{"id":6253,"date":"2017-01-13T19:43:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T19:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6253"},"modified":"2017-01-27T19:45:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T19:45:36","slug":"groups-push-texas-legislature-to-fund-full-day-pre-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6253","title":{"rendered":"Groups Push Texas Legislature to Fund Full-Day Pre-K"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Children\u2019s<\/a>

Children\u2019s advocates say all-day pre-kindergarten programs give Texas children a significant advantage when they begin school. Photo: Children\u2019s Defense Fund-Texas<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Children\u2019s advocates are aiming to convince the Texas Legislature to fund all-day pre-kindergarten classes in the 2018-2019 budget and beyond.<\/p>\n

The Children\u2019s Defense Fund-Texas<\/a> and others hold a roundtable discussion in Austin Friday, to share reasons to permanently fund what is now a temporary, grant-based program.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bresette, the fund\u2019s executive director, says expanding pre-K will bring major benefits to some of the state\u2019s neediest children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you enter a session with some concerns about the overall revenue available, there are competing priorities,\u201d he states. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard to argue that putting some money at the front end of these early childhood programs shouldn\u2019t be one of the highest priorities. The return on investment, the return on human capital and development, are just enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Bill 4, which created the program, was a top priority of Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2015 session, but lawmakers only approved funding for one school year out of the two-year biennium.<\/p>\n

Bresette says the goal this time around is legislative approval of the entire $236 million requested to fund both years of the 2017-18 state budget.<\/p>\n

He says research shows that pre-K classes are having the most impact on children in high poverty districts, such as those in inner cities and the Rio Grande Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly in the areas of the state with a significant number of low-income families, and those who are English language learners, we know two things: Pre-K can be one of the most important tools to getting those kids jump-started, and that we\u2019re only meeting a fraction of the demand,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n

Bresette adds that school districts say they need pre-K funding to be both reliable and sustained as part of the state\u2019s overall education budget, in order to meet families\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe districts are really looking for a more stable source of funding, as opposed to year-by-year,\u201d he states. \u201cI think that if we were to step up and really put the funding that was there to provide a full-day pre-K, you would see an enormous number of families taking advantage of that program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Children\u2019s Defense Fund is partnering with Texans Care for Children and the Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium in backing the Pre-K program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 Children\u2019s advocates are aiming to convince the Texas Legislature to fund all-day pre-kindergarten classes in the 2018-2019 budget and beyond. The Children\u2019s Defense Fund-Texas and others hold a roundtable discussion in Austin Friday, to share reasons to permanently fund what is now a temporary, grant-based program. Patrick Bresette, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6256,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253\/revisions\/6256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}