SAN ANTONIO — Texas A&M University San Antonio is breaking enrollment for Fall 2024 with more than 8,000 students. It is an increase of around 400 more students from last year.
Meantime, the university will be a future home to a mega facility called Educare. It will be a game-changer that will also include a daycare. It is really needed for south San Antonio which is a childcare desert.
Professor of Early Childhood, Melissa Jozwiak said this has been a long time in the making and credits community partnership.
"I would tell them just to hold on," she said. "It is coming. It is research based. It is proven to have an impact. Let's bring that here, let's build that for our community."
The Educare school in San Antonio will be the first in Texas. It will be part of a national network of more than a couple dozen birth-through-age five schools across the country.
The facility will also include much needed childcare for students, staff and Bexar County residents. Jozwiak said it is a vital need.
"The area immediately around the university, we have less than five high quality childcare seats available for every 100 children of working parents," she said. "So over 95 children who have both parents in the workforce don't have access to high quality childcare."
She said high quality is defined as centers that are part of a state accreditation program, among other factors.
"The fact we don't have them on the south-side is really concerning," she said.
She said the Educare facility hopes to bridge that gap, and will be for infants all the way through school age. It will have extended operation hours from early in the morning to 9 p.m. at night.
Jozwiak said beyond that this is a lab school which will have a ripple effect.
"It is teaching how to do early childhood to the community at the same time it is providing the service to the children," she said.
As for the timeline, a ground breaking is slated for January. She hopes it will be open by Summer 2026.