Reading Eagle: Letter to the Editor: Pre-k Programs Need More Funding
June 18, 2016
At the Albright Early Learning Center there is a waiting list for our high-quality pre-kindergarten program. As a Pre-K provider, I see the difference high-quality preschool can have socially, emotionally and intellectually on a child, and that the number of children who do not yet have access is unacceptable.
High-quality preschool can be such an integral part of early learning, especially for those who are the greatest risk for failure later in life. Without a great start in pre-K, the education gap only widens as children get older. As a director of an early-learning facility, I know this to be true, but I’m clearly not the only one. Pre-K has support from business leaders, law enforcement, parents and both sides of the political aisle in Harrisburg. It is a testament to just how strongly Pennsylvanians feel about the importance of pre-K.
I am aware that local pre-K centers have received some additional funding from the state recently to open up more slots for students (“Celebrating pre-K funding increase,” Reading Eagle, March 19). We must find a way to invest more in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our young children. The need is still so great. Let’s provide access to a high-quality education to all of Pennsylvania’s youngest learners. Let’s make it count.
Laura Heckart
Spring Township
Editor’s note: Heckart is director of the Albright Early Learning Center in Muhlenberg Township.
See the letter to the editor here.
CBS 3: Group Makes Case for Increased Funding for Pre-k Education
By Jim Melwert June 17, 2016
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Armed with a new report that ties high-quality Pre-K education to developing future STEM skills, military leaders joined members of regional business chambers to urge state lawmakers to increase funding for pre-K education in Pennsylvania.
Retired Army Major General Wes Craig oversaw the Pennsylvania National Guard. He says he joined other military leaders in advocating for better early education.
“When we became aware that some 70-percent cannot make the standards to join the United States military.”
Craig’s Mission Readiness is one of the groups behind the report on STEM and early childhood education.
“Some 90-percent of the brain development occurs before the age of five. Unfortunately, we as a society spend the least amount of publiceducation on this very young population.”
Along with Pre-K for PA, they’re asking state lawmakers to include a 90-million dollar expansion for Pre-K education in the upcoming budget, giving 7,400 more children access while allowing an additional 6,200 to go for a full school-year rather than a half-year.
The group says children who start behind, stay behind, and they don’t just disappear, instead resulting in higher costs down the road in remedial programs, and even incarceration and rehabilitation.
Listen to the coverage here.
Indiana Gazette: Letter to the Editor: Pre-K now can help prevent crime later
June 16, 2016
When it comes to fighting crime, we can pay now or pay much more later on. In Pennsylvania, we spend $2.2 billion a year on state prisons, and that doesn’t even include county jails. We can reduce that “back end” expenditure with upfront investments that help at-risk children grow up healthy and confident, away from crime and toward productive lives.
Our state budget has long validated proven crime-fighting initiatives in high-quality pre-K and evidence-based home visiting programs. The 2016-17 state budget proposal outlines growth for these two important initiatives to serve more children and families that qualify.
First is a $90 million expansion to enroll thousands more eligible children into high-quality Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental programs. In Indiana County, 58 percent of the approximately 1,480 eligible young learners do not have access to these programs.
Decades of research are clear that at-risk children who receive high-quality pre-K are more likely to succeed in school and steer clear of juvenile delinquency and crime. Expanding access to pre-K must also be accompanied by continued progress on implementing early learning workforce development practices through the Keystone STARS quality improvement initiative.
Second is a $10 million expansion to evidence-based home visiting programs in which trained health care and social work professionals help vulnerable mothers provide their children with good health, appropriate discipline, and developmental learning opportunities. Results of the programs include reduced instances of child abuse and neglect, more positive parenting, improved school readiness for the children and increased family self-sufficiency. One program has demonstrated reduced maternal crime and lower juvenile crime rates when the children are older.
Increased pre-K and targeted home visiting investments will help more children grow up to be good neighbors and good citizens and ultimately reduce taxpayer expense. I urge our legislators to support their inclusion in next year’s state budget.
Robert E. Fyock
Indiana County sheriff
Indiana Gazette: Letter to the Editor: Pre-k Now Can Help Prevent Crime Later
June 16, 2016
When it comes to fighting crime, we can pay now or pay much more later on. In Pennsylvania, we spend $2.2 billion a year on state prisons, and that doesn’t even include county jails. We can reduce that “back end” expenditure with upfront investments that help at-risk children grow up healthy and confident, away from crime and toward productive lives.
Our state budget has long validated proven crime-fighting initiatives in high-quality pre-K and evidence-based home visiting programs. The 2016-17 state budget proposal outlines growth for these two important initiatives to serve more children and families that qualify.
First is a $90 million expansion to enroll thousands more eligible children into high-quality Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental programs. In Indiana County, 58 percent of the approximately 1,480 eligible young learners do not have access to these programs.
Decades of research are clear that at-risk children who receive high-quality pre-K are more likely to succeed in school and steer clear of juvenile delinquency and crime. Expanding access to pre-K must also be accompanied by continued progress on implementing early learning workforce development practices through the Keystone STARS quality improvement initiative.
Second is a $10 million expansion to evidence-based home visiting programs in which trained health care and social work professionals help vulnerable mothers provide their children with good health, appropriate discipline, and developmental learning opportunities. Results of the programs include reduced instances of child abuse and neglect, more positive parenting, improved school readiness for the children and increased family self-sufficiency. One program has demonstrated reduced maternal crime and lower juvenile crime rates when the children are older.
Increased pre-K and targeted home visiting investments will help more children grow up to be good neighbors and good citizens and ultimately reduce taxpayer expense. I urge our legislators to support their inclusion in next year’s state budget.
Robert E. Fyock
Indiana County sheriff
PennLive.com: Editorial: Legislature, Wolf should act responsibly on funding for pre-k programs
By: John Micek June 15, 2016
Of all the investments that Pennsylvania makes on behalf of its citizens, few are more important – or have farther-reaching consequences – than the money it directs toward public education.
In fact, such an investment is mandated by the Pennsylvania Constitution.
It’s right there in Article III, Section 14, which 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.”
And as important as the billions of dollars the state spends annually on kindergarten through 12th grade education and higher education are, the money it spends on its youngest Pennsylvania, those aged three and four years old, are critical for future success.
In its most recent budget request, the Wolf administration, has asked for a $90 million increase for preschool programs, from the current $166.5 million to $256.3 million in the fiscal year that starts on July 1.
That tally includes $60 million in new spending for 2016-17 and $30 million that the administration did not receive in the 2015-16 state budget.
If approved in full, the money would allow 14,000 more children access to preschool, PennLive’s Jan Murphy reported in February.
While that is a towering figure, it is, for a number of reasons, an investment worth making.
And it is a goal that Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders should work diligently to meet in the two weeks that remain before the June 30 deadline to pass a new spending plan.
For those reflecting on their own preschool years, perhaps recalling languid days filled with story time, coloring and naps, those days are largely history now.
Children in state-subsidized programs have an entirely different experience.
“We’re not talking about childcare,” Joan Benso, the president of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, told the PennLive/Patriot-News editorial board recently. “We’re talking about a school year/school day program. It requires state-certified teachers. It is an academically enriched program.”
This year, a 15,000-member coalition, Pre-K for Pennsylvania, which includes educators, advocates, members of the business community and retired military officials, are lending their voices to the call for increased funding.
They hope to increase taxpayer spending on preschool programs to nearly $500 million by fiscal 2019.
According to a January 2016 study by the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and the Pre-K for Pa campaign, only one in six of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds – nearly 300,000 – were enrolled in high-quality preschool programs and 70 percent of about 175,000 preschoolers at risk of school failure lacked access to these programs.
According to data compiled by the National Institute for Early Education Research, Pennsylvania now ranks 15th in the nation in access to pre-school for 3-year-olds. Five years’ previous, the state was ranked 11th.
The state is 30th in the nation in access to preschool for 4-year-olds, down from 24th place in the same time period.
With those rankings and the benefits of such programs in mind, the arguments for more money are compelling.
An early investment in a child’s education now means reducing the chances that he or she will drop out of school, get into trouble, and land in jail later in life.
“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,” Cumberland County District Attorney David J. Freed said.
Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has also said that spending on early childhood programs are one of the best ways to reduce Pennsylvania’s ever-growing prisons budget. The agency’s general fund appropriation is set to rise from $2.25 billion this year to $2.6 billion starting July 1.
Spending on preschool programs also saves money by preventing grade retention and reducing special education placements in later grades. Estimates show that every dollar invested in such programs yields $17 in savings.
Better prepared children also mean higher-achieving children, thus resulting in young adults better who can “help Pennsylvania build the workforce it needs to remain competitive in the global marketplace,” said former Lieutenant Gov. Jim Cawley, now the CEO of the Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.
There’s little doubt that these programs cost money – worthwhile investments rarely come cheap.
Read the full editorial here.
Reading Eagle: Campaign seeks $90 million boost for preschool programs
By David Mekeel June 15, 2016
READING, PA – The facts of the matter are fairly straightforward.
Quality pre-kindergarten programs lead to students being more successful. And, in Pennsylvania, there isn’t enough money to make sure every kid has the opportunity.
Not many dispute either of those points. The challenge comes in finding a way, in an increasingly tight state budget, to find the needed cash.
The Pre-K for PA campaign is trying to make sure finding a solution for that problem remains a priority. Representatives from the group have been making the rounds, visiting media outlets across the state to make their case.
Tuesday afternoon, they stopped by Berks County to speak with the Reading Eagle editorial board.
The numbers speak for themselves, said Bruce R. Clash, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania.
Across the state, he said, almost 60 percent of at-risk children eligible for publicly funded, high-quality pre-kindergarten are unable to access programs. In Berks, that results in more than 4,800 kids missing out.
“We still have such a population of families and children not getting services,” said Cheri L. Woyurka, director of the office of early childhood and student services at the Berks County Intermediate Unit. “There’s just such an unmet need.”
Woyurka said the BCIU currently operates two Head Start programs, as well as 13 Pre-K Counts programs across the county. Those programs consistently have about 60 students on a wait list, with the BCIU unable to provide services because of a lack of funding.
With similar situations playing out across the state, Pre-K for PA’s goal is to slowly chip away at the funding shortfall.
Clash said the group is looking for a $90 million increase in Pre-K Counts and Head Start funding in the 2016-17 state budget. That number is consistent with what Gov. Tom Wolf is proposing in his budget plan.
The increase would allow for 6,200 students who had half-year funding this year be extended to full-year, and add another 7,400 kids to the rolls for full-year programs, Clash said.
Of course, those increases are dependent on finding new state revenue streams, a task Pre-K for PA members admit isn’t very easy. But, they said, pre-kindergarten should be near the front of the line for new money because of the long-range positive impacts it can have.
And, said Stephen L. Doster, Pennsylvania state director of Mission: Readiness, that’s a view that has wide support.
“If there’s going to be an increase, early education is one of the issues they can get the most bipartisan support for,” he said of the state Legislature. “You will struggle to find another line item that provides the same return on investment.”
Read the full article here.
