The Intelligencer: Value of Quality Pre-k Education Benefits All of Us

The Intelligencer: Value of Quality Pre-k Education Benefits All of Us
July 4, 2017 by Marissa Christie CEO of the United Way of Bucks County

Research tells us that young children ask about 280 questions per day. As the parent of a preschooler, I can tell you this estimate feels a little low.

By day, I am the CEO of United Way of Bucks County, an organization dedicated to giving the most vulnerable people in our community access to care and opportunity. Before and after work, I am an information kiosk, patiently addressing all of my son’s burning questions: Why isn’t my birthday a holiday? Why are moths nocturnal? Why are squirrels hard to catch? Why do I go to school?

At his age, I keep the answer to that last one simple: He goes to school so that he can learn and play with his friends. But really, he goes to school because high-quality early education is one of the most important things we can ever give a child.

A child’s brain is 90 percent developed by age 5, which means the early years provide the greatest opportunity for us to make a difference. We have a small window to make the most of these years. Children get on (or are knocked off) the path to success very early in life.

There are both short- and long-term benefits to quality early education. Children’s early literacy, math, and social/emotional skills improve, ensuring that they are ready to enter kindergarten. Long-term, children who get a high-quality pre-K education are:

• Less likely to repeat a grade.

• Less likely to need special-education placements.

• More likely to graduate from high school, go to college, and get good jobs.

• Less likely to commit crimes later in life.

Why does all this matter? Even if you don’t care about children, there is a financial incentive to invest in early education. Reducing the need for special education and criminal justice intervention saves a lot of taxpayer money. Plus, our workforce and economy are strengthened with educated workers. Every dollar invested returns up to $17 in long-term savings and benefits and generates $1.79 in economic activity immediately.

These benefits help explain the groundswell of support for high-quality pre-K education. People from all walks of life agree that investments in high-quality pre-K make a difference in the lives of children: county commissioners, mayors, pediatricians, business leaders, military and law enforcement leaders, and, most importantly, parents of young children.

Although many groups, including United Way of Bucks County, are working together to increase support for quality pre-K education, Pennsylvania is falling behind in this critical investment area.

In Bucks County alone, there are 4,187 children who are eligible for publicly funded pre-K education; only 24 percent of these children actually get it. The remaining children are left behind due to lack of funding.

We must do more to help children and families overcome the financial barriers to quality pre-K education. This is the time to keep the pre-K momentum going; to ensure that all children can meet their potential.

Although Gov. Tom Wolf prioritized pre-K in his budget proposal for 2017-18, the budget passed by the House reduced new investments by two-thirds and cut child care subsidies by $28 million.

Not all children in Bucks County will have the access to early education that my son does. Their questions, now and in the future, will be different than my son’s. Someday, they will be left wondering why they never had a chance.

We can change that. The Pre-K for PA movement is calling for $75 million to serve an additional 8,400 children and $35 million to improve child care.

Support the movement for quality pre-K and encourage our state leaders to do so as well. Every call and email makes a difference.

When we unite to make pre-K education a priority, our children, families, and communities are all better off, now and in the future.

Read the op-ed here.

Pottstown Mercury: Pre-K important for child’s development

Pottstown Mercury: Pre-K important for child’s development
June 23, 2017

Since 1989, the Pottstown School District has supported half-day Pre-K for any child in the district. In 2006, the district’s commitment grew to embrace the community, with creation of the Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness (PEAK Partnership), funded through a Pre-K Counts Public Private Partnership grant. The district is the senior manager of the PEAK Partnership, which convenes community partners in community outreach, family engagement, quality improvement, kindergarten transition, and health/wellness to ensure that children enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Today, the district still runs its self-funded, half-day pre-K in three of its four elementary schools, and it is piloting a full-day Pre-K Counts classroom in the fourth school. It is also the Pre-K Counts grantee for 10 classrooms established throughout the community.

Quality pre-K doesn’t just teach children their letters and numbers, but also how to share, take turns, and learn to self-regulate their behavior during the critical developmental years before kindergarten. Without those things, they are not going to be successful in kindergarten. Once you hit age five, a lot of characteristics are in place, and it’s hard to have children relearn things.

The impact of quality pre-K is evident in Pottstown schools.

Children from Pottstown Pre-K Counts classrooms enter kindergarten better prepared to learn than the district-wide average. In 2014, 75 percent of students entering kindergarten from pre-K had the core skills of literacy, compared to the district-wide average of 52 percent.

By third grade, students from Pre-K Counts outpaced the district average, 70 percent to 60 percent, in meeting benchmarks of learning.

With the advent of the PEAK Partnership and the district’s Pre-K Counts program, the district saw a reduction in its special education population.

So many of our parents who qualify for Pre-K Counts have been able to go back to school or work a job while their child was in school. One woman was raising two children while she was attending college, and her husband passed away suddenly. Pre-K Counts enabled her child to be in school and be a kid, and at the same time get ready for what kindergarten was going to bring. She was grateful because she knew she was dropping her son off in an environment that was caring and safe and also stimulating for him.

Most people understand that the most precious resource in any community is our children. They’re going to be tomorrow’s leaders, and it certainly makes sense to invest in them as early as possible.

That is why I support Gov. Tom Wolf’s efforts to increase funding for early childhood education and encourage legislators to make it a top budget priority.

In this year’s budget, the governor has proposed a $75 million increase for Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs; an increase that would allow 8,400 additional children the opportunity at a high-quality pre-K education. I encourage legislators in Harrisburg to make this increased investment in early education a priority.

Jeff Sparagana retired this year as superintendent of the Pottstown School District.

Erie Times: Op-ed: PA children, employers need quality pre-k

Erie Times: Op-ed: PA children, employers need quality pre-k
June 23, 2017 by Robin Scheppner

A lot has changed since 1931 when American Tinning & Galvanizing incorporated in Erie. Our company has been specializing in corrosion control of metal since then, but in 2004 we undertook the rigorous process of becoming certified by the National Aerospace Defense Contractors Accreditation Program. With NADCAP certification, ATG successfully competes for aerospace work outside the Erie region from companies such as Bell Helicopter and others.

ATG now has the credentials and customer base but still struggles to find quality workers. Public education does not offer courses or training in metal finishing (electroplating, anodizing and galvanizing). ATG, and other metal finishers in Erie, must recruit and train their workforces.

Expertise in this industry is a result of on-the-job training. For an employee to excel, he or she must be able to read! NADCAP requirements spell out detailed work guidelines that identify each step of production, from being checked in at the loading dock, assigned a job number, transferred to the proper department, processed according to stringent procedures, quality inspected, packed and checked out for shipping. Any worker, at any of these steps, must be able to read specific directions, comprehend them and be accountable for the signoff at completion.

How does this relate to prekindergarten education? Erie County employers, like ATG, require an educated, motivated workforce to be successful and competitive. There’s widespread recognition that workforce development starts with high quality pre-K that puts our children on the path to reading proficiency and success in school and life.

Pre-K matters because 90 percent of brain development occurs before age 5. Young children need the carefully crafted enrichment activities found in a quality pre-K setting that strengthen the brain’s neurological pathways and make a child kindergarten-ready. Quality early learning forms the foundation for future learning, critical thought, socialization and, in the long run, employability. Yet, too many children, especially those from lower-income families, never get that chance.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Investments in high-quality pre-K give all children a strong start and yield immediate, long-lasting returns to society.

High-quality pre-K reduces grade repetition and special education placements in later grades, saving resources that schools can spend elsewhere.

Children who benefit from high-quality pre-K are less likely to drop out of school and more likely to graduate and attend postsecondary education. This powerful combination boosts their employment opportunities, earning power and employability, while reducing the community’s costs for social services.

Every dollar spent in Pennsylvania on early learning generates an additional 79 cents in other sectors of the economy. Viewed from another perspective, every dollar invested in high-quality pre-K returns up to $17 in long-term savings and benefits.

A well-respected, independent cost-benefit analysis of almost 20 different studies of high-quality pre-K programs showed that pre-K can return, on average, a “profit” (economic benefits minus costs) to society of nearly $30,000 for every child served.

Despite the evidence, Pennsylvania’s investment in early learning is lagging. More than 112,900 eligible preschool children aren’t served by high-quality, publicly funded pre-K. That’s 64 percent of children ages 3 to 5 who probably aren’t getting the enrichment that boosts their prospects for lifetime success. Chances are, we will never benefit from their future contributions to our businesses and neighborhoods.

Throughout Pennsylvania, the unmet need is felt sharply in every community, whether rural, urban or suburban. In Erie County, more than 48 percent of all eligible children living in low-income families don’t have the opportunity to learn in a high-quality pre-K classroom. It’s very possible that this missed opportunity will change lifelong outcomes for those children.

Organizations like the United Way of Erie County are making strategic investments in early learning programs across our community, recognizing that access to quality pre-K is essential for all children. Erie’s Future Fund is another effort to address this unmet need by providing scholarships for quality pre-K programs for low-income 3- and 4-year-old children.

Yet, far too many children in Erie County, and across the state, lack access to publicly funded quality pre-K programs. To learn more about your school district, go to the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children’s recently released report, “A Path Forward,” at www.papartnerships.org/prekinpa.

For ATG and other employers across the commonwealth, our youngest citizens represent our future workforces and the community’s potential entrepreneurs. With high-quality pre-K, children will be better prepared to learn to read, and then better equipped for academic success. There can be more certainty that they will grow into self-sufficient adults who contribute to our workplaces and communities.

It’s time for Harrisburg to commit to public investments in quality pre-K that close the opportunity gap. Kids who are ready to learn become adults who are ready to earn at companies like ATG that want to stay and thrive in Pennsylvania.

Robin Scheppner is the owner and president of American Tinning & Galvanizing and a board member of the United Way of Erie County.

Read the full op-ed here.

York Daily Record: Pre-K funding increase would help York students

York Daily Record: Pre-K funding increase would help York students
June 22, 2017

In the City of York, where many families struggle to overcome poverty, quality pre-kindergarten fills gaps in learning during those crucial developmental years before kindergarten. For instance, well-known studies show that children from low-income families hear far fewer words than their more affluent peers.

We’re looking to close the gaps when students come to us in terms of their ability levels, in terms of their exposure to colors, to the alphabet, to words they should be hearing by the time they enter kindergarten. Our students need that preparation, and we believe we can give it to them through pre-k.

Among quality pre-k offerings citywide, our district runs at least one pre-k in each of its K-8 buildings, and we want more, because we need to better prepare our students for school. Of our 13 pre-k classrooms, 11 are funded by Pre-K Counts, and two are district-funded. Even the district’s state-ordered recovery plan, approved in 2016, cites expanded pre-k access as a steppingstone toward improved literacy, better test scores and higher graduation rates.

We are already seeing positive results from high-quality pre-k.

In third- and fourth-grade PSSA results, students who experienced the district’s pre-k showed significantly higher average scores in reading and math than their peers who hadn’t been in the program. Until third grade, students have been learning to read. At third grade, they’re reading to learn. If you don’t learn to read and don’t have those skills to start with, you won’t see the same progress that you see with kids who may have had more opportunities when they were younger.

Quality pre-k is a valuable, valuable resource. Its value comes in providing extra assistance that puts at-risk children at the starting line with everyone else, so they can successfully compete in the race. What we’re seeing is kids who start a few yards behind the starting line, and they never catch up.

Teachers notice that children from quality pre-k know how the classroom works and the expectations. More importantly, they have the skills that the kids without pre-k don’t possess. They’re not as far behind. Quality pre-k even promotes active parent participation in the elementary years by instilling the importance of family in educational success.

I don’t know what we would do without our pre-k program. It is helping us and closing that achievement gap. If we were able to expand it even more, we would have a greater impact on those children coming to us as 4-year-olds. Whether we capture them or they go to some other quality program, the most important part is that all those kids gain the skills needed to enter kindergarten ready to learn.

That is why I support Gov. Tom Wolf’s efforts to increase funding for early childhood education and encourage legislators to make it a top budget priority.

In this year’s budget, the governor has proposed a $75 million increase for Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs; an increase that would allow 8,400 additional children the opportunity at a high-quality pre-k education. I encourage legislators in Harrisburg to make this increased investment in early education a priority.

Eric Holmes is superintendent of the School District of the City of York.

Read the column here.