- The District of Columbia has the highest total spending per child enrolled in preschool, $19,463, which is 36.9 times higher than in North Dakota, which has one of the lowest at $527.
- South Carolina, Maryland and New York have some of the lowest monthly child care co-payment fees (as share of family income), 1 percent, which is 16 times lower than in Hawaii, the state with the highest at 16 percent.
