The State of Illinois announced last week that it is expanding 50  “Preschool for All” sites and adding 30 more locations to the publicly-funded early childhood education  program.

The expansion coincided with the release of another in-depth study connecting  long-term economic and social benefits to high-quality pre-kindergarten initiatives.

The report, issued by the National Institute for Early Education Research, follows earlier research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Abecedarian Project and other sources in detailing how low-income three- and four-year-olds enrolled in early education programs are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college and earn a supportable wage and less likely to wind up in special education classes, as clients of social services agencies or in prison.

Suffice it to say, the research has yet to resonate in the Missouri corridors of power where discussions about re-kindergarten spending are generally deflected to the wider conversation on budgetary restraint.

When it comes to providing quality pre-k, Missouri has thus become somewhat of an island. There’s Preschool for All in Illinois and Oklahoma, south and west, offers a highly regarded program in one of three states that provides free early education to all. Two other bordering states, Iowa and Tennessee, are also devoting more resources toward enrolling poor kids in pre-k.

In its 2007 state “Report Card,” an analysis of pre-kindergarten quality, access and funding, the NIEER ranks Missouri 31st in state pre-k spending. To be fair, the group does award Missouri high marks for requiring comprehensive learning and placing certified teachers in existing pre-k programs.

Another advocacy group, Pre-K Now, is not quite as magnanimous. Analyzing the “climate” of pre-kindergarten on on a cold to hot scale that measures availability, quality and political factors, in Pre-K Now’s opinion Missouri is “cool.”

To Pre-K Now’s way of thinking, that means Missouri is not.