Express Times: Letter to the Editor – YMCA Pre-K Count program a boon for families
July 3, 2018
After our fourth child was born, my husband and I focused on working hard in the businesses we owned, trying to keep up with our growing family’s needs. When our youngest was three, I number-crunched, hoping to find an affordable high quality preschool program. I wanted to continue to work and earn for my family while giving her the skills she needed to be kindergarten-ready. We found the Forks YMCA Education Center’s Pre-K Counts program and it was a blessing to our family at a very critical time.
I commend Gov. Tom Wolf and my legislators for their commitment to growth in the state’s expansion of pre-k in the 2018-19 state budget. The $25 million investment in pre-k will serve 2,600 more kids, which represents forward progress.
My daughter thrived in the Pre-K Counts program and is ready for kindergarten in the fall. The two years she has been in the program has afforded her Dad and I time to focus on our respective businesses. We are both back on a track after the economic downturn, and that is enabling us to build our businesses to where they can fully support our family’s current, and hopefully, future needs.
Jennifer Barnett
Forks Township
Leaders in Harrisburg Get it! Continued Investment in Pre-K Will Serve Thousands More Young Learners
Early Learning Programs get Significant Boost in 2018-19
Harrisburg, PA (June 22, 2018)– The Pre-K for PA campaign called the additional $25 million investment in pre-kindergarten programs contained in the 2018-19 state budget agreement continued progress toward something that Pennsylvanians universally support – early education.
A poll commissioned by the Pre-K for PA campaign done by Harper Polling in May showed 75% of likely voters support increasing funding to expand access to high-quality, publicly funded pre-kindergarten, while 94% of voters believe that early education is important.
The principal partners of Pre-K for PA issued the following statement regarding the investment:
“Governor Wolf, along with Republican and Democrat legislators made a wise investment in Pennsylvania’s early education system and clearly prioritized our state’s youngest learners in this budget. While the 2018-19 Pennsylvania state budget grew by just 1.7%, leaders in Harrisburg grew high-quality pre-k funding by 11%, high-quality child care services grew by 4%, and home visiting grew by an impressive and much needed 33%. This year’s budget istestament to the fact that Governor Wolf, along with Republican and Democrat legislators, understand their constituents’ priorities.
“Still, more than 106,000 eligible children do not have access to high-quality, publicly funded pre-k due to limited state funding. This budget increase will allow access to thousands of 3- and 4-year-old students in the upcoming school year. It is a step in the right direction, but we still have much work to be done as Pennsylvania lags far behind neighboring states.
“Today, Pennsylvania ranks 18th of the 30 states investing in high-quality, publicly funded pre-k. New Jersey is spending five times more per capita than PA and West Virginia is leaps ahead of us – it has had universal access for pre-k aged kids since 2012. We have to ramp up our investment in the coming years because, as we know, the tens of thousands of kids missing out won’t get a do-over.”
The 2018-19 spending plan included the following expanded investments to early learning:
- Increases Pre-K Counts investment: $20 million
- Increases investment in Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program: $5 million
- Increases investment in Child Care Services: $6.8 million
- New investment in home visiting programs: $6.735 million
Pre-K for PA is an issue campaign supported by individuals and organizations across Pennsylvania who believe that investing in our children is the right choice and an urgent necessity. Its vision is that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality pre-k. For more information visit www.prekforpa.org.
The Intelligencer: LTE: Educate or Incarcerate Event
June 11, 2018
I want to recognize Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub, Capt. Milligan, Sheriff Milton Warrell and state Rep. Bernie O’Neill for leading an important community meeting on early childhood education.
At this meeting, Mr. Weintraub presented a new report from the anti-crime organization, Fight Crime: Invest In Kids. The report documented that Pennsylvania’s future prison population can be trimmed down considerably — while yielding almost $150 million in societal benefits over students’ lifetimes — if the governor’s $40 million proposed pre-K investment is included in the final 2018-19 state budget. This funding increase would serve 4,440 more at-risk children.
These cost savings are believable when you consider that Pennsylvania’s state and local governments spend roughly $3.2 billion per year incarcerating adults, or about $43,000 per inmate in the state corrections system. Mr. Weintraub noted that education attainment is often the deciding factor between productive, contributing citizens and those that find themselves on the wrong side of the law. He also discussed a new survey conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections of all incoming male inmates during the month of January 2018 that showed nearly 40 percent of incoming state prisoners did not graduate from high school. Nationwide that figure climbs to 60 percent.
Additionally, the survey showed that difficulty reading in elementary school was a substantial indicator of future juvenile criminal behavior. Inmates that experienced this difficulty were 14 percent more likely to be arrested as a juvenile compared to those who said they did not have early reading difficulty. As an early childhood education provider with three centers in three counties, I appreciate the support of law enforcement. Their argument is powerful — we need our youth to be educated, not incarcerated, and that process starts early. I hope the legislature again prioritizes pre-K in the final budget.
Nicole Fetherman, executive director,
LifeSpan School & Day Care
Read the Letter here.
Milton Standard Journal: Seeking funding for early childhood education
June 8, 2018 by Kevin Mertz
Rep. Lynda Schlegel-Culver (R-108) believes the 2018-2019 state budget will include increased funding for Pre-K Counts programs. She doubts it will be to the tune of the $40 million being asked for by a nonprofit organization which held a roundtable discussion Thursday afternoon at the Milton YMCA.
The discussion was spearheaded by Mission: Readiness, described as a being comprised of retired admirals and generals “strengthening national security by ensuring kids stay in school, stay fit and stay out of trouble.”
Steve Doster, Pennsylvania state director for Mission: Readiness, and Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Thomas J. Wilson III were two of the speakers at the event. They released a report which calls for “$40 million in new state funding to serve an additional 4,400 at-risk children with high quality school day, school year Pre-K programs,” such as Head Start and Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts.
Following the roundtable, Schlegel-Culver said Pre-K Counts programming will likely receive an increase in 2018-2019, but she doubted it would be $40 million.
“It’s rare that everybody gets what they’re asking,” she said. “When the governor does a budget proposal, it’s just a proposal.”
Any increase would be drawn from the state’s General Fund, Schlegel-Culver said.
Last year, she said Pre-K Counts programming received $172 million in state funding, while Head Start programs received $54 million.
Schlegel-Culver said she expects a budget agreement to be reached by the June 30 deadline.
During the roundtable, Schlegel-Culver said Pre-K Counts funding has increased by $88.6 million since she took office in 2010. Head Start funding has increased by 44 percent.
She told the group that she will always speak to the importance of funding early childhood education.
“When we talk to House members who don’t have children, the conversation is a little tougher,” Schlegel-Culver said.
She likened funding early childhood programs to building a house. Every home must be built on a solid foundation.
Those lobbying for the increase to Pre-K funding provided a variety of statistics in an effort to back up their positions on the importance of funding such programs.
Wilson quoted a Department of Defense study which found 71 percent of individuals age 17 to 24 are ineligible for military service.
According to Wilson, that is due to the individuals either failing to graduate from high school, failing to pass military entrance exams, or being in poor health or physical conditioning.
“The talents the military is looking for in young men and women is the exact talents they’re looking for in business,” Wilson said. “It translates to everything we know and see in our own communities.”
He indicated it’s important to start providing quality education to children at an early age in order to reverse those statistics.
Wilson said 106,000 eligible children in Pennsylvania lack access to quality early childhood programming.
“The ultimate goal of all of this is preparing all of our children to be citizen ready for their lives,” Wilson said.
Expanding on the 106,000 figure presented by Wilson, Joanne Troutman, president and CEO of the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way, recited numbers exemplifying how many local children are in need of access to quality early childhood programming.
In Northumberland County, she said 2,040 children under 5 are eligible for such programs. However, only 255 are enrolled.
In Snyder County, there are 660 eligible children, of which 91 are enrolled. In Union County, 590 children are eligible and 57 are enrolled.
To be eligible, families must have an income up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
Read the full article
here.
Daily Item: Valley Leaders Encourage Investing in Early Education
June 8, 2018 by Justin Strawser
State Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver said Thursday she expects an increase in the state budget for Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs that will allow children access to high-quality early care and education, and develop them for the future.
Culver and other Valley officials discussed a report touting the military’s early childhood education programs.
“It’s not who we are — to say we’re going to raise children who are going to be behind the curve from the get-go,” said retired U.S. Rear Navy Admiral Tom Wilson. “That’s not who we are as a country.”
The military and community leaders urged state legislators such as Culver, R-108, to continue scaling up Pennsylvania’s investments in these early childhood programs. They called for a $40 million increase to state pre-K programs and a combined $27 million increase for quality and access improvements to the state child care system as part of the 2018-18 state budget currently under negotiation in Harrisburg.
“It’s an investment in our future,” Culver said. “I always say, these (children) are the people who will be taking care of us, these are the people that will be running this country and making decisions. If they are not equipped to do that, think of the kind of world we’ll be living in. I don’t want to work until I’m 95 years old. I want to be able to pass the torch on to well equipped, well-rounded group of people who can make decisions.”
Since 2010, Pre-K funding has increased by $88.6 million. Currently, the previous year’s budget has $172 million for Pre-K Counts and $54 million for Head Start. Culver said she expects those numbers again to rise, but not as much as the group is calling for on Thursday.
The roundtable discussion was organized by Mission: Readiness that, with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tom Wilson, released a new report showing how high-quality early care and education programs support working families and help address the problems that disqualify the vast majority of young Americans from military service. Other participants, such as Art Thomas, President of Meck-Tech Inc., in Selinsgrove, said unpreparedness of youth extends to the private sector as well with 52 percent of employees reporting trouble hiring people with adequate skills, training and education.
The Mission: Readiness report entitled “The Military Gets It: So Why Not PA?” highlights research showing that high-quality pre-k and child care programs can support children’s success and readiness in three categories: education, obesity and behavior. It also touted the military’s early care and education system as a transformative model for the state and nation.
Currently, about 106,000 eligible 3 and 4-year-olds (61 percent) statewide lack access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K because of insufficient funding, said Joanne Troutman, president and CEO of the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way. Locally, those numbers are as follows: Northumberland County, 1,326 eligible children (78 percent), Snyder County, 442 (72 percent), Union County, 398 (71 percent).
The ultimate goal — whether for the military or the local community — is preparing all children to be “citizen ready,” Wilson said.
Read the full article here.
