\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Texas’ private school voucher program will provide up to $10,800 per year for families to send their children to private pre-K, but only those who already qualify for free public pre-K will be eligible. The program is unlikely to radically transform Texas’ early childhood learning landscape, as the state faces obstacles that prevent all Texans from reaping the benefits of high-quality pre-K programs. The $1 billion program will only accept around 100,000 students, and the applicant pool will also include some families among the more than 5.5 million children who attend Texas’ K-12 public schools.<\/p>\n
Final rules for Texas\u2019 private school voucher program recently\u00a0clarified<\/a>that families interested in sending their children to private pre-K could receive an estimated $10,800 per year, the same amount designated for most other participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the benefit may not radically transform Texas\u2019 early childhood learning landscape, as the students eligible for private pre-K services through the program will be limited to those who already qualify for free public pre-K.<\/p>\n The\u00a0state law<\/a>\u00a0that created the program earlier this year established that virtually any school-age child can apply for an education savings account, a form of vouchers that will allow families to access public taxpayers\u2019 dollars to fund their children\u2019s private or home-school education. But a lesser-known part of the law also granted certain families the option to use state funding to send their children to\u00a0an accredited private pre-K provider<\/a>\u00a0as long as they do not simultaneously attend a public program.\u00a0<\/p>\n That incentive only applies to 3- and 4-year-olds who meet at least one of\u00a0several criteria<\/a>\u00a0to receive free public pre-K \u2014 including being an English learner, residing in a low-income household, or having a parent who is active in the military or teaches at a public school.<\/p>\n Creating another pre-K option will likely help those families who successfully make it through the voucher program\u2019s application process and find a private provider to accept them. But Texans should not consider it the remedy to access and affordability challenges currently plaguing the broader early education environment, said Catherine Davis, director of policy for the Fort Worth-based Child Care Associates, which advocated for the inclusion of private pre-K as an option in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think, generally, this is not going to be the game changer for pre-K,\u201d Davis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Research on pre-K has demonstrated that high-quality programs\u00a0contribute<\/a>\u00a0to positive academic and social-emotional outcomes for students. But the state faces obstacles that advocates say prevent all Texans from reaping those benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas requires that public schools provide a full day of pre-K for eligible families \u2014 but it only funds the programming at a half-day level. To fund the other half-day, school districts must often decide whether to prioritize investments in pre-K or use their limited financial resources in other areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Additionally, around\u00a0250,000 students<\/a>\u00a0attend a public pre-K program in Texas, while another\u00a0282,000 eligible children<\/a>\u00a0do not. That could mean, among other things, that some families do not know free public pre-K is an option for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, families who do not meet the\u00a0limited criteria<\/a>\u00a0for public pre-K must look elsewhere \u2014\u00a0and the private sector is not always a practical solution for Texans struggling to make ends meet. The average private preschool in Texas costs\u00a0$13,521 per year<\/a>, according to Private School Review, an online tuition resource. Preschools may also have waitlists. So do\u00a0scholarships<\/a>\u00a0for families searching for alternative ways to pay for child care, which includes pre-K.\u00a0<\/p>\n While school vouchers will create another pre-K option for some families to choose from, the significance of the investment is less clear \u2014 and not just because of the eligibility requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n The $1 billion program will only accept around 100,000 students, and the applicant pool will also include some families among the more than 5.5 million children who attend Texas\u2019 K-12 public schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe question that I think remains is whether families will opt out of using public pre-K when vouchers are an option,\u201d said Erin Baumgartner, director of the Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University.\u00a0<\/p>\n The success of private pre-K in the voucher program will also depend on public awareness. A recent\u00a0Texas Southern University survey<\/a>\u00a0of 900 Texas families with children in pre-K through 12th grade found that 53% had either little or no familiarity with the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several agencies share the responsibility of maintaining Texas\u2019 child care system, each with its own rules and eligibility requirements \u2014 which can translate to confusion about where families should go to find accurate information. The same barriers tend to hold steady in programs targeting low-income families more broadly \u2014 the demographic that will qualify to receive state funding for private pre-K.\u00a0<\/p>\n