The quality of Maine’s early education system was found to be one of the worst in the nation despite a high overall ranking, according to a new study from WalletHub.
While the state falls into the top fifty percent in terms access, it’s overall ranking is brought up significantly by its 8th place score for resources and economic support.
This placement in the top ten is reflective of a range of figures, including the total spending per child enrolled in preschool, the change in state spending per child enrolled in preschool, and the amount of monthly child care co-payment fees as a share of family income.
Also factoring into this ranking is the total amount of Head Start spending per child enrolled in preschool. Nationwide, Maine was found to spend the fifth most on Head Start per child enrolled in preschool, led only by Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Alaska, and Oregon.
Head Start is a federal program that provides services to three- and four-year-old children with access to a number of services, including those related to their health and social needs. Head Start service models vary from place to place and may take the form of schools, centers, or even home visits.
To determine each state’s score in terms of access — another area where Maine had a relatively strong showing in this study — WalletHub looked at various measures of how many children are attending pre-K programs, as well as the ease of enrollment.
More specifically, the study took note of the share of school districts offering state pre-K programs, the share of three- and four-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, special education, and Head Start programs, as well as the presence of waiting lists for child care and pre-K program growth.
Taking all of these elements into consideration, Maine was found to have the 17th best access to early childhood education nationwide.
Where the state drops off, however, is in terms of quality, landing 39th in the country.
This category included the most extensive list of factors that played into calculating each state’s ranking.
To begin with, WalletHub looked at income requirements for state pre-K eligibility and determined if there was a requirement for school safety plans and audits.
The study then explored whether or not a number of pre-K quality benchmarks were being met.
Among the factors considered in this part of the study were early learning and development standards, curriculum supports, teachers having a bachelors degree and specialized training in pre-K, assistant teachers having a CDA or equivalent, professional development opportunities for staff, class sizes of twenty or less with a staff-child ratio 1:10 or better, the availability of vision, hearing, & health screening & referral, and a continuous quality improvement system.
Based on official data from 2022, there are roughly 3,000 Maine children enrolled in Head Start.
Data from the State of Maine shows that 86 percent of school districts offer public pre-K education. Nearly 6,500 Maine children are said to be attending public pre-K this year.
This figure has been trending upwards post-pandemic and quickly exceeded pre-pandemic levels of attendance, which had mostly hovered around 5,000.
