Letter to the Editor: Pa. budget gets it right on Pre-K funding, but more must be done to avert crisis
Express-Times
July 29,2022
I was relieved to see that the 2022-23 Pennsylvania state budget includes additional funding for child care and Pre-K.
My child care program has never had the staffing challenges we have today in the five years we have been in operation. While there are other businesses also struggling to recruit and retain staff, our industry supports the workforce of every other industry. If a family doesn’t have access to early care and education, they cannot work. And when families can’t work, businesses can’t hire.
We are struggling to recruit and retain staff because we are unable to compete with rising wages and benefits offered by companies requiring less specialized skills. With the average child care wage at less than $11 per hour, our teachers don’t have to look far to find higher pay and even benefits.
I am thankful that Pennsylvania lawmakers like state Rep. Mike Schlossberg prioritized federal resources to offer child care teachers a one-time bonus. The state budget also grew the availability of Pre-K to more eligible kids and increased Pre-K rates to help providers like me deal with historic inflation and rising wages.
If child care and Pre-K providers continue struggling to recruit and retain staff to keep classrooms open, more families are going to suffer. We need to continue investing in our early care and education system, paying teachers and providers adequately and ensuring that all kids have access to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Monae Rivera is director of Elevation Child Care Center in Allentown.
Read the Letter to the Editor here.
Pottstown Mercury: Guest Column: Pre-K Counts Continues to Make a Difference
February 16, 2021 by Jeff Sparagana
After 23 years of serving the School District of Pottstown and the Pottstown community at-large, I could not be more proud of our work in creating and sustaining a community based school readiness initiative.
In 2006, the Pottstown School District invited community child care providers, community agencies, private businesses and area funders to begin discussions related to improving the school readiness of children entering kindergarten. As result of this unique collaboration of the school district and community partner’s, Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness (PEAK) was created for the purpose of supporting young children to increase school readiness and partner with families to facilitate a positive transition to kindergarten.
In 2007, we received one of the initial PA Pre-K Count’s grants which enabled the PEAK partnership to implement high quality, full day Pre-K Counts classrooms in our community partner sites. Today, 15 years later the PEAK Partnership is thriving and serving 300 children with 8 full day Pre-K Counts classrooms in Pottstown School District and 7 full day Pre-K Counts classrooms in our community partner sites. In Pottstown, Pre-K Counts classrooms continue to make a significant difference in our children’s lives.
A recent report by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows the positive impacts on children who attended one of Pennsylvania’s Pre-K Counts high-quality programs. In this report, the bottom line is that children who are fortunate enough to access pre-k through Pennsylvania’s Pre-K Counts program are succeeding in kindergarten classes.
In language and math skills, the study showed that these kids outperformed the other students who did not have access to this once-in-a-lifetime early learning experience — an advantage that equated to four to five months of learning gains, which is a substantial difference in development at that age. These outcomes are significant, because language and math skills have been shown to be the school readiness skills that most strongly predict later academic achievement.
The investment that Pennsylvania has already made into publicly funded pre-k is making an impact on the children who participate in high-quality pre-k programs. I personally got to see this happen in our PEAK classrooms over the years as superintendent. This investment in young children is one of the most important the commonwealth can make.
Jeff Sparagana, Ed.D, is a board member of Public Citizens for Children & Youth, a Pennsylvania-based advocacy group that works to improve the lives of children by developing initiatives and advocating for quality health care, child care, public education and family stability.
Read the full Guest Column here.
northcentralpa.com: LTE: Is there a crisis in childcare?
Ron Frick, President/CEO, Lycoming County United Way
Dec 2, 2020
Healthcare access, educational inequities, and racial disparities are issues that are not new to the United States, but COVID-19 has certainly brought new attention to these issues and others and forced the nonprofit community to speak out and advocate for systemic change. The holes in the dike are opening daily and governments and communities are running out of fingers to plug them.
We clearly need to do better.
Early learning and child-care providers serve families across all socio-economic classes and provide the valuable care needed so parents can go to work and so children have the proper start they need in life. Yet despite the important role many believe they have, many child-care providers are struggling to stay afloat. Under Pennsylvania’s social distancing measures, most child-care providers were required to close in the early days and weeks of the pandemic, and while things have opened up somewhat, many providers have been forced to implement new protocols and work schedules for the parents have also changed and caused disruption for families as well as providers. This has put many high quality programs at risk of closing permanently.
Read the full article here.
Morning Call: LTE: Early education still a priority
Xiomara Rosado
SEP 10, 2020
My son started preschool this week. I know I’m not alone with all of my questions and anxieties, as I send him each day. This school year will be unforgettable for us for many reasons, but we cannot lose sight of how irreplaceable this year of a high-quality early education is for a child’s development.
The pandemic is challenging our schools and forcing them to make hard decisions. We cannot also let it hurt our children’s access to these valuable programs. A high-quality, pre-K education is proven to prepare children for success in kindergarten — it’s why I worked so hard to get my son into a Pre-K Counts program and why I send him to school each day. With COVID-19 looming over preschools and child care centers, as a parent, I want to know if the state is doing everything they can to ensure our kids will still have access to a high quality pre-K education. Now more than ever, we need to focus on our children’s education and ensure they have the foundation necessary to make them successful. We need to invest, more, not less, and keep moving forward — our future is dependent on it.
To read this full letter to the editor, click here to the article.
Pocono Record: LTE: Pennsylvania Needs to Invest in Pre-K Programs
June 5, 2020
As Executive Director of Pocono Services for Families and Children, I want to add my support to the Pre-K for PA and Start Strong PA campaigns to ensure high-quality preschool education and care for all Monroe County children. In our community alone, there are nearly 3,000 children ages 3-4 that are income eligible for Pre-K classrooms, but only 584 children are served. We need a much stronger commitment to ensure every child has the opportunity to be ready for success entering kindergarten and throughout their educational journey!
The State Department of Economic Development has long recognized the direct link between high quality childcare and education and the economic advantages that come to communities who invest in developing greater access to these opportunities. These are also the communities, who are recognized by businesses, as ones with potentially more qualified, committed employees and an overall higher quality of life. This is why we need to advocate for the State to increase its investment in this high-yield return for our community.
Providing the opportunity for success to our youngest citizens will ensure a strong future.
Tim Lee, Executive Director, Pocono Services for Families and Children
Read the full Letter to the Editor here.
Lehigh Valley Live: LTE: Child care providers getting some financial help in PA
June 3, 2020
The stimulus bill passed on May 28 by the Pennsylvania Legislature showed that our elected officials can work together. I am so thankful that the bill includes $116 million for child care and also money for pre-k and Head Start.
My high quality, STAR 4 child care program has been closed since March 17. During that time I have been trying to prepare my facility, find and purchase necessary personal protective equipment, pay my bills and support my staff — but the money is running out.
These funds will be critical in ensuring that when my families go back to work I will be able to care for and educate their kids. Without these funds, I am not sure I would be able to reopen and that would mean more than 100 families would not have the security and support they need to go back to work.
If we can’t support our families, how will our economy ever recover? Child care matters to everyone — children, families, staff, businesses small and large, and the economy! The importance of child care is now essential, more than ever before.
Michele McEllroy
Owner-director, Cuddle Zone Learning Center
Allentown
See the Letter to the Editor here.
