Lubbock Area United Way at the State Capitol

Blog post by:
Carolyn Simpson


Sharla Manale and Carolyn Simpson arrived at the Lubbock Airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight to Austin to participate in Pre K Day at the Capitol. Pre K Day is sponsored by the Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition and the United Ways of Texas.



On the ground: Carolyn talks about Pre K Day at the Capitol

We had an itinerary of meetings with representatives, press conferences and receptions to attend while at the Capitol.

Find out who your representatives are. Click here: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/

Our plane was late leaving Lubbock, so we missed our first meeting with Representative Joe Heflin. Already we are behind…..

Once we arrived at the Capitol, we made our way to Senator Duncan’s office to get ready for a meeting with his Education staff person, Kyler Arnold. I think that we hit it off with Kyler- she certainly understands early education and Pre K. She has been a 2nd grade teacher in a Central American country. She has seen first hand what the lack of early learning does to a child.

After a good conversation, she walked us down to the Senate Finance Committee meeting. We waited outside until Senator Duncan could come out and talk for a few minutes. We reiterated our position on two bills working their way through the Texas legislature. We asked that he support these bills which would increase Pre K in Texas from ½ day to full day and cap the class size.

After that meeting, we wandered around the Pre K classroom set-up in the basement of the Rotunda. There were hundreds of Pre K folks there from around the state. We observed a model Pre K classroom in action. The Austin area child care centers brought children in to demonstrate elements of a quality program.

Next we went to the Senate Chamber to watch officials from Texas Tech be introduced by Senator Duncan. It was also Texas Tech Day at the Capitol, so there were lots of people that we knew.

After lunch, Sharla and I made our way to Representative Heflin’s office. He was not in, but we talked to someone on the staff. Our goal was to be sure that he understood that Lubbock Area United Way community partner services reached into his district too. We spent some time going over a zip code sheet depicting all of the zip codes that receive services from the United Way.

Next, we had an appointment with Representative Isett’s office. He was not in, but we talked with another staffer. We discussed the early childhood bills and the federal SCHIP money that will be available to the state.

It was a great day at the capitol; we strengthened relationships and learned a lot.



The case for Early Education. Check out this link from TECEC(Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition): http://www.tecec.org/files/Updated%20TECEC%20cost%20benefit%20summary.pdf