York Daily Record: Investing in Pre-k Really Does Cut Crime (Editorial)
Debate in Harrisburg will soon begin in earnest to adopt a state budget for fiscal year 2015-16, and education funding will be front and center.
Among the proposals being sought by Gov. Tom Wolf is increased funding for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, an initiative that recently attracted outspoken support from some unusual kindergarten bedfellows: the law enforcement community.
State district attorneys held a press conference April 29 to introduce a report, “We’re the Guys You Pay Later” by the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids coalition. The report makes the case that more money is spent on jailing adult defendants than on investing in education for children. That early investment can be shown, the report argues, to change the path for at-risk children from potential criminals to productive members of society.
Looking to early education to prevent crime is gaining traction nationwide. According to the report, children who participated in high-quality preschool and parent coaching programs through Chicago’s Child-Parent Centers were found to be 20 percent less likely to be arrested or incarcerated for a felony as young adults than those who did not attend.
The benefits are evident on families as well as the enrolled children, the report states. The Chicago CPC program cut child abuse and neglect in half for the children served, compared to similar children from families not being helped.
A recent grant from the Kellogg Foundation is also allowing PEAK to reach out to families as early as when children are born and to help with their needs as parents during Literacy Nights and other outreach efforts.
Read the full editorial here.
Pottstown Mercury: Editorial: Investing in Pre-K Now Saves Money Later
Debate in Harrisburg will soon begin in earnest to adopt a state budget for fiscal year 2015-16, and education funding will be front and center.
Among the proposals being sought by Gov. Tom Wolf is increased funding for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, an initiative that recently attracted outspoken support from some unusual kindergarten bedfellows: the law enforcement community.
District Attorneys Risa Ferman, Montgomery County; Seth Williams, Philadelphia; Jack Whelan, Delaware County; and Tom Hogan, Chester County, held a press conference April 29 to introduce a report, “We’re the Guys You Pay Later,” by the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids coalition. The report makes the case that more money is spent on jailing adult defendants than on investing in education for children. That early investment can be shown, the report argues, to change the path for at-risk children from potential criminals to productive members of society.
Looking to early education to prevent crime is gaining traction nationwide. According to the report, children who participated in high-quality preschool and parent coaching programs through Chicago’s Child-Parent Centers were found to be 20 percent less likely to be arrested or incarcerated for a felony as young adults than those who did not attend.
The benefits are evident on families as well as the enrolled children, the report states. The Chicago CPC program cut child abuse and neglect in half for the children served, compared to similar children from families not being helped.
Pottstown School District and Superintendent Jeff Sparagana have been at the forefront of the Pre-K movement, providing some of the early benchmarks for success. In place since 1989, state Pre-K Counts funding has made possible early education slots for 160 children in profit and non-profit childcare centers who have partnered with the district to ensure quality instruction, qualified teachers and a seamless integration with the district’s curriculum, PEAK Coordinator Mary Reick told Pennsylvania first lady Francis Wolf during a recent visit.
A recent grant from the Kellogg Foundation is also allowing PEAK to reach out to families as early as when children are born and to help with their needs as parents during Literacy Nights and other outreach efforts.
Read the full editorial here.
Lancaster Newspapers Editorial: Let’s be Fair, and Smart: Fund Preschool Education
THE ISSUE
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s call to boost preschool education funding by $120 million statewide received Republican support Monday at a Head Start center in Lancaster. Wolf wants to boost overall spending to $256.5 million for the 2015-16 school year, up from $136.5 million this school year — an 88 percent increase that includes $100 million more for Pennsylvania’s Pre-K Counts and $20 million more for Head Start. Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is a state program for children ages 3 through prekindergarten considered at risk of school failure and with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal income poverty level. Head Start is a federal program for families at or below the poverty level of $24,250 in annual income for a family of four.
Everyone seems to agree that high-quality preschool education is a net plus for society.
Then-Gov. Tom Corbett made a boost in preschool funding a selling point during his unsuccessful re-election bid last year.
Mission: Readiness, a coalition of more than 500 retired senior military leaders, supports preschool education as part of its focus on what it considers a serious national security problem. “Currently, more than 70 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. cannot serve in the military, primarily because they are too poorly educated, too overweight, or have a serious criminal record,” is how the bipartisan group defines the problem on its website.
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman and Sheriff Mark Reese and state Rep. Bryan Cutler of Peach Bottom, all Republicans, were on hand for Monday’s event to support the governor’s call for more preschool funding.
Both Stedman and Reese consider spending on preschool education an investment in crime prevention.
For those who did not attend preschool, or even kindergarten, these calls can be hard to understand.
Why, when many adults grew up just fine without it, is preschool education such a priority today?
One answer is the changing nature of employment. The jobs of the future — and even the present, including many military professions — require higher academic skills. Today’s complicated technology demands more advanced reading skills, and the teamwork environment of our complex, global economy rewards those with the ability to communicate effectively.
Another is the rising percentage of children in poverty.
According to an analysis of 2013 Census data by the Southern Education Foundation, 51 percent of children in prekindergarten through 12th grade are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
While poverty does not automatically lead to lower language skills, it does have an impact. Children living in poverty have fewer books in their homes, and therefore fewer opportunities to develop language skills essential to reading and writing.
Read the entire article here.
Philly.com Op-Ed: Expanding Preschool will Help Children and the City
By Elliot Weinbaum
and Sharon Easterling
In Philadelphia, many are working hard to improve our schools. There is significant work to be done if we are to give our young people the best possible opportunity to become active and successful citizens, and we need to begin with our youngest learners.
Consider a few important facts. According to the Reinvestment Fund’s childcaremap.org, only 15 percent of about 100,000 child-care seats in Philadelphia are rated as being high-quality, with three or four stars, according to the state’s Keystone Stars rating system. Of the remainder, more than half do not participate in the state’s certification or rating systems, and more than 30 percent are at the lower quality ratings.
If we look at individual neighborhoods, the landscape can be even bleaker. Childcaremap.org shows that several neighborhoods, some serving more than 1,000 children under the age of 5, have no child-care centers with a rating of three or four stars. In a city with the highest poverty rates among large American cities, less than one-third of our 3- and 4-year-olds have access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K.
Why should we care? Because we know that early-education opportunities help people live better lives. Studies such as those by the Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman indicate that children who miss out on early education often struggle to catch up to the academic, professional, and personal success experienced by their peers. The work of Harvard education professor David Deming has shown that children in an early-childhood program are less likely to demonstrate learning disabilities later in life, more likely to graduate from high school, and less likely to be in poor health as adults.
What does this mean for Philadelphia? There are about 12,000 kindergartners in our city. The overall rate of special education in Philadelphia would suggest that almost 14 percent of these students will need special-education services. An evaluation by Pre-K Counts, a statewide program, suggests that if every child had access to high-quality early education, the special-education rate would be reduced to less than 5 percent.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Citizens’ Voice: Letter to the Editor: United Way Advocating for Early Learning through Success by Six Initiative
Dear Editor,
The path to educational success for Pennsylvania’s children begins even before the doors open on the first day of kindergarten. That is why the United Way has been advocating for early learning through our Success by Six initiative. There is already strong agreement across party and geographic lines that expanding access to high-quality Pre-K is a smart, cost-effective way to ensure all children enter school ready to learn, now the time has come for action.
Parents and educators see high-quality Pre-K as an effective tool to improve school readiness and long-term student success. Law enforcement officials see it as a strategy to help at-risk youth avoid the criminal justice system. Business leaders see evidence of the proven benefits and know quality pre-k is a smart investment.
And yet, despite all of this support, only 1 in 6 of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds benefit from publicly funded, high-quality Pre-K, leaving more than 200,000 young learners missing out statewide, including more than 13,000 here in NEPA. We need to improve on this sad statistic.
We are among those who believe if we want to build a stronger Pennsylvania, increased access to high-quality Pre-K must be a building block for that foundation. That’s why we have joined the statewide Pre-K for PA Leadership Council made up of more than 100 leading voices in Pennsylvania business, education, law enforcement, civic engagement and even the military, all of whom recognize the many benefits of high-quality Pre-K. Pre-K for PA is a nonpartisan, issue-focused campaign that is working to make high-quality Pre-K accessible to every 3- and 4-year-old in the state.
High-quality Pre-K is an educational, moral and societal imperative essential to our economic success. A fiscal analysis found if Pennsylvania funded pre-k for all 3- and 4-year olds, the commonwealth’s investment would generate $800 million in additional goods and services and create nearly 28,000 jobs statewide in the short term. The long-term benefits are even greater, with every dollar invested in pre-k returning up to $17 in savings and benefits to the commonwealth.
As support for Pre-K for PA’s vision grows in this region and in communities across Pennsylvania, it is encouraging to see that so many of the state’s newly elected and re-elected leaders are committed to strengthening our schools and early learning facilities as a way to elevate our workforce and communities. Now that commitment needs to turn into action.
With a new democratic Governor and Republican-led majority in the state legislature getting to work on the 2015-16 budget, we hope they work together to ensure an investment in high-quality Pre-K is at the top of Pennsylvania’s priorities. We know it’s a smart investment that pays off for every Pennsylvanian, and we can’t defer such an important investment any longer.
Bill Jones, President and CEO, United Way of Wyoming Valley.
Gary Drapek, President and CEO, United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties.
Pat Ward, President and CEO, United Way of Greater Hazleton.
Click here to read the Letter to the Editor on the Citizens’ Voice site.
Times Leader: Letter to the Editor: Ensure Pre-Kindergarten Programs among State’s top Priorities, say United Way Chiefs
By: Bill Jones, President and CEO United Way of Wyoming Valley
Gary Drapek, President and CEO United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties
Pat Ward, President and CEO United Way of Greater Hazelton
The path to educational success for Pennsylvania’s children begins even before the doors open on the first day of kindergarten.
That is why the United Way has been advocating for early learning through our Success by Six initiative. There is already strong agreement across party and geographic lines that expanding access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs is a smart, cost-effective way to ensure all children enter school ready to learn; now the time has come for action.
Parents and educators see high-quality pre-k as an effective tool to improve school readiness and long-term student success. Law enforcement officials see it as a strategy to help at-risk youth avoid the criminal justice system. Business leaders see evidence of the proven benefits and know quality pre-k is a smart investment.
And yet, despite all of this support, only one in six of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds benefits from publicly funded, high-quality pre-k, leaving more than 200,000 young learners missing out statewide, including more than 13,000 here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We need to improve on this sad statistic.
We are among those who believe if we want to build a stronger Pennsylvania, increased access to high-quality pre-k must be a building block for that foundation. That’s why we have joined the statewide Pre-K for PA Leadership Council made up of more than 100 leading voices in Pennsylvania business, education, law enforcement, civic engagement and even the military, all of whom recognize the many benefits of high-quality pre-k.
“Pre-K for PA” is a nonpartisan, issue-focused campaign that is working to make high-quality pre-k accessible to every 3- and 4-year-old in the state.
High-quality pre-k is an educational, moral and societal imperative essential to our economic success. A fiscal analysis found if Pennsylvania funded pre-k for all 3- and 4-year-olds, the commonwealth’s investment would generate $800 million in additional goods and services and create nearly 28,000 jobs statewide in the short term. The long-term benefits are even greater, with every dollar invested in pre-k returning up to $17 in savings and benefits to the commonwealth.
As support for Pre-K for PA’s vision grows in this region and in communities across Pennsylvania, it is encouraging to see that so many of the state’s newly elected and re-elected leaders are committed to strengthening our schools and early learning facilities as a way to elevate our workforce and communities. Now that commitment needs to turn into action.
With a new Democratic governor and Republican-led majority in the state Legislature getting to work on the 2015-16 budget, we hope they work together to ensure an investment in high-quality pre-k is at the top of Pennsylvania’s priorities. We know it’s a smart investment that pays off for every Pennsylvanian, and we can’t defer such an important investment any longer.
Click here to read the Letter to the Editor on the Times Leader site.
