Lancaster Online: Letter to the Editor: Wolf pre-K funding would serve Pa. well
Reducing crime and limiting its future costs are some of the key reasons Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican lawmakers included increased funding for high-quality pre-K in their respective budget plans.
There is good reason for making this increased investment. High school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested, and more than eight times as likely to be incarcerated. Pennsylvania houses nearly 50,000 state prison inmates costing the commonwealth about $2 billion each year. Half of these inmates failed to earn a high school diploma.
Research is clear that front-end education investments in high-quality pre-K improve graduation rates and help prepare kids for more successful lives.
The Republican budget plan would provide access to an additional 3,500 of the more than 200,000 3- and 4-year olds in our state who lack access to high-quality pre-K each year. That includes 79 percent, or about 11,000 of Lancaster County’s 14,000 3- and 4-year-olds who do not have access to high-quality pre-K because it doesn’t exist nearby or their families cannot afford it.
While we certainly commend the Legislature for this added investment, the 175 district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs throughout Pennsylvania who are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids are hopeful that a final state budget will allocate additional resources as Gov. Wolf has proposed to serve an additional 14,000 at-risk children who lack access to high-quality pre-K. For law enforcement, this would be filling a crime-prevention gap.
Bruce R. Clash
Pennsylvania State Director
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Harrisburg
Read the Letter to the Editor here.
Patriot News: Those hardest hit by latest Pa. state budget veto says there’s enough blame for everybody
By Charles Thompson
The next best chance to ease the squeeze from Pennsylvania’s protracted state budget stalemate fizzled Tuesday when Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed an emergency stopgap funding bill.
It sets up a situation, statewide, where a budget stalemate that’s been invisible for most Pennsylvanians to date could soon start hitting a lot more of us in ways large and small.
Consider:
* In Carbondale, the school board has authorized the superintendent to explore a temporary closure of schools.
* In Harrisburg, some pre-kindergarten classes are being cancelled.
* In Scranton, mid-day meals at senior centers may be suspended.
* In various counties across the state, supports to families with adult children with intellectual disabilities are being eroded, and key learning opportunities for children from birth to age five with development delays are threatened.
There’s a rising tide of anger and frustration, to be sure.
But most human service providers who will be among the first to feel the effects of Tuesday’s veto seemed inclined to blame both Wolf, the veto-maker, and the state legislators he’s negotiating with for their troubles.
“I understand the fight for more money,” Gina Barkley, administrator of Bright Futures Learning Center of Harrisburg, said of Wolf’s veto Tuesday afternoon.
“But it feels like nobody considered that we would be the carnage in the meantime. It (the veto) is like a slap in the face, and I’m also offended that the senators and representatives are still getting paid while we work and we don’t get paid.”
The stopgap, if signed into law, was designed to get state funding flowing into schools and many human service programs through October, allowing maintenance of services while Wolf and Republican legislative leaders resolve their differences over taxes and spending.
Bright Futures, Barkley said, has already cancelled two pre-k classes because of a lack of funds and may have to close three others serving 86 kids within days unless its staff members agree to work without pay.
In Scranton, Kristen Kosin, executive director of Meals On Wheels of Northeastern Pennsylvania, voiced similar frustrations.
“I’m incredibly frustrated right now,” Kosin said, as she pondered the possibility of closing down the group meal service her agency provides at a number of senior centers around Lackawanna County by mid-October.
Read the full article here.
PA Budget and Policy Center: Way No. 4 – Pre-Kindergarten Funding
Pre-K Expansion Would Enhance Educational Opportunity and Economic Growth and Pay for Itself Many Times Over
14,000 more children statewide would gain entrance into pre-kindergarten
HARRISBURG (September 21, 2015) – Reporter Erica Erwin noted in The Erie Times-News earlier this year, “The push to make quality pre-kindergarten available to all 3- and 4-year-old children in Pennsylvania has the support of someone familiar with a different kind of battle. Senior Judge Michael Dunlavey, a retired two-star general in the U.S. Army Reserve, said access to early childhood education is connected to the nation’s ability to protect and defend itself.” Dunlavey spoke to a gathering of legislators and local business and community leaders in support of Pre-K for PA, a statewide, non-partisan campaign for high-quality pre-kindergarten access for all 3- and 4-year-old children.
Retired military officers and business leaders may not spring to mind as your typical advocates for early-childhood education. But over the past decade, they have become some of the strongest advocates for pre-kindergarten programs geared toward children at risk of later failing school.
These civic champions know that programs like Pennsylvania’s Pre-K Counts help children stay in school and avoid a life of crime. The payoff is down the line when more young adults join the workforce – or are eligible for military service. Rigorous long-term studies estimate that high quality pre-kindergarten provides a significant return on investment – every dollar spent returns as much as $17 in reduced crime, education and welfare savings as well as higher earnings and increased taxes paid in adulthood.
Gov. Tom Wolf took office this year with a commitment to making publicly funded, high-quality pre-K available to every 3- and 4-year-old child in Pennsylvania. Legislative support for early learning investments also is strong. The bipartisan, bicameral Early Childhood Education Caucus is the largest issue-focused caucus in the General Assembly.
Even so, Pennsylvania’s progress in making smart investments in early childhood education has been too slow. Only one in six three- and four-year-olds has access to high-quality, publicly funded pre-K programs.
Gov. Wolf proposes to increase early childhood education funding by $120 million (88%), with $100 million going to Pre-K Counts. This increase would result in the enrollment of 14,000 more children in programs that help them develop academically and socially prior to entering the regular classroom. (To see an estimate of new pre-K slots in your state House or Senate district, click here.)
The Republican budget would increase Pre-K Counts funding by $25 million, adding only about 3,500 slots (including those created by funding for the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program. These 3,500 children would account for only about 1 percent of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year olds. To compare the number of high quality, early-childhood slots added in your state House or Senate district under the Republican and Wolf budgets, click here). Slow expansion of quality pre-school hurts children and employers and reduces economic growth in a job market finally generating more opportunities for parents.
First grade teacher Lindsay Kiefer said, “Kindergarten teachers have a really tough time if students come in at varying levels of prior experience. Kids that come in with a pre-K experience are ready to take the next step. I had a little girl in my class who had the privilege of a great pre-kindergarten experience. She started the year with all of the basic skills and more importantly the confidence to tackle problems. With that great head start going into second grade, she was ready to dive in head first to grade-level topics and skills.”
Newspaper editors, civic leaders and Pennsylvanians from across the state have spoken out in favor of investment in quality pre-school programs.
For example, Snyder County District Attorney Michael Piecuch noted: “In Snyder County, 86 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds lack access to high-quality pre-K each year. In Northumberland County, 80 percent lack this access and in Union County, it’s 78 percent … I hope that the final negotiated budget will include more funding to expand access to high-quality pre-K, not only for its economic benefits but as part of a proven crime prevention strategy.”
Parent Jennifer Cebrick wrote, “Lawmakers and Gov. Wolf need to work together to create a budget that expands access to high-quality pre-K as much as possible so more children can benefit the way my kids did.”
Kiwanis leader Laura Katrenicz noted that, “Pre-K programs benefit not only the child, but also the community. High-quality pre-K reduces crime, supports economic development and growth, and saves taxpayer money that can be reallocated to other community needs.”
As the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette warned: “Only 31 percent of 4-year-olds [in Pennsylvania] attend preschool, most through public initiatives such as Head Start … What they don’t spend on early education today could be wasted on prisons tomorrow.”
Read more on Why the Budget Matters: Let Me Count the Ways.
Gettysburg Times: HACC Hosts Public Forum on Early Childhood Education
By Tom Fontana
The Gettysburg Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) hosted a public forum Wednesday morning as a follow-up to a film presentation last week on early childhood education.
Healthy Adams County Wellness Arts and the Birth to Five Committee screened the documentary, “The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of our Nation,” at Gettysburg Middle School Thursday night, Sept. 10, hoping to increase awareness of the need for better pre-school education and child care in Adams and Franklin counties. Statistics throughout the movie stressed how the United States falls short in providing pre-school education and maternity leave for parents.
At the breakfast meeting, several speakers concerned about pre-school education offered their views on problems and solutions related to the lack of early brain development.
“Pre-school education reduces the number of students identified for special education when they enter kindergarten and beyond,” stated Dr. Wesley Stahl, Upper Adams School District superintendent. “It also lowers the need for repeating grades and produces higher graduation rates.”
Stahl noted that in the documentary film it was pointed out that 40% of children are not academically ready to start kindergarten.
“We need to look for solutions to educational needs before children are in formal school,” Stahl said. “It’s my personal belief that we’re trying to correct problems too late.”
Adams County district attorney Shawn Wagner talked about how early childhood education affects the criminal justice system.
“We can’t just arrest and imprison our way out of our crime problems,” he stated. “Today’s high school dropouts may be tomorrow’s criminals.”
Nancy Fishman, director of the PA Early Learning Investment Commission, focused on pre-school affects the future workforce.
“We have a looming talent shortage,” she said. “We need to prepare our children early so they are ready for training in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math.”
Read the full article here.
Main Line Times: As I See it: Pre-K Counts program needs a no-nonsense budget now!
By Mary Jo Daley
For Main Line Media News
Summer is over and our children are back to school. The pictures in our social media feeds are all smiles. But this back-to-school season unfortunately is being affected by the peripheral impact of partisan politics in Harrisburg, which is now sending waves of uncertainty through state-funded pre-K classrooms across the state.
While teachers and students are getting back to the classrooms, many state-funded pre-K and Head Start classrooms are obtaining needed costly financing in order to open their doors to young learners; some have even been forced to close.
It’s difficult to deny that an early education can play an integral role in many aspects of child’s life. It is especially true for those children whose parents do not have the means to pay quality pre-K tuition. A child’s brain is developed 90 percent by the time they reach the age of 5. Exposing a young child to a classroom setting, social interactions, greater vocabulary and basic classroom skills prior to kindergarten has been proven to reduce the likelihood of repeated grades, special education and later incarceration, while also increasing graduation and college acceptance rates.
Many children start school behind their peers because the economic realities of early learning do not favor them. In the Colonial School District that I represent, for example, 193 students do not have access to high-quality publicly funded pre-K. These students do not get a do-over. Shouldn’t these children have the same opportunities afforded their friends and neighbors as they start school?
Gov. Wolf proposed a $120 million increase in early education funding in his initial budget. That amount, just a small percentage of the $29 billion budget, would provide high-quality early education opportunities for 14,000 additional 3- and 4-year-olds across Pennsylvania. It’s a good start, however nearly 200,000 of our 3- and 4-year-olds in PA currently do not have access to these educational opportunities. If we don’t start now, with this small portion of children, we’ll never reach the point where all of Pennsylvania’s young children are receiving this huge learning opportunity.
There’s no rewind button when it comes to the education of a growing child. Let’s get back to work before back to school is further ruined for more of our youngest learners.
State Rep. Mary Jo Daley is in her second term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives serving the 148th District.
The op-ed can be read here.
