The scene is usually the same when you walk into a public pre-K classroom in a low-income neighborhood: students are arranged in rows, teachers are speaking to them, worksheets are on the tables, and the schedule is so jam-packed with hall walks and transitions that actual learning takes up less of the day than most parents would think. It’s not malevolent. It is a systemic issue. And it’s one of the things that the World Organization for Early Childhood Education has been quietly but tenaciously recording for years: the extent to which early childhood education in much of America deviates from what the research indicates is truly effective.
For American policymakers, the timing of OMEP’s advocacy pressure on pre-K quality is extremely awkward. In the 2024–2025 school year, state-funded preschool enrollment reached a record of 1.8 million students, or 37% of all 4-year-olds nationwide, with states spending a total of $14.4 billion. Those are really significant figures. The political temptation is to dismiss this as progress and move on. However, the majority of states are still only meeting a small portion of the ten quality standards for preschool programs set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, which covers everything from teacher preparation to class size. Only two of the ten were met by California, which increased enrollment by more than half the year by implementing universal transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Two. The thinness of the quality and the size of the expansion are incompatible.
U.S. Pre-K Funding Landscape — Key Facts & OMEP Policy Context
National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) | OMEP Advocacy Framework | 2024–2026 Data
| Reporting body | National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), Rutgers University — annual state preschool report |
| Total U.S. state pre-K spending (2024–25) | $14.4 billion — an unprecedented high; enrollment reached 1.8 million children |
| 4-year-olds enrolled in state pre-K | 37% nationally; 10% of 3-year-olds; record enrollment, but gains slowing |
| Washington State ranking | 34th for share of 4-year-olds in state-funded programs; 7th in per-pupil spending at $13,484 |
| Washington budget cuts (2025–26) | Lawmakers cut the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and the Transition to Kindergarten (TK) program — nearly 2,000 slots eliminated |
| California pre-K expansion | Universal TK rolled out for all 4-year-olds; accounted for 25,000 of 44,000 new national enrollees; meets only 2 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks |
| Top-performing state | Georgia — first state to achieve a universal preschool program meeting all 10 NIEER quality benchmarks; Republican-led |
| Tennessee pre-K findings | Vanderbilt University 10+ year RCT study: pre-K children initially outperformed peers, but by 6th grade had lower test scores, higher suspension rates, and higher special ed placement |
| OMEP position | Quality over quantity; play-based learning; state leadership and sustained public investment; equity as a legal obligation, not optional policy |
| Federal stance (2025–26) | President Trump stated the federal government “can’t take care of day care” during the Iran conflict; directed states to fund pre-K independently |
| NIEER quality benchmarks | 10 total — covering teacher training, class size, curriculum, and support services; most states meet fewer than half |
| Head Start status | Enrollment falling due to staff shortages; lower-income families face growing waitlists for subsidies |
| Private preschool average cost | $12,000+ per year for 4-year-olds (Child Care Aware of America, 2024) |
OMEP’s stance on pre-K has always been based on a particular claim: quantity without quality can be actively detrimental rather than just insufficient. The Tennessee-based Vanderbilt University study, which tracked almost 3,000 kids through sixth grade in the closest thing to a real-world controlled trial the field has produced, discovered something that truly unnerved researchers. As anticipated, children who attended state pre-K performed better at the end of the first year than their peers. They were performing worse by the third grade. Even worse by sixth grade: more frequent suspensions for both minor and serious infractions, higher rates of special education placement, and lower scores on all three state achievement tests. The study’s lead researcher, Dale Farran of Vanderbilt, has spent years sitting with those results, characterizing the process as involving “a lot of soul-searching.” It would be an understatement. This kind of outcome ought to compel a review of the funding system as a whole.
The political shape of those who have truly mastered pre-K is difficult to ignore. The nation’s first universal preschool program that satisfies all ten of NIEER’s quality standards is in Georgia, a Republican-led state. Under Republican leadership, Oklahoma was the first state to implement universal pre-K in the late 1990s. Programs in West Virginia and Alabama are highly regarded. In the meantime, despite their politicians’ loudest support for early education, a number of wealthier, Democratic-led states have fallen well short. That disparity is unsettling, and OMEP’s research framework, which demands that early childhood education be viewed as a public good with state leadership, appropriate regulation, and ongoing investment, does not absolve anyone based on political affiliation.
Right now, Washington State provides an especially instructive example. The state ranks seventh in the country for per-pupil investment at $13,484 per preschooler. For its main program, it satisfies nine of the ten NIEER quality standards. However, in 2025 and 2026, state legislators eliminated nearly 2,000 spots from the preschool program for low-income children and the Transition to Kindergarten program. The director of NIEER, Steve Barnett, stated unequivocally that the cuts would push Washington farther away from states making quick progress toward universal access. The recent private donation from the Ballmer Group may help to mitigate some of the harm. However, the pattern of building high-quality infrastructure and then cutting funding before it reaches scale is well-known and depressing.
The situation is more straightforward and dire at the federal level. Recently, President Trump stated that states “should pay for it” because the federal government couldn’t afford to support child care while fighting in Iran. Enrollment in Head Start is declining. Waitlists for subsidies are expanding. Nowadays, a 4-year-old attending private preschool typically costs more than $12,000 annually, effectively pricing out the families who most need early education. The more general argument of OMEP, which is that early childhood funding should be viewed as a legal obligation rather than a political choice, consistently encounters the fact that American governance has never quite made up its mind. For better or worse, classrooms in 46 states are quietly writing the answer to that question, which is still very much open.
