Early childhood instructional materials funding has proven long-term impact on school workforce readiness
Texas Insider Report: DALLAS TX Bill Hammond Texas Association of Business President & CEO spoke in Dallas earlier this week to highlight the business communitys commitment to funding for early childhood education & instructional materials. Current versions of the state budget for 2012-2013 shortchange early childhood education and place the long-term prosperity of our state at risk according to Hammond.
Our state is falling short on our commitment to Texas school children and businesses that rely on a well-educated workforce if we dont make an investment in these proven early childhood education programs and materials" said TAB President and CEO Bill Hammond.
Pre-Kindergarten education is a key component to our long-term success as a state."
TAB recently released a comprehensive report
Dream Big Texas: Quality Pre-K Education is a Prerequisite for Prosperity" that outlines the business communitys recommendation for strategic investment in proven early childhood education programs and instructional materials.
The groups specific legislative recommendation include:
- Fully fund the Texas Education Agencys (TEA) Pre-Kindergarten Early Start (PKES) Grant at $104.3 million per year;
- Fully fund the TEAs Texas School Ready! Project at $7.5 million (GR) per year;
- Require the Texas Workforce Commission to fund the Texas School Ready! Project by maximizing federal childcare funds the state agency receives; and
- Dedicate the full $550 million necessary to meet the textbook needs of Texas students under the Texas Education Agencys Proclamation 2011.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the role early childhood education plays in the long-term prosperity and workforce readiness of our state" said Hammond.
Our future prosperity is fundamentally linked to the educational foundation that high quality Pre-Kindergarten provides through teachers tools textbooks and other important resources."
Hammond pointed to the fact that Texas spent $1.3 million every school day during 2008-09 re-educating students who had already attended kindergarten and first grade. Kindergarten and first graders are retained more often than students in any other grade except for ninth graders. Early grade retention cost the state of Texas almost a quarter of a billion dollars in re-education costs in 2008-09.
The Coalition for Pre-K Quality and Accountability also supports the recommendations outlined in
the TAB report on early childhood education.
The report also includes data on retention rates and best practices in early childhood education.
During a recent discussion with Texas lawmakers Steve Murdock a sociology professor at Rice University and former state demographer said census data shows that Texas public schools have more and more low-income kids and persistently high dropout rates and changes and the future of Texas will contain more long-term unemployment more poverty more citizens depending on state assistance and higher incarceration rates.
Murdock said the solution must include doing more to prepare preschoolers:
The data seems to show that if a kid walks into a learning situation for the first time when they are 5 or 6 thats probably too late.
Lets do right by Texas children. Lets do right by Texas job creators the
businesses that drive our economy forward" said Hammond.
Our message to the legislature is simple: Texas must fund its obligation to purchase the new Pre-K instructional materials and support early childhood education."
Founded in 1922 the Texas Association of Business is a broad-based bipartisan organization representing more than 3000 small and large Texas employers and 200 local chambers of commerce.
