RICHMOND – Missouri lawmakers talk about the importance of preschool education, but the numbers show the talk does not match the walk. An analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance group, found Missouri is the third worst in the nation at supporting early childhood education. The report is called “2021’s States with the Best & Worst Early Education Systems.” WalletHub compared the 50 states across 12 key metrics. The data set ranges from share of school districts that offer a state pre-K program to number of pre-K quality benchmarks met and total reported spending per child enrolled in pre-K. EARLY ED FACTORS Professor Irina Falls at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke talked about factors influencing child development. “Five factors influence child development the most: genetics, environment, health and nutrition, early access to high-quality childhood education and family. The only factor we cannot influen...