PennLive: Gov. Tom Wolf asking for $90 million more for preschool programs
February 4, 2016
Gov. Tom Wolf plans to ask the General Assembly to invest another $60 million into state funding for preschool programs in 2016-17 on top of $30 million more that he didn’t get in this year’s unfinished budget.
At an event in Philadelphia on Thursday, Wolf made a pitch to try to gain support for this proposed investment that would raise the current state funding for preschool programs of $166.5 million to $256.3 million next year if fully realized.
An increased investment of that size would allow 14,000 more children access to preschool, based on information released by the Wolf Administration earlier this year.
“We have a choice in Pennsylvania. We must choose a path that funds our schools, eliminates our deficit, and puts Pennsylvania back on track,” Wolf said. “I believe that Pennsylvania should be among the many states that provide universal pre-kindergarten for children and I will work to make this a reality.”
The new preschool funding that the governor seeks for this year and next would be divided between Pre-K Counts and the state supplement to federal funding for Head Start.
It would direct $50 million of next year’s money and $20 million of the additional funding he seeks in this year’s budget for Pre-K Counts and $10 million more in each this year and next for Head Start, according to Wolf’s spokesman Jeff Sheridan.
This pre-budget announcement comes on the heels of one Wolf made on Tuesday, saying he intends to ask the Legislature to increase funding for basic education by $200 million next year on top of the $377 million he still wants for this year.
Studies have suggested avoids costs associated with grade repetition and special education, reduces the likelihood of students dropping out of high school, boosts their employment opportunities and mitigates problem behavior that can land them in the criminal justice system.
According to a study released last month by the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and 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. (See below for a county breakdown of those numbers.)
Wolf last year sought a $120 million increase in funding for Pre-K Counts and Head Start but the $23.4 billion budget that he signed into law in December provided for a $30 million bump instead. Wolf said he wants to see double that amount included in the finalized 2015-16 budget and another $60 million in next year’s budget.
When it comes to preschool, Republican and Democratic lawmakers stand in unison in their support of providing more funding and consider it a wise investment. It also has the support from children’s advocacy groups, district attorneys and military leaders.
Pre-K for Pa, a coalition of groups pushing for increased access to quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, applauded news of Wolf’s call for increased preschool funding.
“Our coalition, representing ten organizations and more than 13,000 supporters, urges the governor and Legislature to kick off this next round of budget discussions by coming together behind a pre-k funding agreement that keeps us on track to serve all at-risk kids by 2019,” according to the group’s statement.
Read the entire article here.
York Dispatch: Wolf wants additional $60M for early education
February 4, 2016
Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday proposed an additional $60 million in state funding for early childhood education for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
The announcement comes on the heels of his proposal to up state education funding by $200 million for 2015-16, but before the completion of the current fiscal year’s long-stalled state budget.
The additional funding for next year’s budget, Wolf said in a press release, is contingent upon lawmakers passing the bipartisan budget compromise bill that fell apart at the end of December, as each investment is intended to build on the one prior.
Wolf had originally hoped to put $120 million in state funds toward early childhood education for the 2015-16 budget, an amount he halved over the course of the negotiation process. The partial budget he signed in late December added only $30 million, though he hopes to get to the $60 million figure by the time the final budget deal passes, according to the press release. Should lawmakers agree to a total of $120 million over the next two years, an additional 14,000 slots would become available to Pennsylvania 3- and 4-year-olds through the Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program.
“We have a choice in Pennsylvania. We must choose a path that funds our schools, eliminates our deficit, and puts Pennsylvania back on track,” Wolf said during a press conference in Philadelphia. “I believe that Pennsylvania should be among the many states that provide universal pre-kindergarten for children, and I will work to make this a reality.”
Only 30 percent of Pennsylvania children in families earning up to three times the federal poverty level are enrolled in high-quality pre-K programs, a percentage which is significantly smaller in York County.
Read the full article here.
Gant News: LTE: United Way Asks for Commonwealth’s Support of Pre-K Programs
February 3, 2016
Dear Editor:
Members of the Clearfield Area United Way believe in early-learning/school readiness. CAUW member agencies are making differences in the lives of children daily; our Reading Ripples program has distributed 3,500 books to area children.
Research continues to confirm that high-quality Pre-K programs are among the best and most cost-effective initiatives.
Pennsylvania is home to nearly 300,000 3- and 4-year-olds, including 1,700 in Clearfield County. Only a small fraction of these children are enrolled in publicly-funded Pre-K programs.
Many of those missing out are those at risk of academic failure. In fact, 542 kids in all lacked access to a publicly-funded, high-quality Pre-K program last year.
Community philanthropic organizations have made efforts to promote high-quality Pre-K programs but cannot get the job done alone.
We need the Commonwealth to bolster its efforts to fund Pre-K programs and to reach those children who are missing out.
A new report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and the non-partisan Pre-K for PA, outlines a multi-year investment that could help reach nearly 71,000 additional 3- and 4-year-olds over a four-year span.
If Pennsylvania were to follow through on the investment strategy proposed, it could make publicly-funded, quality Pre-K available to more than 40 percent by 2019. This is compared to the fewer than 20 percent who benefited in 2013.
We could reach all of our Commonwealth’s at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds and help them to succeed.
United Way and other organizations across Pennsylvania have been doing their part to make Pre-K a priority because we know it works.
It benefits our children, our communities and our entire Commonwealth. We are requesting the Commonwealth to step up now and make Pre-K a budget priority this year and in the years ahead so our region’s children can reach the fullest potential.
Sincerely,
Nancy M. Pinto
Clearfield Area United Way
Reading Eagle: Editorial: Pre-K programs vital for development of youngsters
February 2, 2016
A recent report by a children’s advocacy organization in Harrisburg shined a bright light on the alarming condition of childhood education in Pennsylvania.
An article about the report by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette appeared in the Reading Eagle under the headline “Report: Pa. lags in pre-K education.” A second headline read, “Lack of opportunities puts roughly 120,000 at risk of school failure, it says.”
Failing in school is just one of the many risks older children and adults face when they lack a quality early childhood education.
Pennsylvania trails most neighboring states in access to publicly funded, high-quality, pre-K education, with only one in six children in the state enrolled in such a program, according to the report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
The report, “The Case for Pre-K in PA,” noted that over five years, Pennsylvania dropped from 11th to 15th in the nation in pre-K access for 3-year-olds and from 24th to 30th for 4-year-olds, according to research from the National Institute for Early Education Research.
In Pennsylvania, such programs are available to 26 percent of 4-year-olds. In West Virginia, New York and Maryland, the figures are 94 percent, 54 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Only New Jersey comes close to Pennsylvania in failing to recognize the importance of early childhood education, with 35 percent.
The Republican-crafted budget that Gov. Tom Wolf partially signed in December included $25 million for pre-K education and $5 million for Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program over the previous year’s levels. That’s not enough.
The HighScope Perry Preschool Study has shown that without early childhood education, at-risk children are 25 percent more likely to drop out of school, 60 percent more likely to not attend college and 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime, according to an article on the Rasmussen College website.
“The study found that adults at age 40 who had the preschool program had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool,” the article said.
A local early learning center hit hard by the budget fiasco is Live N Learn Station on South Fifth Street in Reading. It was shut for several months, we reported on Jan. 7. That means the 56 children at the center stopped learning until Wolf signed off on a portion of a Republican-crafted budget, sending needed funds to centers like it across the state.
Read the full editorial here.
Morning Call: Op-Ed: David Lewis: Expand opportunities for children to attend pre-K programs
February 2, 2016
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley has long made early learning and school readiness priority issues. Your United Way invests more than $850,000 in early childhood programs, including high-quality pre-kindergarten programs, for children from birth through age 5. We convene the Early Childhood Coalition with three working groups — Continuity and Pathways, Teacher Effectiveness and Family Engagement — all functioning to align our efforts to attain grade-level reading.
We know, and research continues to confirm, that high-quality pre-K is among the best and most cost-effective initiatives for preparing children for success in school and beyond. Quality pre-K greatly increases school readiness, supporting our goal to have 50 percent more students reading at grade-level by third grade.
Starting education early in youths positively affects high school graduation rates and ultimately college and career readiness. This yields more adults in our community who enjoy stronger employment opportunities and earning potential, which drives economic security in the Lehigh Valley.
Unfortunately, we also know high-quality pre-K is not accessible to many of this region’s young learners, in part because state investments in pre-K programs have not been aggressive enough. Pennsylvania is home to nearly 300,000 3- and 4-year-olds — including more than 15,000 in Lehigh and Northampton counties — but only a small fraction of these children are enrolled in publicly funded pre-K, and many of those missing out are those at the greatest risk of academic failure.
United Ways, and other community-based philanthropic organizations, have made solid efforts over the years to promote high-quality pre-K as a critical part of developing well-educated children. However, philanthropy alone cannot get the job done. As with so many efforts to strengthen our communities, it takes collaboration. In this case, we need the commonwealth to bolster its efforts to fund high-quality pre-K programs to reach those children who are missing out.
Especially troubling in Pennsylvania is the lack of access to high-quality pre-K among children at risk of academic failure. Across Pennsylvania, there are more than 175,000 3- and 4-year-olds who are at-risk because they are in lower income households. Yet 70 percent of these at-risk young learners — more than 120,000 children statewide — had no access to publicly funded pre-K last year.
Lehigh County alone is home to nearly 3,600 at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds, and more than 74 percent lacked access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K last year. The situation is worse in Northampton County, where more than 78 percent of the roughly 2,700 at-risk young learners lack access.
Fortunately, this is a problem we can solve if state leaders begin to prioritize high-quality pre-K in much the same way philanthropic organizations have over the years. A new report issued by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and the statewide, nonpartisan Pre-K for PA campaign outlines a multiyear investment strategy of $470 million that will increase an additional 71,000 seats in classrooms for 3- and 4-year-olds over a four-year span in Pennsylvania.
If Pennsylvania were to follow through on the investment strategy proposed, we could make publicly funded, high-quality pre-K available to more than 40 percent of our 3- and 4-year-olds by 2019, compared to fewer than 20 percent who benefited in 2013. Just as importantly, we could reach all of our commonwealth’s at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds, helping to put them on track to academic success at an early age.
Read the full editorial here.
David Lewis is president of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley.
Observer-Reporter: Editorial: Pennsylvania needs to increase pre-K funding
February 1, 2016
Around this time last year, there was a raft of depressing headlines about Pennsylvania falling behind the rest of the nation when it comes to pre-K education, and the detrimental effects on the commonwealth’s children.
Well, 12 months have marched by, and the headlines remain depressing and so familiar they make you feel like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day” – Pennsylvania is falling behind the rest of the nation when it comes to pre-K education.
The effects? No change there. Still detrimental.
In early January, the advocacy group Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children released a report, “The Case for Pre-K in PA,” which found only one in six children across the commonwealth are enrolled in a pre-K program. Such programs are available to only 26 percent of 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania, the report stated, compared with 94 percent in neighboring West Virginia and 42 percent in Maryland, another Keystone State neighbor.
More than likely, the Pennsylvania children who are enrolled in pre-K programs come from affluent families where the emphasis on learning starts early.
According to another study, this one released in early 2015 by the Education Week Research Center, the overwhelming majority of eligible Pennsylvania children who come from households earning more than $100,000 per year – two out of three, in fact – are enrolled in a quality pre-K program.
By contrast, only about 20 percent of children in families earning less than $20,000 annually are in a pre-K program.
Shortchanging pre-K now could cost us all down the road.
Each dollar invested in pre-K programs delivers a sevenfold return, advocates argue, pointing to the increased tax revenues that come with having a better-educated populace working in professions with greater earnings potential, as well as reduced spending on social services and special education.
Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments, was recently quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as saying money spent on early childhood education are “some of the most effective dollars that we’ve invested.”
He continued, “We can see over a 20-year time frame that those investments in kids have had a profound impact on their ability to learn and their later success in school.
That translates eventually into their success in life, their success in the workforce, their success as citizens of the commonwealth.”
The stalled Pennsylvania budget has left funding for pre-K programs in a holding pattern.
Read the full editorial here.
