Main Line Suburban Times: LTE: Pre-K for PA – Getting Bang for Your Tax Bucks
June 19, 2017
To the Editor:
“No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!” Do you remember chanting this each June as I do? Well, for are most vulnerable pre-K students in Radnor, there may be no pencils, books, or teachers in their near future.
Would you believe that 139 Radnor 3- and 4-year who qualify for publicly funded, high-quality pre-K have not one single funded seat? In Delaware County, we need 231 more classrooms to serve every eligible child. According to the Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, nearly two-thirds of the children who qualify for pre-K education are shut out.
Why high-quality pre-K? It works! Early learning helps children to build the foundation for academics, social behavior, and emotional health. Because the brain develops most rapidly between birth and age 5, the right kind of environment makes a difference that lasts a lifetime. Children who have high-quality preschool are:
• More likely to advance grades in school and have improved social skills;
• Less likely to need special education placements;
• More likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college, amping up their employment possibilities and lifetime earning potential; and
• Less likely to commit crimes later in life.
By reducing needs through high quality pre-K learning, every dollar spent returns $17 in long-term savings and benefits. Educators spend less time, energy and tax dollars remediating needs that could have been mitigated by pre-K opportunities. Everyone reaps the rewards when all children, especially those who start life with disadvantages, are given a chance to succeed.
Data like this has prompted State legislators and policy makers to expand access for pre-K learning. Although Governor Wolf prioritized pre-K in his proposed budget, the recently passed House budget reduced new investments by two-thirds and cut childcare by $28 million. Now is the time to contact your Pennsylvania legislators and urge them to invest in our children and our future. Call for the additional funds to serve an additional 8400 eligible children and improve childcare with an additional $35 million. Our tax dollars reap lifelong benefits when spent for eligible pre-K students along with their pencils, their books and hopefully their teacher’s nurturing looks!
Roberta Winters
Rosemont
Read the letter to the editor here.
PennLive: Editorial: Legislature, Wolf should act responsibly on funding for pre-k programs
June 16, 2017
Pennsylvania lawmakers and the Wolf administration are now less than two weeks away from the statutory deadline to pass a new state budget.
As they run a fine-toothed comb through hundreds of line items in those laborious talks that will result in a final spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, we’d ask them to keep one worthy cause at the front of their minds.
And that’s state support for early childhood education, those critical programs that can have such an impact on a child’s future success or failure as a student.
In his budget proposal to lawmakers in February, Wolf, a Democrat, asked for a $75 million increase to two critical programs — Pre-K Counts and Head Start.
An alternative budget passed by the Republican-controlled House in April whittled that increase down to $25 million.
That spending plan is now before the state Senate, where the Republican chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, Sen. Pat Browne, of Lehigh County, has rightfully earned a reputation as a forceful advocate for those programs.
That $75 million increase would fund pre-kindergarten seats for 8,400 additional students, according to Pre-K for Pa., an advocacy group. Growing that investment by an additional $340 million by the 2020-21 budget year would serve every child in Pennsylvania who is eligible for those programs.
While the commonwealth now makes a significant investment in those programs, it does have ground to make up.
A recent study by National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University shows that 19 states and Washington D.C. each make a higher per-capital investment in high-quality preschool programs.
Pennsylvania invests $682.17 per child, the study found. Fifteen states invest more than $1,000 per child, including such economic competitors as New Jersey and New York, the study found.
“Sixty-four percent, two-thirds basically, of Pennsylvania 3- and 4-year-olds who are eligible for high-quality pre-k still don’t get the opportunity to attend. Why? Because we don’t invest enough state money,” Joan Benso, of the advocacy group Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, told PennLive’s Jan Murphy last month.
Yes, it’s true that the state faces a $3 billion deficit. And it’s true that lawmakers and Wolf will have to make some tough choices as they balance the books.
But among the many priorities that the two sides will attempt to fund, none is more important than education. And that investment, we’d add, is mandated by the Pennsylvania constitution.
Article III, Section 14 of the document holds that “the General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”
There is no more efficient a delivery system for ensuring future success than a well-funded regime of early-childhood education programs.
Agreement on that truth goes beyond the partisan divide, it also stretches to officials who often deal with those who fail in school: prosecutors and the head of Pennsylvania’s state prison system.
Both Cumberland County District Attorney David J. Freed, who’s hardly soft on crime, and Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel have spoken out on behalf of adequate funding.
Making sure kids get off to a good start in school will keep them in the classroom and out of trouble, they have said.
“Early learning programs are a ‘fork in the road’ opportunity to reduce the number of future criminals by placing more at-risk children on a secure path to school and life success,” Freed said in a 2016 interview.
An adequate statewide investment would also level the playing field between Pennsylvania school districts.
Right now, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Pennsylvania 3- and 4-year-olds do not have access to quality pre-kindergarten programs.
n House Majority Leader David Reed’s Indiana County-based district, for instance, nearly 4 in 10 eligible students do not have access to such programs. But in Rep. Greg Rothman’s Cumberland County-based 87th District, more than 9 in 10 children eligible children are also missing out.
There’s little doubt that these programs cost money – worthwhile investments rarely come cheap.
Still, in these our polarized times, it’s rare to find such bipartisan agreement on any budget-related item.
And given its implications for the state’s long-term economic and social welfare, it’s a topic that Wolf and lawmakers must seriously consider as they work to pass a final budget document.
See the editorial here.
Lehigh Valley Business: Report links workers’ reliability to preschool attendance
June 12, 2017 by Brenda Lange
It stands to reason that, at least in some professions, the most successful employees have the highest level of education.
It may surprise some to discover that in many cases, the most desirable employees have received the highest-quality preschool education.
Over several decades, through various studies and anecdotal evidence, it has been shown that the type of education a child receives before entering kindergarten gauges how well he or she will fare in the workplace later in life.
On the surface, the connection seems clear. A quality preschool education increases a child’s chances of succeeding in later schooling and in life. They are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to become involved in criminal activities and are more likely to find a good job and earn more income.
Other studies, including several reported in a 2015 New York Times article, say that any gains made in pre-K programs disappear or even out by the third grade. The difference, according to the article by David L. Kirp, is the quality of the education, and, of course, the amount of money spent on the program.
LANDMARK STUDY
A seminal study in the mid-1960s involved 123 low-income, African-American children. Half received a quality preschool education and the control group received none.
By the time the children reached age 40, the differences were dramatic, according to a 2010 article in Wired citing the Perry Preschool Experiment.
“Adults assigned to the preschool program were 20 percent more likely to have graduated from high school and 19 percent less likely to have been arrested more than five times. They got much better grades, were more likely to remain married and were less dependent on welfare programs,” Jonah Lehrer wrote.
The study also showed that the adults who had been well-educated as 3- and 4-year olds didn’t maintain higher IQ scores. Instead, their education improved “performance on a variety of noncognitive abilities, such as self-control, persistence and grit.”
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Area businesspeople and human resource professionals agreed.
“Developing positive social-emotional skills affect one’s success in the workplace, where daily interactions with others are unavoidable,” said Don Bernhard, retired director of community affairs at PPL Corp. and now the executive director of Downtown Allentown Community Development Initiative.
He also has been a member of the board of Community Services for Allentown for 22 years, where he serves on the Governor’s Early Learning Commission, which advocates for and engages other businesses to provide more funding for early childhood education.
“There is a cost-effectiveness to investing in early childhood education,” he said, “especially for children growing up in poverty and suffering the stress that goes along with that. There are studies that show that stress reactions of dealing with everyday life affects their learning.”
LAST FOR A LIFETIME
Bernhard conceded that quality programs for the youngest students are not cheap, but, he added, “compare that to what it costs to get someone back on track later in life.”
Through such education, 3- and 4-year-olds learn how to manage emotions and solve problems, develop flexibility, communication skills, teamwork, perseverance and empathy – a checklist of what it takes to make a good employee.
“There is compelling evidence that these high-quality, early childhood education programs help develop these skills and that they last for a lifetime,” Bernhard said. “They are highly relevant to people who are hiring.”
The Allentown Community Development Initiative coordinates the efforts of many larger companies in Allentown that want to ensure the newfound prosperity in the city’s business sector carries over into the surrounding areas.
EMPATHY TOPS THE LIST
Jon Conrad, vice president of human resources at Moravian College in Bethlehem, cited one quality that makes an overall desirable employee: empathy.
“An employee who is empathetic is a better employee than someone who only thinks about their own wellbeing,” Conrad said. “That’s just one trait, along with discipline and compassion, that is learned early by children who have good examples.”
He added that employers who exhibit the culture of positive emotional-social skills will often attract employees who fit into that culture.
“Such a supportive environment allows parent-employees to be more supportive of their children,” which creates a matching environment, Conrad said.
TEAM PLAYERS
Of course, a hiring manager has no way of knowing if an applicant was taught in a Head Start program, for example, which not only helps youngsters develop coping skills and personal and social development among other traits, but also measures results.
HR professionals are, however, well-versed in the STAR interview technique, which stands for “situation, task, action, result.” Interview questions are phrased to elicit information about a prospective employee’s character traits that tie back to social-emotional skills children learn when young.
Bernard agreed. A company’s success most often hinges not on “rock-star” employees, but rather on the development of a group of team players who know how to collaborate.
“Developing empathy, ethics, how to be a decent human being is easier when young, just like learning languages,” he said.
Read the article here.
DelCo Times: Pa. prisons boss: Early childhood education decreases crime
May 26, 2017 by Kathleen E. Carey
CHESTER >> Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel stood before the State Correctional Institute at Chester Friday to stress the importance of investing in quality early childhood education to decrease incarceration and increase the number of productive citizens in society.
“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” he said, quoting Frederick Douglass, before addressing statistics provided in a report entitled “Pre-K Key to Cutting Pennsylvania Prison Costs and Boosting School Success.”
The report, issued by the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, surveyed almost 600 inmates into the Pennsylvania prison system in April. It showed a clear link between lack of education and parental support and propensity towards crime.
Darby Township Police Chief Regina Price was among the law enforcement and elected officials at the event.
“I know from years of experience that we can’t simply arrest, prosecute and incarcerate our way out of … problems,” she said. “We have to implement strategies to keep people from turning to crime in the first place. Education needs to be a focal point of that strategy.”
She quoted the report in citing 40 percent of state prison inmates have not graduated from high school. On the national level, it’s 70 percent, she added.
“We need our youth to be educated not incarcerated and that process starts early,” Price said.
Delaware County Sheriff Mary Fall Hopper added that many children from low-income families are behind pre-literacy and math skills by the time they enter kindergarten.
“We know from research and from our experience that a key indicator whether or not a person will engage in criminal activity is whether they have completed high school,” she said.
Hopper said 113,000 children in Pennsylvania are eligible for Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs but don’t have access to those because of limits in funding.
Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Michael Galantino provided the cost figures.
“We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Crime doesn’t pay’ but like it or not, we all do pay for crime,” he said. “Pennsylvania’s still spending nearly $3.2 billion annually by incarcerating adults. That’s why we have to take every step we can to reduce crime. High quality early education programs make a difference in setting at risk kids in a positive direction from the start.”
Galantino cited a cost benefit analysis that determined investment in these early childhood programs would net a profit of more than $29,000 for every child served.
“Applying this figure to the 8,400 additional children that would be served under Gov. (Tom) Wolf’s Pre-K proposal means our state could reap a return of nearly $250 million over the lifetime of these at-risk children,” he said. “We’ve got a choice today and it boils down to dollars and common sense. If we invest in our kids today, we’ll be better able to maintain balanced budgets instead of devoting billions to pay for crime and corrections in the years to come.”
However, state Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-161 of Swarthmore, presented an issue.
“I’m concerned,” she said. “Gov. Wolf proposed a budget that has a $75 million increase for preschool. Almost 9,000 new kids would have access and they don’t have it now … Unfortunately, the House Republicans slashed the governor’s budget by $50 million and zeroed out the home visiting program.”
State Rep. Jamie Santora, R-163 of Upper Darby, said the package approved by House Republicans still includes a $25 million increase and that there were concerns that spots weren’t being filled in the early childhood education programs due to space.
Carol Austin, executive director of the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney appointee to a board overseeing Pre-K education, said there was no issue with spots being filled, that the program was full of participants.
The budget is now in the hands of the state Senate.
Wetzel said they need to draw upon their fortitude.
“When you talk about preventing crime, let’s prevent the crime of having someone’s parental situation and their zip code dictate their future opportunities – because that’s the reality today,” he said. “When 115,000 kids are eligible for these programs but can’t get them because we don’t have the courage to fund them, that’s a crime in and of itself.
“And the reality is we have a responsibility to these kids,” he said.
Wetzel said the report showed that inmates’ educational attainment and their interaction with their parents dictates their future.
“That’s not right,” he said, “and that’s not anything any of us should be proud … The reality is we have the opportunity to invest in kids early on and get them at level by grade 3 so they can graduate and not only not be incarcerated but (also) go to college and just be the best they can be.”
Newsworks: With prison as backdrop, advocates stump for more Pa. pre-K
May 26, 2017 by Avi Wolfman-Arent
As lawmakers in Harrisburg jockey over Pennsylvania’s budget, a group of legislators and law enforcement officials gathered Friday to stump for more state pre-k money.
And they did it in front of an arresting backdrop — the state prison in Chester city.
“It’s no question how people end up behind us,” said state Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, referring to the barbed wire over her right shoulder. “Because we don’t invest in them.”
Gov. Tom Wolf wants to layer an extra $75 million on top of the roughly $200 million Pennsylvania already spends on government-subsidized pre-K. On Friday, Wolf’s Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel joined local prosecutors and police officials to stump for the money.
“When you hear 115,000 kids are eligible for these programs, but can’t get in them because we don’t have the courage to fund them, that’s a crime in itself,” Wetzel said.
The money in Wolf’s budget plan would give an estimated 8,400 low-income children access to pre-K, according to the administration.
A report released Friday in conjunction with the press event projected that Wolf’s proposal would save the commonwealth $244 million over the lifetime of the children enrolled by reducing special-education costs, boosting future wages, and cutting back on crime.
The report comes from the advocacy group Council for a Strong American, which includes law enforcement from across the country and positions itself as a counterweight to the “tough on crime” movement of the 1990s. The savings calculations were based on “a sophisticated meta-analysis of nearly 20 high-quality, pre-K programs for disadvantaged children,” according to the report.
In April, the state House of Representatives passed a budget bill that included some increases to pre-K funding, but not nearly as hefty a spike as Wolf requested. House Bill 218, which is now before the Senate Appropriations Committee, would increase state pre-K spending by $25 million.
Read the full article here.
WJACTV: Advocates Push for More Funding for Preschool Education
May 21, 2017 by Lauren Petrelli
Harrisburg, Pa. – A new study released two weeks ago suggests Pennsylvania is spending less money on pre-school programs compared to other states.
Gov. Tom Wolf and other organizations, such as Pre-K for PA, hope the study will encourage lawmakers to invest more money into the budget for early education.
According to the report called “Prioritizing Pre-K in Pennsylvania: A State Comparison,” Pennsylvania is one of 27 states along with the Washington D.C. that has decided to invest in high-quality pre-school education.
The report said Pennsylvania began funding pre-school in 2003 due to the Accountability Block Grant and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program, but lawmakers said they need more funding.
The study showed 65 percent of Pennsylvania pre-schoolers eligible for publicly funded pre-school don’t get to attend, leading Pennsylvania to rank number 20 on the previous list mentioned.
Advocates who helped compile the study are now calling on the legislature to join the governor and expand pre-school investments in the state budget by $75 million for the coming fiscal year, as mentioned in the press release.
Reports show the new budget would allow 8,400 more children to benefit from publicly funded, high-quality pre-school next school year.
Advocates for the new budget believe high-quality early education is an investment that will lead to benefits in the state’s social services, reduced crime, and increased earning power, according to the study.
Read the article here.
