Texas has done a good job of getting 4-year-olds into preschool programs but compares poorly with the rest of the nation when it comes to funding those classrooms and setting high standards, according to a national report to be released today.

The state spent $484 million to provide pre-kindergarten to roughly 182,300 youngsters in 2005-06, including nearly 45 percent of all 4-year-olds. While enrollment continues to increase, Texas' funding has dropped more than 20 percent since 2002 to $2,653 per student in 2006 - ranking it 26th in the nation for its resources, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research's State of Preschool 2006 report.

Funding cuts have plagued state-funded pre-kindergarten programs across the nation for the past five years, researchers said.

"We have that one worry that enrollment may rise faster than the financial support for the program, and that will make it difficult for them to meet those standards they've set," said Steven Barnett, author of the report and an education-economics professor at Rutgers University. "It's clear that (policymakers) don't think about pre-kindergarten education in the same way that they do K-12."

Because funding in many states isn't even keeping pace with inflation, the programs will surely take a hit, he said.

"The quality of the teachers and the teaching really are the core of this," Barnett said. Texas' pre-K program has been the topic of several bills in this Legislative session. One plan would extend state-funded pre-K - limited now to poor children, English-language learners and children with parents in the active military - to any child who has ever been in foster care or who is under the custody of grandparents or other relatives. Another bill would cap enrollment at 18 students per pre-kindergarten class.

But other politicians recommended cutting the program by $20 million this session - a proposal that's gained little traction thus far.

The state is committed to expanding the Texas Early Education Model, a structured, pre-literacy program developed in Houston that serves 38,000 children at 750 campuses statewide, said DeEtta Culbertson, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

Expanding pre-K also has been a top priority in the Houston school district, which used $15 million in federal funding and $5 million in state funding this school year to make sure every eligible 4-year-old has a spot in full-day pre-kindergarten.

The effort eliminated a 1,800-student waiting list for 2006-07. Overall pre-kindergarten enrollment in HISD declined slightly because seats for 3-year-olds were cut to make room for 4-year-olds.

The average state meets 6.5 of the benchmarks. Only two states - Alabama and North Carolina - meet all 10 quality standards, a concern to researchers and advocates.

"Our benchmarks are also minimums," Barnett said.