Dive Brief:

• Texas attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott called for the reform of pre-kindergarten programs before expanding access, asking that additional funding be tied to academic performance.  
• Abbott’s proposal would cost Texas $118 million in the 2016-17 biennium and requests that, starting in 2016, the state begin conducting annual reviews on children starting school.  
• This is Abbott’s first education policy proposal since announcing that education will be the No. 1 agenda in his campaign, and it follows a February proposal by the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Sen. Wendy Davis, to increase access to full-day pre-kindergarten programs. 

Dive Insight:

While making his case for pre-kindergarten reform, Abbott ruffled a few feathers with his choice of words.

“Expanding the population of students served by existing state-funded programs without addressing the quality of existing prekindergarten instruction or how it is being delivered would be an act of negligence and waste,” Abbott’s policy proposal reads.

The use of the word “waste” is not sitting well with critics or his opponent Wendy Davis, who said it explains "why he’s still fighting to defend nearly $200 million in cuts to pre-K in the courtroom” before saying Abbott's plan of "pre-K for the chosen few" would set the state's next generation back.