A wonderful article, and SO timely! At some point in the near future there will be a blue administration and the possibility of real change in the nation.
It may take Texas a while to catch up, but so many people now are beginning to understand that the billionaires are not on the side of working people.
GREAT Article! I agree with you 100% and have been saying this since at least 1982! When I learned in college the importance or quality child care. Then in 1986 I started to teach a High School class on Teaching Young Children (It was a Career Tech class). The class was 2 periods long so that once we did initial training; the students would go to area daycares (public schools) to train to become Teachers of Young Children. I learned so much about the importance of teaching children. One important fact (at that time/not sure if it’s still true) children learned 80% of what they will learn in their life time by 8 years old. That means 9 years to adults only have 20%!
Anyway, I applied it to my 3 boys. They went to the best daycare center in Bexar County. (At that time) It was expensive. It was most of my salary. My husband didn’t want to at first but I told him then I stay home and raise them or we will not have any children. Many people asked me; why work? (For retirement)
I really don’t think I would have given them the education they needed to be as successful as they are. It truly takes a village.
My husband used to play the lottery until I told him half of that money would go to open a great daycare for the poor people. I have seen how economics plays a huge roll on the education of children. I sure would love to equalize that. It would make for a Great Country, if we did.
Bexar County does a bit of this. I just don’t know how good it is. The program is called PreK for SA. But I think they only pay partial or sliding scale.
Quality (and that is key) universal, tuition-free Pre-K (for 3 and 4 year olds) for ALL families is the only way forward. In fact, Dallas ISD just voted to do that last week.
Just imagining how we could dramatically improve educational outcomes by simply investing in teachers instead of all those billions (trillions) being spent on Donald Trump’s “projects” including his “wars.”
A wonderful article, and SO timely! At some point in the near future there will be a blue administration and the possibility of real change in the nation.
It may take Texas a while to catch up, but so many people now are beginning to understand that the billionaires are not on the side of working people.
Thank you. I started this week thinking, “We haven’t talked about policy in a while.” And I thought it was time to mix it up. 😁
GREAT Article! I agree with you 100% and have been saying this since at least 1982! When I learned in college the importance or quality child care. Then in 1986 I started to teach a High School class on Teaching Young Children (It was a Career Tech class). The class was 2 periods long so that once we did initial training; the students would go to area daycares (public schools) to train to become Teachers of Young Children. I learned so much about the importance of teaching children. One important fact (at that time/not sure if it’s still true) children learned 80% of what they will learn in their life time by 8 years old. That means 9 years to adults only have 20%!
Anyway, I applied it to my 3 boys. They went to the best daycare center in Bexar County. (At that time) It was expensive. It was most of my salary. My husband didn’t want to at first but I told him then I stay home and raise them or we will not have any children. Many people asked me; why work? (For retirement)
I really don’t think I would have given them the education they needed to be as successful as they are. It truly takes a village.
My husband used to play the lottery until I told him half of that money would go to open a great daycare for the poor people. I have seen how economics plays a huge roll on the education of children. I sure would love to equalize that. It would make for a Great Country, if we did.
Bexar County does a bit of this. I just don’t know how good it is. The program is called PreK for SA. But I think they only pay partial or sliding scale.
Maybe my favorite ever Substack. Thanks for stating so succinctly and with caring thought.
Thanks for reading! 💙
Our brain is 90% developed by the age of 5.
https://files.firstthingsfirst.org/why-early-childhood-matters/the-first-five-years
Quality (and that is key) universal, tuition-free Pre-K (for 3 and 4 year olds) for ALL families is the only way forward. In fact, Dallas ISD just voted to do that last week.
https://thehub.dallasisd.org/2026/03/28/dallas-isd-trustees-approve-tuition-free-pre-k/
So, why are our state and country so far behind the obvious answers to dramatically improving educational outcomes for our children??
https://www.keranews.org/education/2026-03-27/dallas-isd-free-universal-pre-k
Yes! Arlington has PreK, too. I love that.
Just imagining how we could dramatically improve educational outcomes by simply investing in teachers instead of all those billions (trillions) being spent on Donald Trump’s “projects” including his “wars.”
Thank you, Michelle! Already shared to bsky with enthusiasm.