Pre-K for CC

• Corpus Christi provides early education to only one in five preschoolers ages 3 and 4.
• Inequities in early childhood education prevail across different neighborhoods.
• Kindergarteners learn more in communities with more pre-K services.

A region’s economic competitiveness and living standards hinge on the productivity of its workforce. Employees tend to be more productive and more adaptable to change if they are more educated or better trained with specific skills.

However, communities in South Texas have historically faced the challenge of relatively low education attainment.

This makes education and workforce development an economic priority for this region.

Despite moderate improvement in the overall level of education attainment over the past two decades, the share of Corpus Christi population age 25 years and older with post-secondary education or training has remained far below the U.S. average.

Students are less likely to succeed in college if they are underprepared by the time they graduate from high school. There is also  evidence  that students who outperform their peers in early childhood also tend to perform better through high school later.

Beyond academic performance,  extensive research  among communities with a long history of public pre-K education has supported the benefits of early childhood education on the children’s social and emotional skills throughout the rest of their lives.

Despite these positive findings, the U.S. falls behind most other rich countries in promoting pre-Kindergarten and childhood education. According to  New York Times , the U.S. pays an average of $500 per year for a toddler’s care, compared to $14,000 per year in Europe.

The amount of childcare services is even less adequate locally. In Nueces County, licensed childcare providers serve only one in five children ages 3 and 4. And only one-third of those preschoolers are served under the  Texas Rising Star  program--a quality rating certified by the Texas Workforce Commission.

The local pre-K enrollment gap relative to the state has in fact widened during the past decade. In 2011, 23.4% of more than 2,200 three- and four-year-olds in Nueces County enrolled in pre-K programs, compared with the state average of 28.8%.

In 2020, this share dropped to below 20% locally, but it rose to nearly 30% statewide.

Today, less than 3% of local three-year-olds receive pre-K education, compared with 6.5% for the state. Nearly half of four-year-olds across the state attend pre-Kindergarten, while that population share drops to 36.5% in Nueces County.

Recognizing the local challenge of providing early childcare and education, the City of Corpus Christi’s Education and Workforce Stakeholders group has been pursuing a Pre-K for CC initiative, inspired by the  Pre-K 4 SA  program in San Antonio. The first step in this initiative is to understand the families or communities that need childcare education the most.

The initiative to expand early childcare and education, however, is facing additional challenges related to labor shortages. As  researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas  reported recently, the number of preschool teachers today is 10% below the pre-pandemic level.

Their average wage of pre-K teachers in Texas is less than $12 per hour. Because of such a low wage rate, many preschool teachers have pursued other occupations in the past two years, particularly in the low-skill service sector and other caregiving jobs.

This examplifies the challenge of building a talent pipeline at a local level.

Beyond financial resources, community investment in public education faces the risk of brain drain as more educated people tend to be more mobile. Outmigration of locally trained talents reduces the benefits of locally-funded education and training programs for the community.

As a case in point on the global stage, the United Kingkom recently launched a  visa scheme , which offers work visas to graduates of the world's top 50 universities. This scheme, which attracts the "brightest and best" around the world to work in Britain, effectively bypasses the domestic talent pipeline process.

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Note: This is an excerpt of a presentation given to the Corpus Christi City Mayor's Education and Workforce Stakeholders on May 25, 2022. The  interactive maps  in this presentation can be viewed online.