TECEC
Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition

Pre-k Day at the Capitol

Pre-k Day on February 17, 2009 was a huge success!
Thank you to everyone who came out to support young learners on Pre-k Day at the Texas Capitol.  We are proud to announce that over 1,000 advocates, families, and children attended.

The model pre-k classroom was a hit- when there weren’t children in the classroom, there were adults wandering through it, reading the books, and playing with the toys!  Several legislators stopped in to see the children in the classroom and there was a resolution passed in the House declaring February 17 to be Pre-k Day.

Advocates for early care and education made hundreds of visits to legislators, motivating a dozen legislators to sign on to HB 130 and SB 21 that day and even more in the weeks that followed.  At the beginning of May, there are 112 legislators signed on as joint- or co-authors to HB 130 and SB 21. 

Thank you again to all the advocates and families who made it out to Pre-k Day this year.  Your presence demonstrated how important this issue is to Texas families.  We hope to see you again for Pre-k Day 2011.

Make sure to check out the pictures from Pre-k Day below!





Pre-k Day at the Capitol, the largest early care and education advocacy event in Texas, is on Tuesday, February 17, 2009!

Hundreds of advocates from all across Texas will join TECEC at the Texas Capitol in Austin to advocate for high-quality early care and education in the Lone Star State, and we hope you will be one of them. As we have done in the past, TECEC will set up a model pre-k classroom in the Capitol Rotunda, complete with young learners. We will also conduct a press conference on the South Capitol Steps. Advocates can expect to hear from prominent Texas legislators as well as other important leaders relevant to early education in Texas.

We are also excited to announce that TECEC will be joined by some very special guests this year: Clifford, Super Why and Maya and Miguel of PBS, so feel encouraged to bring your children along! Early Childhood Educators should also feel encouraged to make Pre-k Day the destination of their next class field trip.

The agenda for Pre-k Day is as Follows:

7:00 AM Advocate Buses Start Arriving

8:00 AM Exhibits Open in the Ground Floor Rotunda

9:30 AM Class Begins in Model Classroom in the Ground Floor Rotunda

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Legislators Visiting Model Classroom

11:00 AM Press Conference on the South Capitol Steps

12:00 PM Lunch Break—See Packet for Suggestions

1:30 PM Legislators Visiting Model Classroom

3:00 PM End of School Day for Model Classroom

5:00 PM Pre-k Day at the Capitol Ends

You can download a PDF of agenda here.

You can dowload a PDF of hotel options here.

You can download event logistics like parking and lunch information here.

What can you do to prepare for Pre-k Day?

1.Make an appointment to visit your Legislator’s Office. Go to Who Represents Me , find out who you Legislators are, and send them an email requesting an appointment for February 17, 2009. If you are unable to make an appointment, feel free to "pop in" to your legislator's office on the day of the event.

2.Organize members of your community to join you in your trip to Austin. Thanks to our generous sponsors, TECEC is again able to provide some of our members with travel scholarships. If you need assistance, download the travel scholarship application and return it to TECEC no later than February 2, 2009.

3.Volunteer with TECEC to help us make Pre-k Day a huge success. We need volunteers for everything from photography to media outreach. If you would like to volunteer you can sign-up at our volunteer registration page.

4.Help us get the word out about Pre-k Day! Send our Pre-k Day flyer out to your friends and your local listservs.

5.Don’t think you can make it to the Capitol? You can still play an important role. We hope our members and supporters, who cannot make it to Austin, will use that day to contact their legislators by phone or email about the importance of high-quality early education in Texas. Be sure to sign-up for TECEC e-alerts , so you can access all of our calls to action.

For more information or if you have any questions about Pre-k Day please contact Don Titcombe at dtitcombe@tecec.org or 512.476.7939
Only 2.2 percent of media coverage of education focuses on education of preschool-aged children

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