A Positive Development in the Lone Star State

Just before Labor Day, the Texas State Education Agency released its biennial appropriations request to the legislature, which puts forward the amount of funding the agency is seeking to support its activities in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. One item in the request caught our attention: TEA is seeking $65 million (or $32.5 million each year) to expand access to publicly funded pre-k in Texas. That’s a substantial increase that would help expand the number of young Texans benefitting from pre-k, and also help improve the quality of Texas’ pre-k programs.

Currently, Texas spends more than $532 million annually on pre-k programs, and serves nearly 194,000 students–about 45 percent of 4-year-olds in the state. Texas is also doing some good things in terms of pre-k quality. For example, it requires pre-k teachers to have a bachelor’s degree and training in early education. More important, the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM) supports partnerships between school districts, childcare centers, and Head Start to improve the quality of pre-k programs and implement a research-based, pre-literacy instructional program.

But Texas still has a lot of work to do. TEA estimates that the state pre-k program serves only half of eligible children. And state-funded pre-k programs fall short on some important quality measures: Most significantly, there is no maximum class size or mandated adult: child ratio for pre-k programs in public schools, meaning that some children attend pre-k in classes that are too large to support quality interactions between adults and children. The new funding TEA is requesting to improve pre-k quality and access could help address both these issues.

TEA’s funding request is just a first step toward getting more funding for Texas pre-k programs, and it’s hardly a done deal: The state legislature has to appropriate the funding when it reconvenes early next year, and the governor has to sign off as well. But the fact that TEA included a request for more pre-k funding in its budget proposals is a good sign, and should make the road much easier for state pre-k advocates seeking additional funding. Early Ed Watch will keep following developments in Texas next year when the legislature returns.

Photo by flickr user a little black spot on the sun today, used under a Creative Commons license.