A new report by National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) shows that Pennsylvania is falling behind. We now rank 30th out of 41 states who provide high-quality pre-k to 4-year-olds.
GOAL: 5,000 supporter petitions by May 20, Primary Election DayHelp us send a strong message to candidates for governor. Use the graphics and sample email on this page and ask your friends to sign on to Pre-K for PA at www.prekforpa.org/join. We’ll deliver your petition to the winning candidates shortly after Election Day. UPDATE: 4,000 supporters have signed on as of May 13. |
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| Swap out your Facebook cover photo, or share the below post: Double It. (Facebook) Post by Pre-K for PA.
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Double It. (Twitter)
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| SAMPLE EMAIL TO FORWARD TO FRIENDS (COPY AND PASTE) Dear friends, I am writing to ask your help to meet an important deadline for Pennsylvania’s children. I am proud to support the Pre-K for PA campaign, working to ensure that all children can enter school ready to succeed. Please sign on to Pre-K for PA’s petition by May 20, primary election day, to ensure that all 3- and 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania can access high-quality pre-kindergarten. The campaign will then deliver this critical message to the winning candidates for governor. Pre-K for PA’s vision is now supported by over 300 organizations and 4,000 Pennsylvanians across partisan lines, including local business leaders, law enforcement officials, retired military generals, school boards and superintendents, philanthropists, city councils, moms, and more. And we’re having some #IamPreK fun on social media along the way. GOAL: 5,000 SUPPORTER PETITIONS BY ELECTION DAY Let’s help Pre-K for PA reach 5,000 supporter petitions by May 20, election day. Set aside a few minutes for kids. Place a phone call, send an email, ping your coworker, or post some tweets. Join Pre-K for PA — and ask your friends to do the same — at www.prekforpa.org/join so that all Pennsylvania children can access a good preschool. We all care deeply about the future of our children, schools and communities. Please join Pre-K for PA and forward this email to others who share your passion for Pennsylvania’s kids. Sincerely, p.s. Click here to share Pre-K for PA’s “double it” graphic on Facebook and Twitter.
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A bipartisan polling team– Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews — share their findings on pre-k in Pennsylvania:
“Voters strongly value education and believe that pre-K education helps children arrive to Kindergarten (and beyond) ready to learn. Voters believe pre-K can improve a child’s social skills, which helps them through grade school. They see the long-term benefits in terms of better test scores, graduation rates, and lifetime earnings and employment.
They overwhelmingly agree that the more kids who have access to high-quality pre-k, the better it is for ALL students in kindergarten classrooms, so teachers aren’t stretched doing remediation and classrooms aren’t disrupted.
And voters are right: The benefits of pre-k, both short and long-term – for kids, for schools and for the economic benefits – are indisputable fact.”
Read the full guest column at pennlive.com.
Special guest blog: Pre-K for PA’s Focus on Mother’s Day.
Joey Fortman from Real Mom Media is our special guest video blogger with a Mother’s Day message about Pre-K for PA and why she loves being a mom. For more visit www.joeyfortman.com/real-mom-tv/
By Jen Bradley, Philly Parenting
Special to Pre-K for PA’s Focus on Mother’s Day: #MOMS4PREK
Long before I became a mom, I was a teacher. I taught preschool-aged children in Baltimore City. I remember the hearing daunting statistics that loomed over the children I taught each day. My colleagues and I were determined to help prevent those “facts” from becoming reality for our kids.
The facts on the benefits of pre-k are pretty clear too:
The preschool years are a critical time period for development.
Children in high quality pre-k have strong outcomes which last into adulthood.
Publicly-funded pre-k helps the economy in many, many ways.
Pre-k helps support families.
Pre-k is a powerful crime prevention tool.
Children who enroll in pre-k start school ready to learn.
I learned about many of these facts years later in graduate school. They are each powerful, and any one of them could stand alone as reason enough to fund Pre-k in our state.
But while the research and facts are solidly compelling, I still go back to those days of working with three and four year olds to see the true benefit of publicly funded preschool education.
Each day I taught, I could see the joy as the children entered the room.
I could feel the warmth as they greeted me with hugs.
I noted the wonder as we read new books together, and learned to write and count and create and investigate.
I saw their wheels turning as they experimented at the water table.
I could see their future mommy and daddy selves being nurtured as they cared for their baby dolls.
I heard their diplomacy muscles being flexed as they worked to find peaceful ways to resolve conflicts.
I knew then, in the midst of all those daunting statistics and well before I read the research showing the benefits of pre-k… that what really mattered most were those moments in our classroom.
What mattered was how the children and I spent our days. How we created a joyful learning community where we all felt safe and loved and eager to learn. I knew that it was enough just to value that time we had together.
All of that other stuff I know now… icing on the cake.
