What is the cost of a preschool program?

This paper aims to study the root causes of differences in per-student costs of states' preschool programs. The authors suggest cost tradeoffs as different features such as smaller class size or longer school days are introduced or substituted for each other. These findings on preschool costs are contrasted with recent research on the effectiveness of different program provisions. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to aid state or local governments in assessing the mix of characteristics that are most effective for the budget available.