Sharon Herald: Rep. Longietti Named a Pre-K Champion
April 22, 2017 by Joe Pinchot
SHARON – The numbers are stark.
In West Middlesex Area School District, 145 children are eligible for pre-kindergarten programs, but only 17 are enrolled, according to Pre-K for PA, a nonpartisan coalition lobbying for increased attention and funding for early childhood education.
In Mercer County, West Middlesex’s numbers are the norm. Other than the Hermitage and Farrell school districts, where all eligible students are enrolled in programs, more than half the 3- and 4-year-olds in every other county school district do not have access to an early education program.
As Pre-K for PA pushes to make Gov. Tom Wolf and state legislators make early education a priority, it has found a friend in state Rep. Mark Longietti, who serves the western portion of Mercer County.
Pre-K for PA honored Longietti on Friday with the Pre-K Champion Award, one of a handful of legislators so designated. These champions have “made this a priority issue,” said spokesman Kate Phillips.
“We need guys like Mark to push this forward,” she said.
Longietti is “the guy that (is) carrying the torch in Harrisburg on this issue,” said Ron DiNicola, co-chairman of the Northwest PA Leadership Council for Pre-K Counts, who presented the award to the Hermitage lawmaker.
“As I go around talking about pre-K myself, I’m always amazed at how impactful his contribution has been,” DiNicola said.
The award was handed out at Zion Education Center, the Sharon organization that has 30 children enrolled in its pre-kindergarten program, their enrollment fees paid totally or partly by a government organization.
“The parents in this community can’t afford to pay,” said Dr. April L. Torrence, who founded and operates the center, with Sharon school Superintendent Michael Calla adding that up to 70 percent of Sharon families are considered impoverished.
The lack of new funding is “very frustrating,” Torrence said.
“It is even more frustrating to know that we had a five-year gap before receiving grant funding to expand our classroom again,” she said. “It’s even more frustrating to know there are some parents that still have a portion of services that they have to pay for through co-payments, and they struggle with that. One of the hardest things that I have to do is cut off services because the parent has gotten behind in their co-payments.”
Children need to know their numbers and letters before they enter kindergarten, making pre-kindergarten programs critical to the long-term success of children in schools, said Jim Micsky, executive director of United Way of Mercer County, which runs the pre-kindergarten Success by Six program in the summer in 11 school districts.
“That’s where we set the groundwork for the future,” Micsky said of pre-kindergarten education.
The benefits of early childhood education are legion, speakers said. Students who are exposed to structured educational activities at ages 3 and 4 have more success in school and college, have higher earning potential, are less reliant on public assistance and have fewer problems with drug and alcohol abuse and crime.
Randy Seitz, president of Penn-Northwest Development Corp., said there’s no better way to lift a family out of poverty than to give an individual a job, and Penn-Northwest has pushed for school districts to become more active in economic development efforts. With “mass retirements” expected in the next 10 to 15 years, today’s young people need to be properly trained to step into those jobs, Seitz said.
Longietti said the importance of education was taught to him by his father, Al, and his mother, Pearl Knott, who went back to college in her 30s and got an education degree. She taught elementary school in Sharpsville for 22 years.
“She was very good as a student, very hard-working and it just ingrained in us the importance of education and then her role as an elementary teacher really spoke to how important it is to touch kids early,” he said.
“I think, if there’s any investment we can make in state government, that this is the most important investment because children are our future, number one,” Longietti said. “Number two, all the peer-reviewed studies show that for every dollar that we put into early childhood ed, that we save between $7 and $17” in future services provided to individuals.
But, it’s hard to shake free new funding for early education programs.
“It’s always the same thing,” Longietti said. “We’re always piecing these budgets together, trying to scrape together the funds to get through another year. Too often, we don’t make the investment in our future that pays dividends down the road because we’re just trying to get by. This is an investment we can’t afford not to make. Other states are doing it, other countries are doing it, we need to do it here in Pennsylvania.”
Longietti said he accepted the Pre-K Champion award on behalf of “the kids that we have reached and made a difference for”; “the kids that we need to reach”; and “perhaps, most importantly, because my mother was an early educator, I accept it on behalf of the teachers, the folks that come here every day and teach and form young minds.”
See the full article here.
WXBN: Group Says Mercer County Kids Lack Access to Quality Early Education
April 21, 2017 by Gerry Ricciutti
MERCER COUNTY, Pa. (WKBN) – One group says more funding is needed to ensure that all children have access to early-childhood education.
According to Pre-K for PA, 57 percent of the eligible 3- and 4-year-olds in Mercer County have no access to high-quality early education.
“That’s a pretty substantial number of children who are starting in kindergarten classrooms with very little in the way of learning the alphabet, their numbers or just their social skills,” said Jim Micsky, executive director of the United Way of Mercer County.
The group is asking for more funding from the state because not all families can afford to pay for such programs. Leaders are asking Governor Tom Wolf to provide an additional $75 million for early childhood education — enough to cover 8,400 more children across the state.
Dr. April Torrence, of the Zion Education Center, started working in early child development in 1995 when she started an in-home daycare operation. With 70 percent of the families in Sharon living in poverty, she said funding from the state to pay for programs like this is crucial.
“Because families in this community are poverty-stricken, they don’t have the resources to pay for high-quality child care, so to have the funding here in the community is a plus,” said Torrence.
She said Zion Education Center lost 95 percent of its state funding in 2011, forcing them to eliminate seven staff members and 25 pre-K slots. Zion now receives funding to pay for 15 children.
If Wolf’s budget proposal is approved, the additional money would allow the facility to enroll more students.
“We want to reach as many families as we can, especially within walking distance, to come to the facility and receive a high-quality education,” Torrence said.
Zion Education Center in Sharon is one of 19 certified high-quality pre-K education programs in Mercer County. Pre-K for PA said 31 more classrooms like that are needed for the kids with no other access.
Read the article and view the video here.
PennLive: Governor Wolf hosts Easter Egg hunt for pre-k students
April 17, 2017 by Mark Pynes
Under a bright blue sky, Gov. Tom Wolf and first lady Frances Wolf hosted several dozen prekindergarten students and their families on the lawn of the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg for an Easter egg hunt Monday.
“Frances and I are excited to host Harrisburg-area preschoolers at the Governor’s Residence today,” Wolf said.
“I (have) called for a state budget that includes an increase of $75 million for pre-K, which will allow for more than 8,400 additional children to enroll in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start supplemental assistance programs,” he said.
Read the article and see all the photos here.
Governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf Join Pre-K for PA to Host Easter Egg Hunt at the Governor’s Residence, Highlight the Need to Invest in High-Quality Early Childhood Education
Harrisburg, PA – Governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf were joined today by preschoolers from Harrisburg-area pre-kindergarten centers and members of the Pre-K for PA campaign for an Easter Egg Hunt at the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg. During the event, the Governor reiterated his commitment to investing in high-quality early childhood education.
“Frances and I are excited to host Harrisburg-area preschoolers at the Governor’s Residence today,” said Governor Wolf. “These children – and thousands of others like them from across Pennsylvania – are counting on us in Harrisburg to ensure that high-quality pre-kindergarten programs are available to them in their communities. That is why I called for a state budget that includes an increase of $75 million for pre-k, which will allow for more than 8,400 additional children to enroll in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program. The stronger the investment in high-quality early learning the greater the return – for our children and our commonwealth.”
Studies show that children who participate in high-quality pre-kindergarten perform better in school, graduate at higher rates and earn more throughout their working lives compared to peers that do not have access to early learning programs. Additionally, children who were previously enrolled in Pre-K Counts outperform their economically disadvantaged peers in third-grade math and reading.
The Pre-K for PA campaign lauded Governor Wolf for his commitment to expanding access to high quality pre-k to more Pennsylvania three- and four-year-olds: “Research continues to show that pre-k can make a difference – it can reduce grade repetition, special education placements, dropout rates, and ultimately save the commonwealth money,” said Jodi Askins, Executive Director of PennAEYC and principal partner of Pre-K for PA. “Governor Wolf’s steadfast commitment to investing in an early education system that provides access to 8,400 more Pennsylvania children this year is further evidence that he gets the value of pre-k and has Pennsylvania’s future as a top priority.”
Fair and increased education funding for all Pennsylvania schools continues to be one of Governor Wolf’s top priorities to ensure students are college and career ready.
The future of Pennsylvania depends on making investments in what matters most. In this year’s budget, Governor Wolf is proposing an additional $209 million increase in education funding. Our commonwealth is facing a serious budget deficit, but by reducing government bureaucracy and finding cost-savings, we can continue to invest in our children’s futures so we can make Pennsylvania stronger.
The 2017-18 budget investments in education include:
* $100 million increase in Basic Education Funding. Following $415 million in basic education and Ready to Learn Block Grant funding increases over the past two fiscal years, this increase will be distributed through the Basic Education Funding Formula, providing an equitable and predictable allocation to school districts across the commonwealth.
* $25 million increase in Special Education Funding. This increase, allocated to school districts through the formula adopted by the bipartisan legislative Special Education Funding Commission, builds upon a $50 million increase over the last two years.
* $75 million increase in high-quality early childhood education. Children who participate in high-quality pre-k programs perform better in school, graduate at higher rates and earn more throughout their lives compared to peers without access to early learning programs. Building upon $60 million in additional investment over the past two years, this nearly 40 percent increase in funding will allow more than 8,400 additional children to enroll in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program.
* $8.9 million increase for the 14 universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The governor will continue to work with PASSHE to develop individual college plans that address performance, affordability, and accountability, while partnering with employers to create structured career pathways.
