York Dispatch: High-quality pre-K skips most York County kids
By Jessica Schladebeck
Alijrik Owens pulled an egg from a small cardboard carton and expertly cracked it before dropping it into a pan and moving onto the next egg; she was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes for her family, she said.
Her eggs, however were actually plastic, the pancakes rubbery and the hot chocolate the 4-year-old student prepared was made piping hot not by the stove she pulled it from, but by her imagination. The “family” she was cooking for was a collection of dolls and classmates who had decided to join in on the game of house.
A few steps away from Alijrik’s kitchen in the Hannah Penn pre-K classroom, Da’Vion Nelson was enthusiastically molding a blue Play-Doh monster while bragging about the cake he had at his birthday party last week.
“It was strawberry,” he said, cutting his creation in half. “Strawberry cake and strawberry frosting, that’s my favorite.”
Students were spread out in different stations across Rolanda SanMartin’s pre-K classroom for afternoon work time where they were able to choose the activity they wanted to start — whether it be at the puzzle station, the blocks station or even a station with fake snow — and were able to move to another, only after they had cleaned up.
The class of 19 starts the day at 8:30 a.m. when they arrive at Hannah Penn for breakfast, and throughout the day enjoy several activities like small group, read-aloud time, reflection and work time until it’s time to leave at 2:30.
“I love being a pre-K teacher,” said SanMartin, who has 10 years of experience. “I just hope we get the funding from the state that we need.”
Numbers: Students like Alijrik and Da’Vion are among the minority of young learners who have access to a high quality pre-K program.
According to data collected by Pre-K for PA, an organization dedicated to expanding access to early education programs across the state, 84 percent of York County 3- and 4-year-olds — 9,169 out of nearly 11,000 potential young learners — do not have access to high-quality pre-K. Of those without access, nearly 60 percent live in families below 300 percent poverty.
“York (County) is one of the higher need areas,” said Kate Phillips, a spokeswoman for Pre-K for PA. “Their numbers of need are significantly higher than those of the state.”
Across the commonwealth, 69 percent of children do not have access to early education programs. The state for 2014 was ranked 30th in the country in providing access to 4-year-olds and 14th for 3-year-olds, both of which mark a drop in ratkngs from years prior.
Advocates for the expansion of early childhood education are hoping for a $120 million investment in pre-K programs — the amount of funding Gov. Tom Wolf had originally hoped to allocate — which would allow for an additional 14,000 slots.
Recent budget negotiations have halved that investment, with Wolf, according to a recent press release, urging legislators to approve his full request.
Phillips said it will take a total of $400 million in state investments to increase access to children at greatest risk of academic failure.
“We are certainly hoping that the legislature sees our issue as one of the top priorities,” said Jodi Askins, executive director of the PA Association for the Education of Young Children. “There’s also a certain time factor when you’re considering the funding of these programs. There are kids that miss out every single year; it’s not like we can say, ‘We’ll get you next year when we see the funding,’ because those years of their lives are over.”
Investment: Advocates suggest that Pennsylvania is at a competitive disadvantage because it is being outpaced by other states when it comes to expanding high-quality pre-K programs.
“I think of all the things we spend money on, this is actually an investment that pays off,” said Josh Carney, an advocate and the owner and president of York-based Carney Engineering. “It’s the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”
According to an impact economic study performed by Ready Nation/America’s Edge, every dollar invested in early education will generate $1.79 in immediate return and up to $17 in the long term “in savings and benefits through the economic ripple effect of reducing costs to our schools and society, including significant criminal justice savings …”
If Pennsylvania were to fund high-quality pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, the investment would initially generate about $800 million in additional goods and services and create almost 28,000 new jobs, according to the same study.
“For me, education has been the key to getting where I am,” Carney said. “There’s a lot of kids sitting around in tough circumstances and pre-K really is the right way to get people on their feet. I mean, those are my future stars, my designers and engineers. Every kid that falls through the system is a lost opportunity.”
SanMartin’s class recently had a police officer, a mechanic and other local workers visit her students.
“They learned that to get the job the want they have to go to school,” she said. “It’s never too early to start that type of learning.”
Read the full article here.
AP: More Pre-K Programs Closing Amid Pennsylvania Budget Battle
By Associated Press December 2, 2015
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – With budget talks dragging on in the Pennsylvania capitol, more early childhood centers certified under Pennsylvania’s state-subsidized pre-kindergarten program are closing without state aid.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education said Wednesday that 15 Pre-K Counts programs have closed. It says 538 children were enrolled in the programs.
This year’s prolonged budget impasse has entered its sixth month, forcing school districts, counties and social and human services organizations to shutter services, lay off employees, put off bills or go into debt to survive.
Children from low-income families qualify for Pre-K Counts, which serves nearly 14,000 children. Other Pre-K Counts providers are laying off staff or asking them to work for free.
Read more here.
Lancaster Online: State Budget Impasse: How are Pennsylvania’s Littlest Learners Being Affected?
By Kara Newhouse November 23, 2015
By the Numbers
Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program allow preschools to open spots for children from low-income families. Funding for both programs has been on hold during the state budget impasse.
Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts
Children served in Lancaster County: 352
2014-15 funding to Lancaster County: $2.5 million
2014-15 total state funding: $97 million
Wolf’s 2015-16 proposal: $197 million
Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program
Children served in Lancaster County: 15
2014-15 funding to Lancaster County: $146,000
2014-15 total state funding: $39 million
Wolf’s 2015-16 proposal: $59 million
As owner of Little People Daycare School in Columbia, Sam Bhattacharya is responsible for the paychecks of 16 employees.
But in recent months, he’s missed a few — his own.
Bhattacharya has skipped paying himself and also taken loans to keep the center open during the state budget impasse, according to school director Laura Hess.
If lawmakers don’t pass a budget by January, Little People Daycare School will have to eliminate 20 full-day pre-kindergarten spots, Hess said.
The center is one of many across the state and within Lancaster County that are trying to stretch limited dollars as state funding for early-childhood education is held up by the budget stalemate.
Pennsylvania’s budget has been delayed more than four months.
Funds on hold
One of the main early-learning programs affected by the budget impasse is Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, the state’s free pre-kindergarten program for low-income families. Last year, the program got $97 million, with $2.5 million going to Lancaster County.
At Little People Daycare School, 20 of the 75 enrolled children are supported by Pre-K Counts funding. Those are the ones who would be dropped if a budget doesn’t come through by January.
Pre-K Counts classes in Lancaster city are in a slightly better position. The School District of Lancaster receives Pre-K Counts funding for 233 children and works with five partner organizations to provide those classes. The district has been floating funds from elsewhere in its budget to keep pre-kindergarten classrooms open during the impasse, according to a district official.
That’s helped pay staff, said Lucy Stauffer, director of children and family services for Lancaster Recreation Commission, which is one of the district’s partners. The Rec Commission has 40 Pre-K Counts slots in its early childhood centers.
Though they’re receiving the district funds, the program is still feeling the squeeze. Stauffer said the budget impasse also has held up Keystone Stars grants — a state funding source that’s used for stocking classrooms.
That has prevented Stauffer from purchasing supplies “beyond the bare minimum.”
She has replenished cleaning products and safety items, as well as markers and crayons. But science and math materials that cost a little extra?
Those had to wait.
So did gardening equipment.
“We’re going to miss out on being able to plant for the fall the stuff that will come up in spring,” Stauffer said.
Read the full article here.
Lancaster Online: Editorial: Hope for a Budget, with K-12 Funding
The LNP Editorial Board Nov 18, 2015
The “framework” budget agreement being negotiated between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders includes $350 million more for basic education and $50 million more for special education. The governor’s spokesman, Jeff Sheridan, also says the governor is committed to seeking $50 million more for preschool education. A 21 percent boost in the state sales tax to 7.25 percent statewide (8.25 percent in Allegheny County and 9.25 percent in Philadelphia) would provide property tax relief. Distribution of that relief and safeguards against future property tax increases are being hammered out.
The boosts in funding to public schools that have been agreed to by both sides are perhaps the first true rays of light in Pennsylvania’s now 141-day-old budget stalemate.
Education has, according to polls by Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research, been the top or No. 2 concern of Pennsylvania voters since June 2014. It was the top issue of Wolf’s successful campaign. So, it’s good that all have agreed to a $400 million increase for K-12 education.
An added $50 million for pre-K programs — when done right save $7 for every dollar spent — should be settled quickly.
“It’s not that we oppose it,” House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin told LNP on Tuesday. “It’s about how much money we have.”
Given pre-K’s payback potential, Wolf is right to dig in on this issue.
A reasonable extraction tax on natural gas should do the trick. And that, unfortunately, is something Republicans have opposed.
While school officials are upset that it has even been mentioned, we will take the optimistic view that Republicans are not committed to requiring a back-end referendum every time a school district wants to raise property taxes.
On the downside, this awful proposal “is definitely being discussed” and “it has support” among Republicans who want some form of accountability on property taxes, Miskin said.
The idea is terrible — more on that later — but it addresses a legitimate concern.
“Once you cut property taxes, how do you make sure they don’t just go up again?” Miskin asked.
For a variety of reasons, a referendum on every future school property tax increase is not the right answer.
First, the school property tax is about the only form of local control school districts in Pennsylvania have.
Second, as David W. Patti, CEO and president of the Pennsylvania Business Council, put it, the proposal is “disingenuous” in the message it sends to school districts.
That message, Patti said, is: “We’re going to hold you accountable for results, we’re going to keep adding new mandates but we’re going to tie one hand behind your back” with a back-end referendum that keeps you from raising the funds needed to provide a good education.
We agree. The back-end referendum is neither fair nor productive.
Third, as Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said, a back-end referendum would set up a nearly impossible task for superintendents, at least in the short run.
Superintendents would have to focus more attention on building a case for public support for school budgets than on educating students.
Here in Pennsylvania, Himes noted, 175 school districts get more than half of their revenue from local property taxes. If such a school district were to face higher state-mandated pension costs, higher state-mandated charter school tuition bills and higher federally mandated special education costs, it would have to get that money from its 30 percent state funding.
Read the full editorial here.
Beaver County Times: Budget impasse creates funding challenges for child care providers
By Katherine Schaeffer
When Bridgette Medva drops off her children, ages 2 and 3, at Beaver’s Kiddie Korner Child Development Center before work, Pennsylvania’s budget impasse isn’t usually at the front of her mind.
But lately, Medva — a working single mom who qualifies for reduced-price child care through the state’s Child Care Works program — says she wonders what might happen if the Legislature doesn’t come to an agreement, potentially halting those subsidies, soon.
“It’s not an option to take them out of day care,” she said, adding that the private rate for both children would total more than a house payment. “I have no family able to watch them.”
Pennsylvania’s state budget has been in limbo for more than four months, leaving private child care providers who rely on state subsidies and grants to fend for themselves, said Kate Phillips, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Pre-K for PA coalition. In the worst cases, providers reduced staff pay or shut their doors completely, she said.
“These centers are counting on dollars that flow from the state, and all of them have gone without that since June,” Phillips said.
In Beaver County, child care providers say they haven’t had to make drastic cuts, but without expected grant money and other subsidies, finances are tight.
In Beaver County, 206 children are enrolled in federally funded pre-kindergarten and Head Start programs, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Private child care providers receive state reimbursements through Child Care Works, a subsidy program for low-income families, and can also apply for merit-based grants through state initiatives like Keystone Stars, which incentivizes providers to improve staff training and curriculum.
At Just Like Home Daycare Center and Preschools, which has four locations in Center, Vanport, Hopewell and Chippewa townships, the Child Care Works subsidies, disbursed through Beaver County’s Child Care Information Services office, are still coming in, co-owner Richard Pavlinch said. But state grocery reimbursements for kids qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch stopped a few months ago, creating challenges, he said.
Just Like Home, which serves children from 6 weeks old to about sixth grade, provides formula for infants and breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack for older children, Pavlinch said.
“It adds up, especially when you have four sites and you need to buy fresh things like fruits, vegetables and dairy,” Pavlinch said.
Meals still have to comply with state regulations, and Pavlinch’s four site directors are tasked with putting together nutritious meals on a much lower budget, he said.
Hardworking staff at all four centers still provide children with quality daily care, but right now, the center is focusing on purchasing just the essentials, he said.
“It’s not like this is a restaurant business, where you can raise the price of a meal to offset the cost,” Pavlinch said.
Beaver’s Kiddie Korner hasn’t made any drastic cuts, but without promised state grant and merit-based award money, planning improvements has been a challenge, site director Kelly Battaglia said.
About 30 percent of Kiddie Korner’s families qualify for state subsidized child care, but the grant money they usually receive from Keystone Stars hasn’t come in, she said.
Battaglia said she had planned to phase in new curriculum, purchase gross motor activities and install sinks in every classroom, but she’s had to hold off until the grants are disbursed.
“The children aren’t stopping,” Battaglia said. “They’re growing and developing, and we can’t say, ‘Just hold off until they pass a budget.’”
Robin Moye, center director for Noah’s Ark, which has locations in Chippewa and Beaver Falls, said maintaining services has only been a minor hiccup, but she’s had to make sacrifices in order to continue with planned improvements, putting renovations to the Chippewa facility’s two school-age rooms on her personal credit cards.
Read the full article here.
