Report shows Texas has good access to early education, but ranks 32nd in spending per pupil
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Texas ranks 11th in the country for access to early childhood education for 4-year-olds and ranks 15th for 3-year-olds.
Thisisdespiteranking32ndforspendingperpre-Kstudentand35thforoverallpre-Kresources,accordingtoa2024reportbytheNationalInstituteforEarlyEducationResearch(NIEER)releasedTuesday.
Thereport,whichevaluatesearlychildhoodeducationineachstate,saidatotalof248,371childrenwereenrolledinpreschoolinTexasforthe2023-24schoolyear,butU.S.Censusdataestimatesthereareslightlyfewerthantwomillionchildrenundertheageof5inthestate.
AcrossTexas,11%of3-year-oldsand52%of4-year-oldsenrolledinsomeformofearlychildhoodeducation,puttingthestateinthetop20bybothmeasures.StateslikeWestVirginia,NewYork,Georgia,Florida,OklahomaandColoradobeatTexasinaccessibility.
Texasonlyrequirespublicschooldistrictsandcharterschoolnetworkstoprovidepre-Kprogramsforkidswhoare4,butthesameprogramsarenotrequiredforchildren3andunder.
AllisonFriedman-Krauss,a
