As the 89th Texas Legislature is set to convene in January, funding for full-day pre-K is top of mind for school districts across Central Texas and public education advocacy organization Raise Your Hand Texas.

The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3 in 2019, which expanded access to full-day pre-K and established the Early Education Allotment to support early childhood education learning goals. However, although it requires districts to offer full-day pre-K, the state only provides funding for half-day pre-K.

Despite the lack of funding for the program, full-day pre-K4 in Austin ISD is more popular with families; currently, there are 46 pre-K3 classrooms and 73 pre-K4 classrooms. This means families who would like to pay tuition will be turned away this year because there are not enough seats available, said Jessica Dimas, principal at Anita Uphaus Childhood Center.

“It's also typical to cut your day short to go pick up your child for a half-day pre-K program,” Dimas said. “It's not that parents don't want their child in school for half a day, but it's not feasible with so many people’s job commitments and schedules. I know it wouldn't be workable for me or anyone with a full-time, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job to just have your child in a half-day program. Funding full-day pre-K would be ideal.”

Funding and enrollment challenges

Most pre-K students in AISD meet the state's qualifying criteria for free pre-K, which includes low socioeconomic status, emergent bilingualism and special education status, among other characteristics. The remainder of the students in the early childhood education program are tuition-based students.

However, these qualifying criteria often prevent students across the state from enrolling in free pre-K programming. Income eligibility requires families to be within 185% of the federal poverty line. For example, a family of four would have to have an income of $58,000 or less to qualify for free pre-K programming. Currently, the median family income in Texas sits at $86,000, leaving many students without the ability to enroll. The National Institute for Early Education Research reports that Texas public pre-K programs only enroll 52% of 4-year-old children in the state.

Paired with the difficulty many families face to qualify for pre-K in Texas, funding for those enrolled in pre-K remains stagnant. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, state spending per pre-K student is $4,235, which is $1,500 less than what Texas spent in 2002 and $3,000 below the national average.

“We need opportunities right now,” said John Green-Otero, director of early learning for AISD. “I have to do a lot of grant writing to create our current full-day pre-K3 programing. I think the federal funding through Head Start is really helpful, but those funds also are a little restrictive, because you have to meet even greater income guidelines than the rest of pre-K.”

Although districts are able to use the Early Education Allotment to cover the remaining cost of full-day pre-K, it also means diverting funding from K-3 programs—an approach that has become a delicate balance. The implementation of full-day funding would allow the district to admit more families to full-day pre-K, as well as make it easier for parents to enroll their children.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing a drop in enrollment, AISD did not take long to rebound and return to pre-pandemic enrollment levels. However, the half-day funding structure is exacerbating other classroom challenges that spiked during the pandemic, particularly teacher retention. AISD—and many other school districts across Texas—continues to struggle with retaining full-time pre-K teachers with only half-day funding.

“The closest thing we have to a silver bullet in education is access to well-funded, high-quality early childhood education,” said James Talarico, Treasurer of the Texas House Early Childhood Caucus and state representative for House District 50. “But our state government isn’t paying its fair share of the bill. The legislature needs to start funding full-day pre-K at the same rate we fund full-day school for every other grade— full funding for a full day. Throughout history, Texas has led in providing high-quality pre-K. We must refocus on early learning as a priority—the future of Texas is at stake.”

Improving academic outcomes

Enrolling students in pre-K has immense cognitive and social-emotional benefits. Early exposure to school routines and learning experiences improves academic readiness and strengthens the transition into elementary school education.

“If you enroll your student in a pre-K program, he or she is going to be ready to take on the rest of school,” said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy at Raise Your Hand Texas. “You're less likely to drop out, less likely to need additional help, more likely to graduate high school, and more likely to persist in a two-year or four-year university degree. All of those are important aspects of a child’s ongoing success in school. Pre-K is one of the best answers to make sure our kids are off on the right foot.”

Part of ensuring student success in AISD also means identifying students who might need extra services at an early age by being able to observe them at ages 3 and 4 through pre-K programs.

“It is a foundation for their education and life,” Dimas said. “Not only are we getting kids ‘kindergarten ready,’ which includes developmental domains that will contribute to a child's ability to adapt to a kindergarten class and any other grade levels as they get older, but the benefits also include increasing their academic skills and social-emotional skills, which go along with early literacy, their physical development and their overall oral language development.”

In addition to better preparing students for the remainder of their academic career, additional funds could also help Texas reach quality pre-K benchmarks associated with improved student outcomes. Currently, Texas only meets four of the 10 NIEER quality standards for preschool, including early learning standards; teacher degree requirements; specialized training for early learning; and health screening and referrals for children.

Among other missed benchmarks, Texas does not require a one-to-11 teacher-student ratio, a class size limit of 20 students, degree-holding assistant teachers, or a quality improvement system.

How to get involved

To stay informed about important legislative issues in Texas, sign up for Raise Your Hand Texas’ Across the Lawn Newsletter. You can also sign up here to advocate for Texas public schools during the upcoming legislative session. For more information about Raise Your Hand Texas, visit www.raiseyourhandtexas.org.

The above story was produced by Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.