Texas

Support for prekindergarten and school readiness initiatives has grown in recent years. At the same time, Texas has neglected basic funding for child care and development programs for low-income working families. As a result, private non-profit and for profit providers have been squeezed to accomplish more with less amidst the growth of school-based preschool programs. Although public prekindergarten program rules recently began requiring schools to partner with community-based providers in delivering quality programs for young children, private providers continue to face a bleak future in Texas.

In 2006, ECEC helped convene a group of stakeholders to develop a bill to bring pressure to bear on the state to support an increase in child care subsidy reimbursement rates while promoting the continued expansion of the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM), a school readiness initiative that uses an integrated approach. Senate Bill 50 would have expanded and improved the TEEM model, increased child care subsidy rates for quality providers, and improved professional development.

Amidst a late-session House leadership struggle that engulfed the 80th Legislature, the clock ran out on SB 50 before it the full House could vote on it; however, working with United Ways of Texas and the Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition, ECEC made sure that the rider for the bill remained in the budget bill.As a result, the state budget included the following:

  • $18 million to improve child care reimbursement rates – the first legislated increase in rates in a decade!
  • $15 million for the TEEM model (this is flat funding for State Center for Early Childhood Development)
  • $2 million towards the development of regional professional development projects

It's no small accomplishment that the Texas legislature actually required a child care rate increase and, perhaps even greater that it actively considered tapping federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a funding source for child care and this in a legislative session that saw no expansion of the TEEM program and flat-funding of the existing publlicly-funded pre-K program.

The groundwork laid in this session – on the importance of funding quality in child care; the economic impact of low rates on providers; and the need to soundly support child care assistance funding if private child care is to have a chance to participate in publicly-funded preK – puts advocates in a strong position to push for further action by the 81st Legislature
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ECEC Partners
Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition
United Ways of Texas

Other Organizations
Texas Association for the Education of Young Children
Texas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
Texas Licensed Child Care Association

State Agencies
Texas Workforce Commission
State Center for Early Childhood Development