Bucks County Courier Times: Op-ed: Commitment to Pre-k Education Pays Big Dividends
By JAMIE HADDON and WILLIAM E. HARNER
February 26, 2016
“It gets late early out there.”
Yogi Berra said it about the conditions at Yankee Stadium, but it sure sounds like he was talking about early childhood education.
At United Way of Bucks County, we work to advance the quality of early education and provide hundreds of prekindergarten scholarships through your generous contributions. UW Bucks has a long history of investing in early learning and school readiness. It is one of our top priorities. In 2016, we are convening a panel to help guide and deepen our commitment to this area.
At Quakertown Community School District, our board demonstrated its commitment to early childhood education — and a great start for our community’s children — by offering full-day kindergarten to all students who are not “ready to learn” at grade level. Now, through the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts grant, Quakertown is partnering with LifeSpan School and Day Care to give low- and moderate-income children access to a high quality, full-day, preschool program at no cost to their families.
We invest for one reason: It “gets late early.” By age 5, 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed. It is a small window of opportunity with huge possibilities and potential, but it closes quickly. We also know high-quality pre-K is not accessible to many of our young learners who need it. Bucks County is home to 14,000 3- and 4-year-olds. Only a small fraction of these children are enrolled in publicly funded pre-K programs. Many of those missing out are those at greatest risk of academic failure. In fact, last year, 4,446 kids in Bucks County lacked access to a publicly funded, high-quality pre-K program.
The return on investment is significant. We know from research (and from the results of our practice) that high-quality pre-K is one of the best investments we can make to strengthen our community and save taxpayers in the long term. It significantly improves school readiness and increases the likelihood of high school graduation. Long term, this investment in early childhood education gives us better educated citizens — adults who are ready to be contributors to Bucks County.
In fact, every dollar spent on pre-K saves $7 in remediation and other school-related costs. It’s a win-win.
Pennsylvania has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to the benefits of pre-K. Five years ago, the state reduced its funding of pre-K by 50 percent. There is still a significant funding gap. In the meantime, the United Way and other Bucks County community-based organizations have stepped up to attempt to close the gap. However, local support and effort alone is not enough to make up the difference. We need help.
Read the full op-ed here.
The Daily Item: LTE: A Long-Term Investment
As the Snyder County District Attorney, keeping our residents safe from crime and violence is priority number one. Obviously this involves prosecuting, and in appropriate cases, incarcerating those that break the law. Yet a comprehensive approach to keeping our communities safe must also include proven strategies that prevent individuals from turning to crime in the first place.
This is why I support the expansion of high quality pre-kindergarten programs. Research is clear that at-risk kids who participate are more ready for school and life and avoid crime and violence along the way.
I agree with Joanne Troutman’s recent op-ed (“My Turn: Giving can only help pre-K so much,” Feb. 10) urging our legislators to prioritize the expansion of high quality pre-K to an additional 14,000 at-risk kids in 2016 and all at-risk kids by 2019. Such an investment will not only contribute to brighter futures for at-risk children, but will keep our communities safer and save taxpayer dollars in the years to come.
Mike Piecuch
Snyder County District Attorney
Member of the Early Learning Investment Committee of the Susquehanna River Valley and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Read the LTE here.
Citizens Voice: LTE: Policy Makers Need to Expand Pre-K Services
February 25, 2016
It was disappointing to read that 80 percent of Luzerne County’s 3- and 4-year old children lack access to a high quality pre-K (Jan. 20). The article summarized the school readiness and cost savings benefits associated with further investments in pre-K, but it neglected to mention the impact on future national security.
The sad reality is that more than 70 percent of Pennsylvania’s young people cannot enlist in the Armed Forces. Inadequate education, criminal record and/or obesity are the principal disqualifiers.
For years, military leaders associated with the national security nonprofit organization Mission: Readiness have called for greater access to pre-K to help reverse this trend and ensure that our next generation has the skills, health and character needed to succeed both in military service and our civilian workforce.
As part of the 2016-17 state budget, our state policy makers have the opportunity to expand pre-K services to an additional 14,000 at-risk children. Investing in this next generation that one day will fill the ranks of our military and civilian workforce must be a priority.
Joseph F. Perugino
Kingston
Sunbury Daily Item: My Turn: Giving Can Only Help Pre-K So Much
February 11, 2016
The Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way has long made early learning and school readiness priority issues. We do this through United Way programs like Wee Read, which sends volunteers into our local WIC offices to read to children and distribute information; Every Baby Needs a Lap Top (your lap, not a computer), which teaches parents the importance of reading, singing and talking to their baby; Early Learning Investment Committee, a regional group of business leaders which advocates for investment in early learning; and pre-K scholarships.
Last year, we also invested $231,642 in funding to more than a dozen community partners, as well as in United Way initiated programs, for early childhood education initiatives.
We know — and research continues to confirm — that high-quality pre-k is among the best and most cost-effective initiatives for preparing children for success in school and beyond. It has been shown to significantly improve school readiness and increase the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment, which means better educated adults who enjoy stronger employment opportunities and earning potential.
Unfortunately, we also know high-quality pre-K is not accessible to many of this region’s young learners, in part because state investments in pre-K programs have not been aggressive enough. There are nearly 4,200 3-and 4-year-olds in Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties and only 16 percent of them are enrolled in publicly funded pre-K. This is well below the state average of 19 percent. Many of those missing out are those at greatest risk of academic failure.
United Ways and other community-based philanthropic organizations, as well as some strong visionary business leaders, have made strong efforts over the years to promote high-quality pre-K as a critical part of developing well-educated children, strong communities and an overall better commonwealth. But philanthropy alone cannot get the job done.
As with so many efforts to strengthen our communities, it takes a collaboration. In this case, we need the commonwealth to bolster its efforts to fund high-quality pre-K programs to reach those children who are missing out.
Especially troubling in Pennsylvania is the lack of access to high-quality pre-K among children at risk of academic failure. Across Pennsylvania, there are more than 175,000 3- and 4-year-olds who are at-risk because they are in lower-income households. Yet 70 percent of these at-risk young learners — more than 120,000 children statewide — had no access to publicly funded pre-k last year.
Northumberland County alone is home to about 1,700 at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds, and three-fourths of them lacked access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K last year. The situation is worse in Snyder County, where 83 percent of at-risk young learners lack access, and Union County, where 79 percent lack access.
Read the full op-ed here.
