The Texas Education Agency approved a 50% tuition rate increase for Carroll ISD's Pre-K curriculum for 3-year-olds after a week of uncertainty about whether the program would stay afloat.
At a Feb. 5 meeting, district officials proposed eliminating Pre-K 3 and creating co-teaching teams that would serve special education for both 3 and 4-year-olds.
Under this plan, Pre-K 3 teachers would have shifted to where they were needed in the district depending on their certifications.
Following that meeting, board Vice President Andrew Yeager said he helped arrange talks between TEA Education Commissioner Mike Morath and Board President Cameron Bryan. A TEA spokesperson confirmed the call occurred on Friday in an email to KERA News.
Yeager said Morath told them they received “misinformation” and “wrong direction.”
“We’re not looking to pick a fight with the TEA folks, we are just trying to get right-and-just funding for this great school district,” Yeager said at a public meeting Monday. “That means we have to, if I can say this, we have to flip over some tables once in a while, and we’re willing to do that.”
A TEA spokesperson said Carroll ISD's new rate was approved at $8,670 — an exact 50% increase from its current rate at $5,780.
District leaders said the cuts were proposed because the annual tuition rate for Pre-K was less than what they would need to fund both the general education and special education programs for Pre-K 3.
In Texas, a school district must offer a free full day of prekindergarten if they have 15 or more eligible 4-year-old children, according to the TEA. School districts can charge tuition to provide half-day and full-day prekindergarten classes to children who are ineligible for free prekindergarten classes, which includes 3-year-olds.
During the Feb. 5 meeting, Executive Director Stacie Bonner said the district’s rate had decreased nearly $1,000 in the last six years.
In the the 2017-2018 school year, Carroll ISD’s annual tuition rate was $6,716. For the 2023-2024 year, the district’s rate was $5,780.
“There doesn’t appear to be anything that we can then use to calculate, to make estimates on what it will even look like next year,” Bonner said. “There’s a potential that number could decrease even again."
The new approved tuition raises the rate above other area districts — including districts that had higher rates than Carroll ISD before their TEA appeal. For example, Keller ISD has a tuition rate of $6,129 and Grapevine-Colleyville has a rate of $6,185.
On Monday, Bryan said enrollment in Carroll ISD was down. He said the new rate would not only allow them to fund the full Pre-K 3 curriculum, but also grow the program.
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