Missouri ranks near the bottom of states in a pre-K education report. Chip Lupo of Wallet Hub says program quality is Missouri’s weakest area.
"Now where it really drops off in terms of this quality, quality benchmarks met, requirement of school safety plans and audits, 48 out of 50," Lupo says.
Lupo says as they looked at the 50 states and Washington D.C., they analyzed three key areas.
" Access, quality, resources, and economic support," Lupo explains. "And from there, we applied 12 metrics from share school districts offering pre-K programs, number of quality benchmarks met, total spending per child enrolled in pre-K. Missouri ranked 50th out of 51."
Lupo says Missouri fares best in terms of access.
"36% of the school districts in Missouri offer a pre-K program. These are essentially, traditionally kindergarten for five-year-olds," Lupo says. "We're talking about enrolling 3 and four-year-olds into the pre-K program. That was the high benchmark for Missouri in terms of access, 29."
He says the state fared poorly in program quality and per-pupil funding.
Missourinet