In our 2023-2024 Texas AFT member survey, 45% of educators who needed regular childcare said they had trouble accessing or affording it. Additionally, more than half of Texas counties are considered childcare deserts. This is an issue that impacts the entire workforce, but disproportionately affects women. Many working parents, including school employees, find that their income does not keep pace with the costs of childcare, if that care is even available, and many educators will make the choice to exit the profession rather than face an untenable financial equation.
This data tells a compelling story and begs the question: If our teachers and school staff can’t find or afford quality childcare for their own kids, how can they stay in the classroom taking care of our students?
The Texas Legislature has recognized the importance of this topic, and the Senate Natural Resources and Economic Development (NRED) Committee held an interim hearing on Nov. 14. Their charge was to make recommendations, within existing resources, to maintain childcare availability to support a growing workforce.
As important as childcare is to a parent or caregiver trying to participate in the workforce, young children also reap significant benefits from early quality care and education. As childcare and pre-K access has expanded, so has the body of research documenting its positive impacts for students. Quality childcare can improve school readiness — communication and cognitive skills as well as early reading and math skills — especially for children from low-income households. From this early school readiness, we see correlations to lower truancy rates, higher graduation rates, and higher educational attainment and employment.
This is certainly a complex issue and not one that can be solved without significant investment of resources, but there does seem to be an appetite in Austin for bills to help resolve the growing gap of access and affordability of childcare for Texas workers.
A few of the childcare and early learning bills we will be closely following when the Legislature convenes:
- HB 174 by Rep. Mary González (D-El Paso) addresses discrimination against children with disabilities or special needs in childcare facilities and registered family homes.
- HB 358 by Rep. John Bucy (D-Austin) would require districts to offer prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds and expand eligibility for certain 3-year-olds, including those experiencing homelessness and children of active-duty military members. Currently, only certain 4-year-olds are eligible, and the state only funds students for half of the school day. Bucy filed this bill in the last session too.
- HB 494 by Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D-Austin) would add the children of public-school employees to the list of eligible 3-year-olds. Obviously, this would be a major boon for teachers and school staff. Goodwin’s bill is similar to one filed by Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) last session.
- HB 1048 by Rep. Salman Bhojani (D-Euless) is even more expansive than HB 358, requiring that districts offer preK to all 3- and 4-year-olds, removing eligibility requirements. Importantly, it would also require the state to fund preK at the full-day rate.
- HB 693 by Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio) relates to how full-day preK can be calculated and included in the overall funding formula for school districts.
- A duo of bills by Sen. José Menéndez (D-San Antonio), SB 163 and SB 175, would also address funding for full-day and half-day programs. SB 175 would remove any eligibility restrictions for preK, and require districts to offer preK for all 4-year-olds and give districts the option of offering preK to 3-year-olds.
Many of these bills are similar in intent and scope: to expand access to early learning and to support these programs through state funding. Given the focus on this issue, it will be interesting to see what bills will gain traction when the Legislature comes to Austin in January.