A new report on U.S. pre-K programs ranked Georgia 9th in the nation for the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled at 56%, but 25th for state spending per child at $5,646.
Researchers with the National Institute for Early Education Research found that Georgia meets eight out of 10 quality benchmarks and predicted a nearly $100 million increase in pre-K spending awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature will give Georgia youngsters a good head start.
According to NIEER’s 2023 State of Preschool Yearbook, released Thursday, class sizes and child-to-staff ratios kept the state from a perfect score. The authors dinged Georgia for its maximum class size of 22, above the benchmark of 20, and the staff-to child ratio of one to 11, when the recommendation is one to 10. Five states met all 10 benchmarks, which also include requirements like teacher training and professional development and vision and hearing screenings for students. The five states are Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi and Rhode Island.
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