NBC 10’s evening news covers Pre-K for PA’s delivery of signed petitions to Governor Tom Corbett and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf.
Watch the full report here.
The editors of the Erie Reader take a stand in support of pre-K in this editorial:
“Of the 296,957 children ages 3 and 4 in Pennsylvania, 208,991 don’t have access to high-quality pre-K learning opportunities. More shocking yet, 178,795 — or 60 percent — of those children live in families below 300 percent poverty, and currently there are only enough public funds to make pre-K available for less than 20 percent of 3 and 4-year old statewide. Furthermore, a new report by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) reveals that Pennsylvania ranks 30th out of 41 states that provide high-quality pre-k to 4-year-olds.
In Erie County alone, 6,864 children don’t have access to that high-quality pre-K education. And if current poverty trends have taught us anything, that number simply won’t reduce itself.
That’s why in a year in which we’ll either re-elect our current governor or decide someone else is a better fit for the job, as well as make critical decisions for who represents us in the state legislature, we want to turn our attention — and yours — to the PreK for PA initiative to help ensure this issue gets the attention it deserves from those making the funding decisions in Harrisburg.”
Read the full story here.
“Last week, after the Democratic primary winner was announced, Pre-K for PA and its 10 founding members sent an open letter to gubernatorial candidates. Pre-K for PA is an issue-based campaign started in January advocating for expanded, high quality pre-K.
Surveys show that this effort has bipartisan support, according to the letter. Read Generocity.org’s story The Fight for Expanded Prekindergarten Gains Force in PA to see where the candidates stand.
The letter also mentioned how Pennsylvania ranks 30th out of 41 states in the quality of its pre-K access for 4-year-old children (down from 28th last year) and currently only enrolls 12 percent of 4-year-olds.”
Read the full story here.
“If Pennsylvania funded prekindergarten for all three and four-year-olds, according to a report by ReadyNation/America’s Edge, the investment would generate $800 million in additional goods and services and create almost 28,000 new jobs statewide.
Most importantly, it would benefit children across the state. Several studies show high quality pre-K has been shown to improve graduation rates and increase overall quality of life, according to the same report.
In this first part of a two-part series, Generocity looks at how the push for expanded, quality pre-K is gaining force as politicians and business and nonprofit leaders express their support for some kind of reform.”
Read the full story here.
“Under Rendell’s leadership, Pennsylvania established both the Early Learning Investment Commission (ELIC) and PA Pre-K Counts. ELIC engages business leaders to advocate for access to high-quality early learning; Pre-K Counts provides quality pre-k opportunities to low- and moderate-income kids. Over the last decade, these initiatives have helped thousands of youngsters be ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. Today, 53,000 three- and four-year olds attend high-quality, state and federally funded pre-k programs in the Commonwealth.
However, advocates will tell you that it’s foolhardy to think this is good enough. Across the Commonwealth, just three out of ten kids are in high-quality pre-k programs. And just 18 percent of these kids are in publicly funded programs. In all, there are more than 125,000 three- and four-year olds eligible for state programs who aren’t being served. The impact of this shaky start plays out down the road.”
Read the full story here.
