Pre-school education in Texas: Start them early

DEMOGRAPHERS like to say that Texas today is the United States tomorrow. That being the case, a look at San Antonio—the second-largest city in Texas, and seventh-largest in the country—suggests that America had better get cracking. In many respects the city is in an enviable position: young, diverse, and growing by bounds. It also includes a huge number of children—a quarter of whom live in poverty, most of whom need more education, and all of whom live in a state where government spending is a hard sell. At the Democratic National Convention recently the mayor, Julián Castro, made a pitch for change: “We know that you can’t be pro-business unless you’re pro-education,” he said.

To that end, he said, the city was working for a bigger pre-school programme. The idea is part of a national trend towards early childhood education. “Give me a child until he is seven,” runs the famous Jesuit saying, “and I will give you the man.” Why wait that long, though? By the time children start kindergarten, some are manifestly more ready than others, in terms of their health, cognitive skills, and ability to pay attention to the teacher.

Studies have shown that these advantages persist, and that poverty is the biggest factor. According to a recent analysis from the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, just 48% of children born into poor families are ready for school by the time they start kindergarten. Among children from middle-class and rich families, 75% are.

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