Centre Daily Times: Op-ed: Helping students find success starts at a young age
By Charlene Friedman
September 2, 2016
As we celebrate Labor Day weekend and honor the workforce this year, many hardworking Americans are giving thanks for having jobs in today’s sometimes-volatile economy. Indeed, too many are still struggling to find positions in a world where workforce needs have been shifting and where 52 percent of employers have difficulty hiring people with the skills, training or education they’re looking for.
In fact, according to a new report from ReadyNation, more than 170,000 positions in Pennsylvania will not be filled with in-state employees possessing the educational credentials their employers seek. Businesses spend about $188.9 million each year on retraining employees, and about 56 percent of employers expect the recruiting problem to worsen.
Sadly, these figures make sense since 28 percent of students entering the State System of Higher Education have to enroll in remedial courses, costing about $153 million every year. Looking back further, research shows that two-thirds of eighth-graders are not proficient in math and science — two disciplines in which proficiency has become more critical for thriving in today’s STEM-driven economy.
STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) occupations in sectors like health care and computer science have been growing by as much as 20 to 37 percent nationwide. Moreover, STEM jobs are typically higher paying than those in other fields, often commanding salaries more than double the median salary for all workers even though many of these positions do not require four-year college degrees.
So how do we prepare more children to succeed in these fields? Research data shows that children’s knowledge of mathematics at preschool age (3 and 4 years old) predicts their later success into elementary, middle and even high school.
Ninety percent of the human brain is developed before age 5, and the first three to five years of life are a unique period of growth for a child’s brain. Young children can learn more STEM content than many realize. A quality early learning curriculum that capitalizes on the natural curiosity and exploration of young children quickly develops into an understanding of math and science concepts.
Children can (and should) experience this content through enjoyable, play-based activities appropriate for their age. Programs like Pre-K Counts, Head Start, and Keystone STARS-3 and -4 are based on the Pennsylvania learning standards for early childhood prekindergarten and include topics and content that help lay this foundation for STEM abilities.
Pennsylvania has a long tradition of investing in high-quality early childhood education, but it’s not enough. While Pennsylvania’s recently enacted state budget for 2016-17 will allow 6,200 additional children to enroll for a full year, about 70 percent of the state’s income-eligible 3- and 4-year olds do not have access because of inadequate funding. That’s 120,000 young children each year who might lack learning experiences in math and science fundamentals.
Workers and business owners all benefit when our economy is operating on all cylinders. Leaving so many young children without access to high-quality publicly funded pre-K jeopardizes their individual futures and our collective prosperity. It is my hope that by next Labor Day our state policymakers will have acted boldly to serve more of these 120,000 young children.
Charlene Friedman is the broker of record for Industrial-Commercial Realty LLC, State College Downtown Properties and serves on ReadyNation and Pennsylvania’s Early Learning Investment Commission.
Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/opinion/article99638062.html#storylink=cpy
The Sentinel: Book: Early STEM funding key to state’s workforce
August 26, 2016
As we approach Labor Day, it is right to acknowledge the vital role that a skilled workforce plays in economic prosperity. However, the exact nature of those skills are changing.
Increasingly, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills demand attention because they are driving the economy. These jobs are high-paying, and they’re expected to grow by 20 percent to 37 percent in coming years. However, despite their desirability, STEM capabilities are lacking in the workforce. More than half of Pennsylvania employers report trouble finding people with adequate skills, training, or education, especially in technical and skilled job openings.
Now, researchers have opened a new window into our understanding of how those rudimentary math skills impact a lifetime of learning. The roots of STEM skills, we’re learning, are planted in early childhood. The capabilities in science, technology, engineering, and math that employers demand actually start forming when that small child is counting to 10.
Many admirable efforts to build STEM skills among students concentrate on middle and high school, but it’s time to turn our attention to the youngest learners. STEM skills truly do take root in the preschool years, as these findings show:
When disadvantaged children enter kindergarten, they can be 18 months behind their peers in math achievement. Early childhood education can help to close the gap, because those first three to five years of life are the time when children’s brains build synapses, the neural connections that support learning and skill development, at the rate of 700 per second.
Children are naturally curious, and strong early learning curricula capitalize on that. High-quality early childhood education directs children to play-based activities purposefully designed to build understanding of real math and science concepts.
Early math skills can predict later school success, even in reading. But if math problems persist at ages 6, 8, and 10, children are less likely to graduate from high school or attend college.
Proper brain development in young children also lays the groundwork for desirable workplace traits, including focus, perseverance, and teamwork.
Pennsylvania has a long tradition of investing in high-quality early childhood education, but it’s not enough. While Pennsylvania’s recently enacted state budget for 2016-17 will allow 6,200 additional children to enroll for a full year, about 70 percent of PA’s income-eligible three- and four-year olds do not have access because of inadequate funding. That’s 120,000 young children each year who might lack learning experiences in math and science fundamentals.
In order for our future workers to continue making significant achievements to our economic prosperity, we must invest in them as children by increasing access to quality early childhood education programs. It is my hope that, by next Labor Day, we will be celebrating a continued robust investment in these programs, pointing more children toward futures as participating citizens in the vitality of our local communities.
Read the full op-ed here.
Pre-k / Early Learning Advocates Call for Renewed Commitment to Pre-k, Quality Child Care and Home Visiting Programs
HARRISBURG (July 15, 2016)— Partners in the Pre-K for PA and Early Learning PA campaigns credited nearly 20,000 supporters for the adoption of a budget that maintains the commonwealth’s investment in high-quality pre-k programs. The Campaigns renewed a call for making more substantial progress in its efforts to expand essential early childhood programs.
The principal partners of the Pre-K for PA and Early Learning PA Campaigns issued the following statement regarding the enactment of the final 2016-17 state budget:
“Given the obvious constraints of this year’s state budget negotiations, we are heartened by the fact that the final 2016-17 budget puts the funds on the table to essentially maintain the capacity of the state’s pre-k programs. Had the legislature and governor not provided a combined $30 million increase in the appropriations for Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental, these programs would have been forced to weather significant cuts and thousands of children would have lost access to these critical early learning opportunities.
“We will continue to urge lawmakers to make more progress next year, as current state funding represents a small portion of investment needed relative to the needs of our children. During the upcoming school year, Pennsylvania will leave nearly 200,000 3- and 4-year-olds without the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn in a high-quality pre-k program. Even with the funds provided for pre-k in the FY ‘17 budget only 31% of kids eligible for state funded programs like Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental Assistance will have access.
“Our coalition of educators and pediatricians standing alongside law enforcement, military, business and community leaders as well as nearly 20,000 citizen supporters will be redoubling our efforts over the coming months to demonstrate support for state budgets that generate the revenue necessary to make the urgent and substantial investments needed in child care, home visiting and pre-k programs that ensure our kids will enter school ready to learn.”
Partners of the Early Learning PA Campaigns also expressed disappointment that the final budget included:
A $20 million reduction in state appropriations for child care services. The budget agreement compensated for this cut by tapping federal funds that otherwise could have been used to expand child care access and quality;
Level state funding for evidence–based home visiting programs that support higher-risk, low-income children and their parents despite a growing unmet need.
Pennsylvania’s early childhood education system is a continuum of programs including quality pre-k, child care and home visiting services that are vital components to closing the achievement gap, producing qualified workers and providing short- and long-term economic returns to Pennsylvania taxpayers.
Pre-K for PA was launched in 2014 with the vision that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality pre-k and has 13,000 members. This statewide coalition’s leadership group includes: Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children; Economy League of Greater Philadelphia; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; Mission: Readiness; Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children; Pennsylvania Head Start Association; Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children; Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children; Public Citizens for Children and Youth; and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.www.prekforpa.org
Early Learning PA also was launched in 2014 with the vision that, by 2020, all Pennsylvania children will have access to high-quality early learning opportunities. Its founding members include: the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; Mission: Readiness; Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children; Pennsylvania Child Care Association; Pennsylvania Head Start Association; Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children; Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children; and Public Citizens for Children and Youth.
Courier Times: Pay now or pay later: Why pre-K is worth the cost
By BILL SHOFFLER
What if I were to tell you Harrisburg was considering a proven way to create jobs, reduce the number of people in jail, and save more tax dollars than it costs? What if it made it far less likely for 1,500 high-risk kids to go to jail?
You probably know that high quality pre-kindergarten prepares children so they’re ready to learn in school. Quality pre-K also provides a level of stability for working families, especially those struggling to go to work and absorb the cost of child care in their family budgets, making them more reliable employees and more effective parents.
But what if I told you quality pre-K also reduces criminal behavior and saves millions of tax dollars in fewer incarcerated people? It does. And that’s what makes it a great solution.
There is no shortage of studies on children at high risk of failing in school. These studies examine the effects of early learning experiences on 3- and 4-year olds and measure things like cognitive development and retention, socialization skills, school readiness, drop out rates, health, and success later in life, among many other things.
These studies have proven that quality pre-K bridges the achievement gaps of minority students in math and literacy and greatly reduces the need for special education instruction, lowers the costs involved in drop-outs, all of which saves tax dollars and improves the learning environment for every student in the class.
Interestingly, some studies show the academic advantages that quality pre-K gives students over their non-pre-K peers actually levels out by third or fourth grade. While the research doesn’t tell us exactly why this is, there is reason to believe maintaining the powerful learning trajectory fostered by pre-K isn’t sustainable for schools that have to mostly focus on students who just aren’t ready to learn. In the meantime, the dividends of pre-K continue to grow.
Children who have had quality pre-K relate to their peers and teachers better and are far less likely to have social or self control issues. The research also shows that social skills learned in pre-school are sustained throughout the school years and into adulthood. These are the skills that account for the extremely large reductions in criminal behavior and incarceration rates in the teen years and later.
Pennsylvania currently houses more than 50,000 prisoners in state correctional facilities at a cost of $2 billion every year. That’s an annual per prisoner cost of $40,000, or, $10,000 more than the average per capita (not household) income in the commonwealth. It is more than four times what the state spends per student for one year in public school. And, with Bucks County’s DelVal University tuition coming in at around $37,000, it’s more than it would cost to send a kid to a private college.
And that’s only the $2 billion in incarceration costs to the state. There are also related county and municipal costs, let alone the systems that support prisons, including police, sheriffs, judges, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and health care workers, etc.
Finally, consider the cost of lost opportunity, which taxpayers bear, including not having a productive citizen earning the media per capita income and paying taxes.
The PreK for PA Campaign is asking the Legislature and governor for $90 million to fund 2016-17 pre-kindergarten programs in Pennsylvania. The $90 million will get 7,200 more at risk 3- and 4-year olds from low-income families into quality pre-K.
Read the full column here.
Philly.com: Letter to the Editor: State Funds Also Needed for Phila Pre-k
While the passage of the soda tax is good news for Philadelphia’s pre-K children, Mayor Kenney’s plan to serve 10,000 children counts on additional funding from the state.
I recently met with state legislators as part of the Pre-K for PA campaign, which is recommending $90 million in additional pre-K funding in the 2016-17 state budget. State Reps. Dwight Evans and Joanna McClinton reiterated their commitment to pre-K.
I hope the two Philadelphia Democrats will encourage their colleagues to make pre-K a priority. Thousands of Philadelphia children are counting on them.
Adrienne Briggs, Lil’ Bits Family Child Care Home, Philadelphia
See the letter to the editor here.
