Waco: School board considers hike in pre-K tuition

The Waco School Board is considering a $520 annual increase in the tuition the district charges parents of pre-kindergarten students who aren’t eligible to attend the pre-K program for free.

Right now, parents of children who don't qualify for free pre-K tuition pay $4,472.

If the hike passes, they would pay $4,992.

The increase comes as the district continues to try to provide students with as much help as possible.

"This is my seventh year so I've experienced classrooms where there's only a part-time aide and I mean everything is better with a full-time aide,” said Alison Davis, a pre-K teacher at Dean Highland Elementary School.

She says, having extra help allows for more individual attention between teacher and student.

School district officials say the proposed increase is still less that the maximum amount the state allows families to be charged.

The Texas Education Agency has set a limit $7,323 for the 2015-2016 school year.

The 2016-2017 limit has not been set.

In November Waco school district voters approved a net increase in the district's tax rate of just less than 5 cents.

The increase in revenue is intended to help funnel more than $82 million into programs designed by Waco ISD to help improve school performance in literacy, with one goal set to have 83 percent of third-graders reading on grade level by 2020.