People don’t usually talk about San Antonio in the same breath as new ideas in education. The city has one of the highest rates of poverty in the United States. It also has a long history of economic segregation and a working-class population that has watched for decades as resources have gone to other places. But slowly but surely, it has been building something that other cities are starting to really admire.
Since it started in 2013, Pre-K 4 SA, the city’s publicly funded early childhood program, has helped over 23,000 kids. It all began with a ⅛-cent city sales tax, which was the highest amount that Texas law would allow, and a former mayor named Julián Castro who thought that the best way to get out of poverty was to start earlier than most people were willing to. A lot of people weren’t sure. In 2012, a measure on the ballot passed with only 53% of the vote. Some school district leaders saw it as a way to compete. Some people with more money didn’t think the city should be running preschools at all. After eight years, that same measure passed with 73.3% of the vote. There was a change.
Data helped change people’s minds. The University of Texas at San Antonio did a study that showed that by third grade, kids who went to Pre-K 4 SA did better in math and reading than their peers. The effects were strongest for kids from low-income families and those who didn’t speak English very well. Families that took part in the extended-day program made an extra $240 a week on average than similar families that didn’t take part. That much money can mean the difference between being poor and having enough to live on, so $240 a week is not a small amount of money.
This is something Jasmin Almendarez knows for sure. When her son Rex was born in 2019, she did the math and found that the cost of child care in central Texas would almost cancel out the money she would make by going back to work. She stayed at home. When Rex was three years old and her speech was getting slower, she looked into Pre-K 4 SA. She was ready for a waitlist. Instead, she found an open spot and found out that Rex, along with 80% of the other kids who were going, could get a full scholarship. His speech got better in about a year. The little guy learned to read, write, count, and even swim. She also signed up her second son, Raiden, when he turned three years old. Now that she’s pregnant with her third child, she wants to join the program’s new pilot for babies and toddlers and eventually become a teacher there.
The really interesting part of San Antonio’s plan is that it now includes kids younger than three. There is a lot of research on how the brain develops in the first few years of life, but it’s still not clear if cities can run quality programs on that scale without cutting corners. That question looks like it’s being taken seriously by Pre-K 4 SA. It pays its head teachers between $71,000 and $90,000 a year, and some tenured teachers make over $100,000. The average pay for a preschool teacher in the United States is about $32,000 per year. The program offered to renew the contracts of 324 teachers in April 2026. Only two did not say yes. That’s not a number that’s used in early childhood education. At any time.
That retention number tells us something important. One big reason why early childhood programs have trouble keeping up their quality is that teachers leave a lot. When kids see the same person every year, the relationships that make early education work start to break down. Pre-K 4 SA seems to know this, and it shows in how it treats its employees.
The program also gives more than $4 million a year to help outside childcare providers all over the city. This has helped calm down the local childcare sector, which at first saw Pre-K 4 SA as a threat. Going it alone isn’t as smart in the long run.
In 2028, the sales tax that pays for all of this will be up for renewal again. She says she’s cautiously optimistic. Sarah Baray is the CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. You should watch it. Because what San Antonio has made is more than just a preschool. It’s a way for local governments to get money that doesn’t depend on federal aid or one-time budget surpluses, which can lead to unrealistic expectations that can’t be met when the money runs out. A steady flow of money that isn’t affected by budget fights from year to year is a different kind of stability. It’s possible that people in other cities are very interested.
