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.
Centre Daily Times: Expanded Preschool Access Crucial to Community, Centre County Leaders Say
STATE COLLEGE — Pushing investment in early education, county leaders and organizations met Friday to discuss the community benefits of expanding access to preschool.
Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, State College police Chief Tom King, Rear Adm. (Ret.) Thomas Wilson and Nittany Kiwanis Club President Bill Franz gathered at St. Paul’s Christian Preschool and Childcare to stress the importance of quality Pre-K programs.
The event was hosted by Pre-K for Pa., a non-partisan campaign seeking to ensure that all 3- and 4-year-olds in the state have access to high-quality preschool by 2018.
Pre-K for Pa. is made up of several organizations, including Fight Crime: Invest in Kids and Mission: Readiness – Military leaders for Kids, who have banded together to renew the push for better Pre-K schooling.
King, who is a member of the Fight Crime initiative, said he is a big believer in preschool.
“A lot of law enforcement is prevention,” he said. “This is a whole different area of prevention that’s important.”
When a child drops out of high school, he said, the likelihood of being arrested skyrockets. Establishing a good education early helps prevent these dropouts from occurring. Also, he said he’s willing to look at anything that can help reduce the cost of corrections.
Even though prison populations didn’t change, the prison system is spending $150 million more this year than last, Corman said.
Read more here.
The Unionville Times: Hogan, Area DAs Push for Pre-K to Cut Crime
KING OF PRUSSIA – Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan and other Southeast Pennsylvania prosecutors came out strong this week to support an initiative to Gov. Tom Wolf to fund pre-kindergarten programs as a long-term way to boost high school graduation and cut crime in the commonwealth.
Hogan and the other southeast region district attorneys who are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids participated in a regional Pre-K for PA legislative breakfast Wednesday to release a new report – We’re the Guys You Pay Later – documenting how Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed $120 million state funding increase for high-quality pre-kindergarten programs could boost high school graduation rates, reduce the number of people who are incarcerated in Pennsylvania and lead to more than $350 million annually in Corrections and other cost savings to society over the lifetimes of the children served.
Delaware County District Attorney John J. Whelan, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, and Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams joined Hogan to participate in a panel discussion that focused on research documenting the impact of high-quality early childhood programs on educational and life outcomes for at-risk children and the resulting crime reduction.
Read the entire article here.
Pottstown Mercury: Area D.A.s Tout the Importance of Early-Education Programs to Prevent Crime
UPPER MERION – Spending money on pre-kindergarten programs now will inevitably save the taxpayers of Pennsylvania money in the long run when they are not paying as much to lock up criminals, according to a report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.
To drive that point home on Wednesday, District Attorneys Risa Ferman of Montgomery County, Seth Williams of Philadelphia, Jack Whelan of Delaware County, and Tom Hogan of Chester County, joined each other on stage at the Double Tree Hotel in King of Prussia to introduce the report dubbed “We’re the Guys You Pay Later.”
In short, the report states that much more money is spent on prosecuting defendants and locking them up in the county jails and state prisons than is spent on investing in education for children before Kindergarten.
“Pennsylvania jails are full of people serving time for serious and costly crimes. It doesn’t have to be that way – providing at-risk kids with high-quality early learning programs can reduce the costs and impact of crime in the future,” the report states.
Ferman said sending her three children to a high-quality preschool when they were younger sent them on the right path in life and society’s problems cannot be fixed by arresting people.
“Public safety is our primary concern as prosecutors and you know that we do that job and we lock people up when we need to. But what we know, perhaps more than anyone, is that we cannot arrest and prosecute our way out of the crime problem that we have. We have to look deeper,” Ferman said.
The report boasts that an investment in early childhood education now can save Pennsylvania taxpayers a total of $350 million in the future. Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget seeks to increase early childhood education funding by $120 million. That increase, according to the report, would allow for 14,200 additional children to take part in state-funded pre-k programs.
To read the entire article, click here.
Erie Times: Education notes – DiNicola, Scott honored for pre-K work
Ronald A. DiNicola and Nick Scott Jr. were honored by the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children at the organization’s annual dinner in Harrisburg on April 17.
The two Erie natives each received the first Vision Award presented to Pennsylvania leaders who have made significant contributions advocating on behalf of young children.
“The Northwest PA Pre-K for PA campaign has been a shining example of how leaders can rally behind a cause and make progress,” PennAEYC President Jodi Askins said.
“Ron and Nick signed on to lead with enthusiasm and are still fighting the good fight. Pre-K for PA and young learners who may benefit from their hard work are fortunate to have them on their team.”
Over the past year, Scott and DiNicola have co-chaired the Pre-K for PA Campaign in N.W. Pennsylvania, a statewide effort to expand access to Pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania. increased investment in Pre-K.
Read the full article 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.
