Education: Abbott signs bill to boost pre-K quality,
Flanked by several well-behaved preschoolers, key lawmakers and the state education commissioner, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed into law House Bill 4 — a $130 million grant program aimed at improving the quality and accountability of the state’s public pre-kindergarten programs.
“The state of Texas proudly ranks No. 1 in the nation for so many different things,” Abbott said at a ceremony held inside a classroom at the Anita Uphaus Early Childhood Center in Southeast Austin, emphasizing that HB 4 was one of four he would sign into law Thursday that round out his priority early education agenda.
“The time has come for the state of Texas to strive to ensure that education in Texas will be No. 1 in the nation,” Abbott said.
In a staunchly conservative, tea party-tinged state Legislature, HB 4 faced an uncertain fate during the nearly fivemonth legislative session Watch Gov. Abbott’s signing ceremony for House Bill 4 with this story at mystatesman.com. that ends Monday.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s hand-picked tea party advisory board condemned HB 4 as “socialistic” and “Godless.” Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, a veteran legislator and pre-K advocate who Abbott asked to carry the Senate version of the bill, said she couldn’t get a public hearing for the legislation.
Hoping the program might be expanded, school officials and education groups — as well as lawmakers who had filed competing pre-K bills — initially criticized HB 4 for not going far enough. They noted it does not fully restore $200 million lawmakers cut from pre-K in 2011 when they gutted a similar grant program — and that it does not call for full-day pre-K, which they argue is critical.
But HB 4, authored by Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, ended up winning final passage in the Legislature with a unanimous vote.
Abbott and the lawmakers who carried or sponsored HB 4 have emphasized that the program is not intended to expand pre-K but establish unprecedented quality and reporting standards.
HB 4 will require participating school districts to abide by certain teacher certification requirements and use a state-approved curriculum. They also would have to report certain data about their pre-K programs to the state for the first time.
The other early education bills Abbott signed into law Thursday are:
Senate Bill 934, creating training academies for kindergarten through third grade mathematics teachers
Senate Bill 935, creating a “reading excellence team” pilot program
Senate Bill 972, creating training academies for fourth and fifth grade reading teachers