According to the website WalletHub, if you are looking to find a state with the best and the worst pre-K, you might want to look towards the Midwest.
"With states considering whether or not to hold in-person pre-K education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2020'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."
Overall, the District of Columbia finished #1 in the rankings, but in regards to states, Nebraska came out on top, followed by Maryland and West Virginia. The bottom three were North Dakota, Missouri and Indiana dead last.
California finished in the middle of the pack at 26th. It came out on top (#1) as far as monthly child care co-payment fees. It also finished in the top 10 for share of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, pre-K Special Education, and Head Start, as well as total state head start program spending per child. But it also finished towards the middle in regards to income requirement for state pre-K eligibility (19th) and total spending per child enrolled in pre-school (16th).
