For Immediate Release
January 20, 2026
Contact: Peter Clark, pclark@txchildren.org
Austin – Today, Governor Greg Abbott announced his appointments to the Governor’s Task Force on Governance of Early Childhood Education and Care. The Legislature established the Task Force last year through HB 117 by Rep. Alan Schoolcraft and Sen. Donna Campbell.
“The Task Force is a great opportunity to ensure more parents have options for high-quality early learning for their kids, more children walk into the first day of kindergarten ready to succeed, and more neighborhoods have sustainable, affordable child care,” said David Feigen, Director of Early Learning at Texans Care for Children. “Families want affordable options — whether it’s at their church or private child care or public pre-k — where teachers will read books to their kids, help them paint pictures, and introduce them to letters and numbers while parents are at work.”
The state faces a number of early childhood education and care challenges. Parents often pay more for child care than they can afford, or are unable to work at all because of the cost of child care, with infant care costing more than in-state tuition for a four-year public college. About 100,000 Texas children are on the state’s waiting list for a child care scholarship, which covers the cost of child care for low-income working families. Because child care is a labor-intensive industry, even when child care programs have high tuition, they operate on barely sustainable profit margins, putting them at risk of closure. Child care educators are paid about $12 per hour with little to no benefits, meaning programs struggle to recruit and retain the staff they need. As a result of these challenges, a staggering 88 percent of working families with low incomes live in a Child Care Desert, where demand is three times greater than the availability of high-quality child care seats.
These challenges are particularly daunting for families with young children with disabilities — a subject that advocates hope the Governor’s Task Force will address.
“We encourage the Task Force to ensure child care, pre-k, and other early learning programs have their doors open for little kids with disabilities,” said Mr. Feigen.
It is often difficult for the state to address these challenges because oversight of early childhood programs and policy is spread out among a number of state agencies, such as the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Health and Human Services Commission.
“The Task Force has an opportunity to clean up the state’s fragmented governance of early childhood, develop a more coordinated approach, and empower state officials to execute a vision that supports families regardless of what program their kids enroll in.”
In addition to addressing the fragmented governance of early childhood, state leaders have also taken steps to address the economic challenges of early childhood programs and make child care more affordable. During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers approved $100 million to support child care scholarships for working families. Advocates are urging the Legislature to build on that investment during the 2027 legislative session.
###
