Almost two years after Travis County residents raised their own taxes in pursuit of better childcare, the millions are starting to make a difference.

However, providers say there’s still a long way to go to fix a broken system.

Travis County voters approved a property tax increase in November 2024 that will generate about $75 million annually for after-school and summer programs and childcare. To date, the tax funded initiative, dubbed Raising Travis County, has allocated more than $51 million to expand early childhood education scholarships, childcare providers and out-of-school programming.

The funding, local leaders and education advocates said, was crucial to helping more families access early childhood care, an essential service for a child’s development that costs more in Travis County than anywhere else in the state. For some families, the high cost of early childhood care and after-school programs meant staying out of the workforce made more financial sense than paying for care. At the same time, providers struggled with low enrollment, financial instability and high staff turnover.

The funding has so far helped more than 7,500 kids access after-school and summer programs, provided monthly payments to about 150 struggling childcare providers and funded 1,000 early-childhood scholarships.

While the money has helped families access care, challenges remain. Recruiting and retaining quality early childcare workers and teachers while operating preschools in a complicated, sometimes-hostile business landscape has proven to be a challenge that may take years to fix.

Raising Travis County “has stopped the bleeding,” said Krista Anderson-Hill, director of development at Open Doors Preschools. “Even though it’s providing stability for providers, when you are making so little … (teachers) still feel forgotten.”

Plugging gaps

A 2025 survey from United Way for Greater Austin showed early childhood providers in Travis County were struggling to fill classrooms, retain staff and generate enough revenue to remain financially stable.

The survey also showed the cost of early childhood education was prohibitive for many living in the county. Average tuition was $1,260 a month, or more than $15,000 annually. Travis County had the most expensive childcare over anywhere else in Texas, according to a 2022 report from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“Even for two working-class parents managing a household, childcare can be a huge expense. It’s often unaffordable,” said Leah Meunier, strategic advisor for Raising Travis County.

Early childhood scholarships have long been available in Travis County through Workforce Solutions Capital Area, the region’s workforce development board, but there haven’t been enough to meet demand.

Without the injection of new tax dollars, the local workforce department had planned for about 3,200 childcare subsidies funded through federal dollars in 2026. By 2027, the group expects that number to drop by 530 due to federal funding cuts, underscoring the need for locally generated funds for early childhood education.

Thanks to the new tax dollars, Travis County will help fill that need with $17 million going toward 1,000 additional scholarships for families earning up to 85% of the state median income, bringing the number of scholarships up to 4,200.

Additionally, in the years before Travis County’s new program, qualifying families could spend two years waiting for state childcare subsidies, a wait that Meunier says has shrunk from six to nine months.

A broken model

At Open Door Preschool, Anderson-Hill says gap funding from the county has helped them stay afloat financially. The additional funding, which is offered to childcare providers that accept subsidies, enabled the organization to give its teachers a 2% raise this year. The funding is often referred to as “gap funding,” as it helps close the gap between the amount awarded with a scholarship or subsidy and the actual cost of care.

“Raising Travis County dollars has really allowed us to close that gap, so that Open Door can become more economically sustainable,” she said. “Because we are not losing money by fulfilling our mission of serving families who have childcare subsidies.”

So far, Raising Travis County has invested $4.2 million into that effort.

“The margins on childcare are just so razor thin,” Meunier said. “There’s always going to be those financial challenges.”

The money given to providers is calculated based on the preschool’s quality rating and the number of kids receiving state-funded scholarships at the school and is distributed monthly. In July, Meunier said, 150 childcare providers received an average of $1,394 for those operating out of childcare facilities and about $1,000 if they were home-based.

It’s not been enough. The amount families can afford to pay, combined with government subsidies, still struggles to cover the cost of providing high-quality childcare, making it difficult for providers to remain financially sustainable. To adequately care for young children and adhere to licensing standards, teacher-to-child ratios must remain low.

“There’s always a gap there,” Anderson-Hill said. “A provider can only raise their tuition rates so much, and then you outprice the people who need you.

“You have people, usually a lot of women, who are doing this type of work because it is their life’s work; it is their heart’s work,” she said. “They’re really good at it, but they themselves are the ones that are paying the price.”

Hard work, low wages

In 2025, before Raising Travis County funds started flowing, early childhood teacher turnover in the county exceeded 40%, with 418 teachers leaving their positions in the previous year, driven primarily by low wages. The teacher attrition caused providers to close classrooms, exacerbating the scarcity of childcare for families in the process, according to the United Way for Greater Austin survey.

Raising Travis County funding also aims to address this issue. It’s one Dianna Perez knows all about.

Perez found her purpose in early childhood education and now works at Open Door Preschool, teaching children between 18- and 24-months-old. She has worked as an early childhood educator for four decades, “nurturing tiny humans to be decent people.”

“Instilling that social-emotional awareness in children,” she said, “it will make the world a better place.”

She knows her work is important and believes it should be compensated accordingly. For her and many others, that has not been the reality. She said she has seen many talented educators, “too many to count,” leave the field because they could not make enough money to get by.

“In many people’s minds, we’re glorified babysitters, and that’s not what I am,” she said. “We go through a tremendous amount of training every year.”

As Raising Travis County continues to roll out, officials say future investments will focus on increasing the number of trained teachers in the area and establishing a baseline wage for early childhood educators. The average salary for an early childhood educator in Austin is about $19 an hour, according to Indeed.

While Open Door was able to institute a 2% raise, Meunier said it is too early to know whether other providers have been able to increase teacher salaries with the new funding, something Raising Travis County will track going forward.