This weekend the PA House of Representatives is expected to pass a 2015-2016 state budget that authorizes no new taxes yet grows funding for high-quality pre-k by $30 million, which would provide access to approximately 3,500 more children. The $30 million investment is significantly less than the $120 million proposed by the Administration that would serve approximately 14,000 additional children.
The Pennsylvania Senate will vote on this measure early next week and send it to the Governor’s desk where a veto is expected. This will set up a budget standoff for early July where your voice will be critical in advocacy efforts to help ensure greater funding for high-quality pre-k access in a final state budget.
The Pre-K for PA campaign and its partners are leading the charge in Harrisburg on behalf of the Commonwealth’s youngest learners. Please check for emails from Pre-K for PA and visit the website next week for the most up-to-date information on how you can lend support.
Lancaster Online Op-ed: Businesses: Invest in Preschool Education
JENNIFER HENRY | Special to LNP
Congratulations to our youngest graduates, those just out of preschool.
Local families will proudly cherish photos of their preschoolers wearing miniature mortarboards and clutching colorful diplomas this graduation season.
But do we fully understand the meaning of this occasion and its impact on these children and their eventual place in society?
A child’s success in school, and ultimately in life, is tied to this event marking the passing of a child’s first five years spent, at least partly, in an early learning program. As research over the past 20 years is proving, there is an awful lot to celebrate.
Children who have access to high- quality care and learning in their first five years are:
— More likely to enter kindergarten prepared to learn and, according to a 2007 report for the Louisiana Department of Education, less likely by half to need special, costly interventions and supports.
— More likely to graduate from high school and less likely to be incarcerated.
— More likely to enter higher wage-earning fields and less likely to rely on public subsidies as adults, according to Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek.
— More likely to enroll in college and better prepared to enter military service, according to the organization Mission: Readiness.
Further economic studies help us understand the benefits of high-quality early learning in terms of return on investment. For every dollar invested in early learning, there is an immediate return in terms of job creation, availability of employees in the job market, and increased revenues realized through purchase of services and goods in communities.
Over the long term, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children says, there is an estimated 17 to 1 return in terms of economic benefit from an initial investment in early learning.
And then there is science —biological evidence that brain development is 90 percent complete by age 5. Synapses and neurons are being fed by early-learning investment, too.
The experiences a child has up to this point — at home, in preschool, in child care — shape his trajectory for life. We are creating human capital, and we only get one chance per generation to do it right. There is no rewind button for the first five years.
Read the full article here.
Guest commentary: The Value of Pre-K from a Pediatrician’s View
By Susan Kressly, M.D., FAAP President, Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
As a Pennsylvania pediatrician for the past 25 years, I’ve seen thousands of children grow up in the commonwealth. And I’ve seen how their well-being can be impacted not only by their health, but also by their opportunities —particularly their opportunities to learn.
One of the most significant periods for a child’s mental, social and emotional growth is before they even enter kindergarten. Research shows a child’s brain is 90 percent developed by age 5, making the early years a crucial time in life, a brief window of opportunity that can provide every child with the foundation for a lifetime of success.
One of the best ways to help these young learners is high-quality pre-kindergarten, which can bring about dramatic gains in academic and social skills in all children, particularly those who might face disadvantages due to circumstances beyond their control. High-quality pre-k programs provide appropriate, interactive, supportive and stimulating environments for these young minds to thrive.
And pre-k has a ripple effect that goes far beyond the early years. Research shows kids who benefit from high-quality pre-k enter school with stronger literacy, language, math and social/emotional skills. They are less likely to need special education services, less likely to repeat grades and more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. And over a lifetime, these young learners will see stronger employment opportunities and increased earning potential, and they will be less likely to end up on the wrong side of the law.
All of this adds up to benefits not only for the child, but for all of us. The problem is, not enough children have access to high-quality pre-k.
In Pennsylvania, only about 18.9 percent of our 3- and 4-year-olds (or about 1 in 6) is able to attend publicly funded, high-quality pre-k, according to the statewide, non-partisan Pre-K for PA campaign. In McKean County, that statistic is better at 35 percent — or about 1 in 3 children — but it still means about 650 McKean County 3- and 4-year-olds don’t have access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-k.
A budget proposal currently on the table at the state Capitol would increase the state’s investment in high-quality pre-k by $120 million — less than a half percent of the state’s total proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. This increased investment would make high-quality pre-k available to 14,000 more children across the commonwealth, increasing access from 1 in 6 of our 3- and 4-year-olds to about 1 in 4.
This is a solid first step, but still leaves a large majority of young learners missing out on the lifelong benefits goal of making high-quality pre-k universally accessible.
Why should we make this investment? Because we all benefit from it. An economic analysis by the Pennsylvania Economy League shows every $1 Pennsylvania invests in high-quality pre-k generates $1.79 in immediate new spending. The return on investment is even more impressive in the long term because every dollar invested in pre-k returns up to $17 in savings and benefits to the commonwealth in the form of a reduced reliance on taxpayer-funded social services, reduced crime and incarceration costs and increased earning power in a better-educated, more competitive workforce.
Read the full article here.
Observer-Reporter: Editorial: Pay now on Pre-K and Head Start, save money later
In the United States, we do a smash-up job of putting people behind bars – we have the highest incarceration rate on the planet, with 22 percent of the world’s prisoners and only 4 percent of its population – but we do only a fair-to-middling job in providing education that might have kept some of those inmates out of the prison system in the first place.
Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf teamed up with several prosecutors and Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel to push a plan that would provide a significant boost to funding for Head Start and pre-kindergarten programs in the commonwealth, which, they argue, would increase the odds children brought into those programs will grow up to be productive, educated citizens and lower the odds they will waste their potential and while away much of their adulthood behind bars.
Their argument is persuasive. According to Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, which is supporting the proposal, every dollar spent on pre-kindergarten and Head Start returns $1.79 in the short term, and $17 over the long haul. And a study from University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty found enrolling youngsters in pre-kindergarten or Head Start programs increases the chances they will complete high school 14 or 15 years later and not end up being ushered through the criminal justice system.
Boosters for Head Start and Pre-K programs said the programs not only provide a leg up for students in learning that will come in handy once they reach kindergarten, but students who take part also start internalizing lessons in getting along with others, understanding and respecting those who are in authority and, perhaps most importantly, controlling impulsive behavior that could earn them a punishment well beyond a few minutes in time-out once they’re older.
As Wolf said: “There is no better way to invest in the lives of our fellow citizens than in early childhood education. We can see the reverse when we don’t invest. … Let’s reduce the number of people who look at crime as a real option; who think that crime actually does pay.”
Wolf is asking the state’s share of Head Start funding be increased by $20 million, which would enroll about 2,400 additional children, and the amount the state contributes to the Pre-K Counts program be more than doubled, from $97 million to $197 million, which would allow over 11,000 more children to sign up.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Editorial: Pay now or later: Investing in pre-K can head off costlier problems
By the Editorial Board
Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed expansion of pre-kindergarten education got an assist Tuesday from some unexpected boosters: district attorneys who see future crime reductions and cost savings from the plan.
Outside a state prison near Harrisburg, the prosecutors joined with Mr. Wolf to announce their support for his initiative, which would extend pre-K access to 14,000 more students at a cost of $120 million.
As the Democratic governor and Republican-led Legislature tangle over how to close a $1.5 billion to $2 billion budget deficit, it is difficult to see how pre-K will figure into this battle. But advocates and law-enforcement officials present compelling evidence that these investments pay off and deserve special attention in the budgeting process.
According to a report by “Fight Crime: Invest in Kids,” a national advocacy group representing thousands of law-enforcement officials, including Allegheny County Sheriff William P. Mullen, Mr. Wolf’s proposal would save $350 million over the affected students’ lifetimes, cutting demand for special education, raising the number of high school graduates and lowering incarceration rates. The report cites two studies that found those who have had pre-K education less likely to be arrested later for violent crimes or sentenced to jail.
Read the full editorial here.
