(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott continues to travel throughout the state or host bill signing events in Austin to ceremoniously sign bills to raise awareness about legislation that passed during the regular legislative session.
Two bills Abbott ceremonially signed will streamline childcare regulations to improve childcare and early learning programs, he said.
“Improving access to childcare is so essential for working parents as well as for employers,” Abbott said. The new laws will make it easier to access childcare and improve quality of care, he said, by cutting regulatory red tape among other measures.
“These bipartisan laws are our state’s next step towards establishing affordable, quality childcare for Texans,” he continued. “By removing barriers and streamlining regulations, we will improve childcare availability and expand access for Texas parents.”
HB 117, filed by Republican state Rep. Alan Schoolcraft and Sen. Donna Campbell, creates another task force in the governor’s office, “the Governance of Early Childhood Education and Care.” Task force members are tasked with identifying and eliminating inefficiencies in the administration of childcare and early learning programs across state agencies.
“A good foundation of education has got to be the best that it can be especially pre-K and the first few years,” Campbell said. “Well-educated children become well-educated adults and that keeps Texas strong.”
Aware of criticism of yet another task force created by the legislature, she said this one would ensure efficiency.
“Many people complain about expansive and inefficient government,” she said. “But this task force will look across different silos of education to have a pre-K program that has uniformity rather than a patchwork of inefficient programs, which are always costly. This task force will be for efficiency to have the best pre-K for children.”
HB 4903, filed by Republican state Rep. Harris-Davila and Sen. Brian Birdwell, creates another bureaucratic oversight commission: the Quad-Agency Childcare Initiative Commission. Its goal is to streamline childcare regulations statewide by coordinating efforts among several agencies: the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Education Agency, and Texas Workforce Commission.
The bill requires the four state agencies that oversee childcare regulations “integrate their decisions before they’re sent down to the individual childcare facilities,” Birdwell said. “Instead of the childcare facility asking, ‘how do I follow both of these regulations that are diametrically opposed?’ the bill creates a quad agency childcare initiative to make them coordinate before they send their regulations down through the respective chain.”
Both bills passed with bipartisan support and became effective June 20.
