Pre-K 4 SA Proposition A: San Antonio's Only City Ballot Measure Asks for 20 More Years of the One-Eighth-Cent Tax

San Antonio's ballot carries exactly one city measure on Tuesday, and it is about 4-year-olds. The city of San Antonio has only one ballot measure, asking voters if they want to reauthorize the Pre-K 4 SA early childhood education program, in the Election Day preview published by Focus On San Antonio and read by the desk this cycle. As Proposition A, voters are asked to reauthorize a sales tax of one-eighth of 1 percent to continue funding the program for a maximum 20-year period, starting in 2029, when the current authorization expires — the City's official Notice of Election carries the same ballot form: reauthorization of the program and renewed adoption of the tax at one-eighth of one percent for a maximum of twenty years following the expiration of the current reauthorization in 2029.

Local voters first acted in 2012 to approve using a sales tax to begin funding Pre-K 4 SA, which extends prekindergarten services to 4-year-olds as a means of improving overall education outcomes, and voters renewed the funding in 2020. According to an assessment of Pre-K 4 SA at its 12th year of operations, children who had participated in one or two years in the program were outperforming their peers statewide across categories such as cognitive, physical and social-emotional development, literacy, math and oral language skills, the preview reported.

A vote for Proposition A keeps the existing one-eighth-cent rate in place — it is a reauthorization, not a new tax — and a vote against ends the authorization when the current term expires in 2029. Hollywood Park voters elsewhere in Bexar County decide a separate proposal of their own, to terminate their town's economic development corporation and shift its sales tax toward road repairs. Election Day polling locations across the county are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and San Antonio voters can cast the Pre-K question at any Bexar County vote center.