Persisting Income-Based Preschool Enrollment Gap in the U.S., 2000 to 2023

September 2026

This study aims to understand whether access to early childhood education (ECE) has become more equitable over a period of substantial growth in public pre-K investment. This study describes and statistically tests the differential trends across income groups in center-based ECE enrollment among 3- and 4-year-olds. Across descriptive, regression, and decomposition analyses, the income-based disparities in ECE enrollment were remarkably persistent. For both age groups, the enrollment gap between the top and lower income quintiles has changed relatively little (converged for 4-year-olds by one to two percentage points per decade and widened for 3-year-olds by two to three percentage points per decade). Decomposition analyses show the stability in factors explaining the gaps, with compositional differences in maternal education across income groups remained the largest measured driver of the gap throughout, and this pattern held through both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

Early childhood care and education, Unequal access to early learning, Income gap trends, Decomposition

Education level

Early childhood

Topics

School Choice