A recent report says Indiana needs to drastically improve state funded preschool, but state officials say it ignores significant improvements to the program.

On this year’s State of Preschool report from The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), Indiana ranked second to last for state funded pre-K access for four year olds. It says in 2017, the state only served 2 percent of those children. The report also ranks Indiana 15th in state spending per child.

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration released a statement saying the report ignores the state’s progress, specifically, the recent expansion of On My Way Pre-K to 20 counties, with the goal of doubling the number of children served.

But NIEER’s senior co-director, Steven Barnett, said in a statement of his own, that Indiana should move beyond just a pilot program in order to serve more families, and work to improve standards for the quality of those programs.

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