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After the birth of her son, Rex, in 2019, Jasmin Almendarez realized childcare costs in central Texas were so high that returning to work no longer made economic sense. 

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to spend that much time away, pay all of that, and then get minimal time for my first baby.鈥� But by the time Rex was 3, she noticed signs of a speech delay, so she decided it would be best to send him to an early learning program to increase his interactions with peers. She began researching local options and reached out to Pre-K 4 SA, a preschool not far from her home in San Antonio. 

She visited the program, which was in a brand new building with a spacious outdoor play area. The staff was friendly, she said, and meals were included. She didn鈥檛 think such an in-demand location would have an opening for Rex, but they did 鈥� and she was surprised to learn that he could attend at no cost to her. 

Pre-K 4 SA is a citywide early childhood education initiative that operates multiple preschools across San Antonio. Rex, like 80% of children enrolled in the program, qualified for a full scholarship.

After one year, Almendarez said she noticed improvements in his speech. Rex learned his letters and how to count, and even how to swim. When her second son, Raiden, turned 3, she enrolled him as well. Now, pregnant with her third child, she hopes to enroll the baby in the Pre-K 4 SA pilot program for infants and toddlers. She also hopes to put her degree in early childhood education to use and be hired as a teacher in the program. 

Like Almendarez, Mariana Rios was hesitant to send her daughter Emma to preschool. Her husband鈥檚 family is Salvadoran and believed young children should stay home with a parent or relative. But Rios and her husband were intrigued by the quality of education that Pre-K 4 SA offered and decided to enroll Emma in 2023. Because of the sliding-scale cost model, Emma鈥檚 tuition was only $128 per month. 

When Emma began kindergarten after two years at the preschool, Rios recalled her teacher saying she could spot the kids who had attended Pre-K 4 SA based on their exemplary behavioral and social skills. Her mother-in-law, once a vocal skeptic of preschool, now encourages other family members to talk to Rios about the benefits of the program.

From modest backing to broad support for early childhood 

Emma, Rex and Raiden are just three of more than 23,000 children who have gone through Pre-K 4 SA since the program began in 2013. The first two locations opened their doors to 3- and 4-year-olds shortly after San Antonio voters in 2012 to add a 鈪�-cent city sales tax to fund early childhood programs. One-eight of a cent was the maximum increase the city could make, according to Texas law, which caps sales tax at .听

The sales tax revenue, which has steadily grown, has come to serve as a dedicated revenue source for the program鈥檚 five locations. At the time of its proposal, the tax was estimated to . In 2025, it brought in , the bulk of Pre-K 4 SA鈥檚 $61.2 million annual revenue. 

The path to building a designated funding source for early childhood education was complicated. The idea for Pre-K 4 SA came from then-Mayor Juli谩n Castro, who created a , featuring prominent local business leaders, to address some of the issues plaguing San Antonio. Those included the city鈥檚 , its and . The city was also facing a : Young people were moving to Austin for college and then staying there.听

The task force came up with a plan to improve San Antonio: , and allocate a specified revenue source to do so. 

In March 2012, in his State of the City address, Castro to put a sales tax increase directed to Pre-K 4 SA on the ballot, but he wasn鈥檛 sure how it would go since any change to the sales tax .

In November 2012, many community members were unconvinced that 4-year-olds belonged in schools, said Sarah Baray, CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淭here were a lot of questions about whether the city belonged in education at all.鈥� The plan faced opposition from some residents in the business community, from higher-income residents and even from leaders in local school districts, who viewed the city鈥檚 plan to establish pre-K centers as competition for their own publicly funded pre-K programs.听

鈥淭exas is a state that doesn鈥檛 like to pay taxes,鈥� said Baray. Ultimately a sales tax was the path of least resistance. 

鈥淧roperty taxes tend to be highly visible and directly tied to household finances,鈥� said Larrisa Wilkinson, deputy CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淪ales taxes, although regressive, are smaller costs spread across many people in everyday purchases, so they鈥檙e less noticeable and less likely to trigger strong pushback,鈥� she said. 

The 2012 measure passed with . Within a year, Pre-K 4 SA opened two centers. A year later,

By 2020, when the sales tax was up for renewal, the initiative had been underway for seven years and had . By that time, there was evidence of success. conducted by University of Texas at San Antonio found that by third grade, Pre-K 4 SA students had higher math and reading scores as compared to their peers. The most pronounced effects were for children from low-income families and those with limited English proficiency. A cost-benefit of Pre-K 4 SA found that families enrolled in its extended-day program earned an average of $240 more per week than families who did not participate. For many families in San Antonio, a city with one of the , those funds can make the difference between living in financial security or hovering close to the poverty line. 

These data points made going back to the community and asking for support easier the second time, said Paul Chapman, who had been the chief communications officer at the time and now serves as chief operating officer at Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淲e could communicate to the community the status of what they have invested in and how we are doing.鈥� In 2020, the ballot measure .

After that, the program continued to grow, adding a fifth center in 2023, which opened in partnership with a local school district. 

As part of its mission to improve the quality of childcare, the program also provides shared services, training and education for more than 90 childcare providers in San Antonio. In 2025, Pre-K 4 SA spent over of its annual revenue on grants for external childcare providers in San Antonio, which has helped neutralize some of their earlier opposition that had viewed the program as a competitor. 

While sales tax revenue can vary year to year, it has provided enough stability to continue expanding. One of its locations, South Education Center, opened a new building in August 2025, as part of a with HOLT Group, a large, local manufacturing company. HOLT paid to build the center, which expanded capacity to serve more families, and the intention is that Pre-K 4 SA will buy it back over time, said Tonda Brown, Pre-K 4 SA鈥檚 chief of schools.

Astonishing teacher retention in a field with high turnover

Pre-K 4 SA has made deep investments in its workforce: All teachers and support staff are city employees with benefits including health insurance, paid time off and a retirement plan. 

The average pay for the program鈥檚 lead teachers is between $71,743 and $90,396, well over the of $65,000, and some lead teachers with extensive experience make over $100,000, Brown said. (Nationally, preschool teachers have of $32,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) 

In April 2026, 324 teachers were offered a contract to return in 2026-27, Brown said. All but two submitted a letter of intent to return 鈥� an astonishing feat in the U.S. early care and education sector, which struggles with .

鈥淲hat makes San Antonio different is quality,鈥� Wilkinson said. 鈥淣o program nationally does the comprehensive work that Pre-K 4 SA does,鈥� she added, referring to the combination of direct services, family engagement and professional learning opportunities. In her experience, she said, many states and localities prioritize access to early care and education over quality. 鈥淚f you do not have a quality program, what is the point? Mediocre programs can have negative impacts,鈥� she said.听

As widespread budget cuts have strained the early care and education sector, some states and localities have been exploring how best to invest in early childhood programs. While some efforts have yielded progress 鈥� , and broadening 鈥� many have relied on a temporary windfall, such as federal relief aid or a one-time budget surplus. That can create long-term expectations for providers and families that become difficult to sustain once the funding expires.

San Antonio bucked that trend by identifying that a sales tax could offer a dedicated, protected revenue source to provide more stability and consistency for childcare programs.

鈥淔unding innovation is happening on the local level,鈥� Wilkinson said. 鈥淐ommunities are saying 鈥榳e want this, we need this, we are not going to be able to rely on state funding on its own.鈥� 鈥�

The sales tax used to fund early childhood in San Antonio will be up for a vote again in 2028, and Baray said she is 鈥渃autiously optimistic鈥� for its passage. Baray has witnessed a shift in mindsets about 4-year-olds in preschool, with more families, like Rios鈥�, realizing how beneficial such programs can be for young learners. It helps, Chapman said, that family engagement, especially in the Hispanic community, was such a large part of their program.

鈥淚t didn’t negate the role of family in early education. It brought it in,鈥� said Chapman. 鈥淥ur goal is that Pre-K 4 SA earns that place of inevitability in the mind of the community that we serve.鈥�

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