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Last month, Education Commission of the States (ECS) released , a report on how states have changed their funding for public pre-K. While many states have increased funding for pre-K programs, accessibility and quality continue to be unequal across states.

The push toward high-quality pre-K is largely based on growing evidence that these programs benefit children and society overall. In fact, recent research from Duke University shows that pre-K participation is not only associated with stronger reading and math proficiency through fifth grade, but also that participating children have a lower likelihood of being held back a grade or requiring special education services. Duke researchers also found a relationship between funding and educational outcomes of pre-K students, suggesting that spending more money on pre-K is worthwhile.

In recent years, the benefits of pre-K have garnered bipartisan support. As ECS notes, states with both Democratic and Republican governors have increased spending on pre-K, and collectively, state spending on pre-K has increased by 6.8 percent since the 2015-2016 school year. In the past five years, state pre-K spending has increased by 47 percent.

ECS highlighted pre-K investments in four states: Alabama, Florida, Minnesota, and West Virginia.

This year, in part due to a federal Preschool Development Grant, Alabama increased its funding for the First Class Pre-K program by 33 percent. The state has increased funding for pre-K over the past decade and has seen a significant jump in the number of pre-K students served: from 1,026 in the 2005-2006 school year to 14,598 this year. Alabama now serves 25 percent of the state’s four-year-olds. The First Class Pre-K program is also just one of six state programs that meets all of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) .

Minnesota, which increased pre-K spending by 28 percent since last year, created a voluntary pre-K program, allowing 3,300 more four-year-olds to attend pre-K tuition-free in the 2016-2017 school year. The state prioritized school districts with higher percentages of low-income students. Minnesota’s School Readiness Program and Early Learning Scholarships for low-income families also saw funding increases, 43 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

Florida covers all tuition costs for four and five-year olds enrolled in its Voluntary Prekindergarten, which currently serves nearly 80 percent of pre-K students. This year, the state spent nearly $400 million on pre-K, a 2 percent increase since last school year. But while the state does serve a large number of pre-K students, the state only meets .

West Virginia is also one of six states that meets all 10 of NIEER’s quality benchmarks. The state requires all four-year-olds have access to voluntary pre-K, and saw a 75 percent participation rate for the 2015-2016 school year.

While Alabama and Mississippi increased funding by one-third or more, six states, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wyoming did not fund pre-K programs at all. With the exception of North Dakota, which provided $3 million in pre-K funding in the 2015-2016 school year but no money for the 2016-2017 school year, all of these states have been reluctant to invest in pre-K. There are likely a combination of reasons. Pre-K has often been touted as a way to lift children out of poverty, but most of these states have a lower level of poverty and fewer children living in single-parent households compared to the national average. Additionally, with the exception of New Hampshire, because these states have low population densities, they face barriers to establishing pre-K programs, such as difficulties with transportation and finding qualified teachers.

Additionally, in the , NIEER noted that while overall state funding and quality for pre-K programs have increased, access to high-quality pre-K is still unequal. According to NIEER, five states, including Florida and Texas, actually decreased enrollment in the 2014-2015 school year, and overall, enrollment in U.S. pre-K programs increased by just 31,863 for three-year-olds and four-year-olds combined. Currently, access for three-year-olds is limited with the exception of Washington, DC, where enrolled in pre-K. Nationally, just 5 percent of three-year-olds are enrolled in public pre-K, compared to 29 percent of four-year-olds.

Finally, ECS noted in their report that with the enactment of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states have the opportunity to “reevaluate and prioritize” funding for public pre-K, and last fall, the Department of Education released suggestions on . Funds through ESSA can be used, and are encouraged to be used, for funding early childhood programs and improving transitions between pre-K and kindergarten for children and families. Stay tuned for more from our team on early learning opportunities in ESSA for states and local school districts.