Do State-Funded Pre-K Programs Improve Long-Run Outcomes?

We study the long-term effects of access to state-funded early childhood education on educational attainment and labor market outcomes. To do so, we exploit quasi-random variation across districts and cohorts generated by the phased rollout of Texas's large-scale public Pre-K program. Using restricted-access administrative data, we find that access to state-funded Pre-K substantially increases enrollment, particularly in districts without alternative preschool options. Additional results show that in districts that provide Pre-K simultaneously for three- and four-year-olds, access to Pre-K increases earnings at age 27 and high-school graduation by about 4 percent, with no effect on college enrollment. In contrast, access to Pre-K has no effects on labor market and educational outcomes in districts that primarily serve four-year-olds only. We provide suggestive evidence that the effectiveness of state-funded Pre-K depends on program funding rather than access alone.