Dive Brief:
- State-supported preschool education hit record highs in enrollment and funding during the 2024-25 school year, but the pace of enrollment growth slowed compared to the year before and many states continued to lag behind pre-pandemic enrollment levels, according to The State of Preschool 2025 report by The National Institute for Early Education Research.
- Nationally, 37% of 4-year-olds and 9% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in state-funded preschool programs in 2025. States spent nearly $14.4 billion on preschool during the 2024-2025 school year, or about $800 million more than the year before.
- NIEER said that new preschool state spending records were mostly driven by several states that aggressively increased enrollment and spending without raising quality standards. Only six states meet all 10 of NIEER’s research-based benchmarks for quality — Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi and Rhode Island.
Dive Insight:
NIEER called Georgia a "leader in preschool for 4-year-olds." The state was the first with a universal program that met all 10 of NIEER’s quality benchmarks. Those quality benchmarks include features such as class sizes of 20 students or lower and employing teachers who have bachelor's degrees.
"Other states should take note: Georgia proves that state-funded preschool with well-qualified teachers, pay parity with K-12, small classes, and strong continuous improvement systems can be scaled as a universal program,” said Steve Barnett, director of NIEER, in a Wednesday statement.
The report also praised other states for their preschool initiatives. The District of Columbia, for example, enrolled 94% of 4-year-olds. Missouri had the largest year-over-year gain in the percentage of 4-year-olds served, increasing from 10% to 22%.
The report said 46% of all children enrolled in state-funded preschool came from four states — California, Florida, New York and Texas.
States spent an average of $8,124 per child enrolled in preschool and two states — New Jersey and Oregon — and the District of Columbia allocated more than $15,000 each in state funding per child enrolled in pre-K.
But NIEER said some states lost ground in pre-K funding and enrollment in 2025. There were 20 states that enrolled fewer preschoolers in 2024-25 than the year before and 17 spent less on preschool in 2024-25 than they did in the prior school year, when adjusted for inflation. States with the largest percentage decreases in preschool spending were Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Nebraska and North Carolina.
Six states — Idaho, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming — do not have a state-funded preschool program that meets NIEER’s definition of a state-supported preschool. That definition includes various components such as ages served and reach of enrollment, group early education experiences, and state participation in funding.
"If providing high-quality preschool education to all 3- and 4-year-olds were a race, some states are nearing the finish line, others have stumbled and fallen behind, and a few have yet to leave the starting line," the report said.
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