Study ranks Missouri as worst in the United States for early education

MISSOURI — A recent study from WalletHub has given the state of Missouri poor marks in early education compared to the rest of the nation.

WalletHub’s study analyzed the early education programs of every U.S. state and the District of Columbia for 2025. The study looked at the availability of pre-K programs in school districts, the quality of pre-K programs using set benchmarks and reported spending and resources per child enrolled in pre-K.

In the study, Missouri was ranked last out of all states for its overall early education system.

Missouri was ranked second-to-last in the study’s pre-K quality metric, only ahead of Kansas. Missouri also ranked below average in pre-K access rank (38th) and economic support and resources rank (32nd).

The full article is available at ozarksfirst.com.

(Story by Drew Tasset, ozarksfirst.com)