State Pre-K Funding: 2014-15 Fiscal Year

Once considered a strategy to support working parents with child care needs, the majority of states now view access to high-quality preschool programs as a critical long-term economic investment in the future workforce. For the third year in a row both Republican and Democratic policymakers made significant investments in state-funded pre-K programs. This report is an analysis of 2014-15 appropriations by the 50 states, which found that 28 states plus the District of Columbia increased their investments in pre-K, and state investments in pre-K rose by 12 percent nationally. California led the nation with a 79 percent funding increase, to a total of $397,500,000. The findings in this report include: (1) A national overview of state funding for pre-K; (2) A state-by-state breakdown of total pre-K funding, as well as funding by program; and (3) Highlights of 2014 measures taken by four states: California, Hawaii, Indiana, and Maryland.