Times-Leader: Amid razor wire and prison blocks, advocates push for more early education money
April 18, 2019 by Mark Guydish
With perimeter cameras peering down and razor wire piled high behind them, advocates pushed Thursday for an increase in state funding for early childhood education, repeating the well-documented evidence that money spent on pre-school can pay huge dividends later in life by — among other things — keeping them from growing up into criminals.
“It is budget season and our hope is that access to state funded high quality pre-K will again be a priority,” Bruce Clash began a media conference near the double fencing of State Correctional Institute — Dallas
The Pennsylvania state director of “Fight Crime: Invest in Kids,” Clash stood flanked by nine area police department chiefs, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, state Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, and several other dignitaries.
They had gathered outside the imposing double-fence of SCI-Dallas to unveil a new report titled “Law Enforcement Agrees: High Quality Pre-K is Crime Prevention.” The report updates data backing a long-standing contention that investing in publicly-funded early education helps avoid more costly interventions later in life.
Studies have followed children for decades after getting into high quality pre-K, Salavantis said, and “the results are remarkable: Better performance in school, less special education, fewer high school drop outs and ultimately fewer crimes committed and a reduction in the number of prisoners.”
Statewide, about 56 percent of those eligible for publicly-funded pre school — about 98,000 children — “lack access because of limited funding,” she said. In Luzerne County the rate is worse, where 64 percent — 2,939 — of eligible children lack access.
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is pushing for approval of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to increase spending for pre-K by $50 million in the 2019-20 state budget. $40 million would expand the state’s Pre-K Counts program, while the other $10 million would get more children into the federal Head Start program.
“Years of experience have taught us we can’t simply arrest, prosecute and incarcerate our way out of the crime problems that currently plague our communities,” Hanover Township Police Chief Albert Walker said. “ We must be proactive, and implement strategies that keep people from turning to crime in the first place. And education must be a focal point of that strategy.”
Ingrid Everett, an education professor at Bloomsburg University, talked of the rapid development of the brain in the first three years, but also cited an instance where a mother was inspired by the support her child received and decided to go to college and get her degree.
“It’s much greater than investing in the child. You’re actually investing in the whole community when you support early education.”
Read the full article here.
ABC 16: Corrections Secretary: More Funding for Pre-K Will Reduce Crime
April 18, 2019 By Jessica Albert
The secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections came to Luzerne County highlight the importance of education when it comes to decreasing crime.
State leaders believe spending more money on pre-kindergarten will save money for the state’s prison system which costs about $2 billion to run each year.
“I think most citizens really want kids to have an opportunity to be successful, and I think that when citizens hear that if we invest money in quality early childhood education, we can spend a lot less money on places like SCI Dallas,” said Secretary John Wetzel, Department of Corrections.
Wetzel came to the State Correctional Institution-Dallas in Luzerne County to release a report in support of Governor Wolf’s budget. It proposes spending $50 million for Pre-K programs across the state.
Ingrid Everett, a Bloomsburg University faculty member who teaches early childhood education classes, was in attendance.
“Having worked with Head Start for a number of years, I’ve really seen how much you can support children in developing and I’ve also seen how it can help support the families, too,” Everett said.
Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis is one of the people who support this program. She says she’s seeing younger offenders committing more serious crimes.
“We in the district attorney’s office and law enforcement in Luzerne County see a lot of young children getting involved in criminal acts, and we want to do more to prevent that and this today, what we stand behind, this is proven that it will keep them from being involved in the criminal justice system,” said Salavantis.
Watch the video here.
FOX 56: A push for PA Pre-K programs to keep people out of prisons
By: Viktoria Hallikaar April 18, 2019
Pre-K is not just about kids learning their ABCs and 123s, it’s also setting them up for a lifetime of success.
“Building the right foundation is key here,” said Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis.
Lawmakers, police chiefs, and other local representatives were at the state correctional institution at Dallas Thursday pushing for an investment in pre-K.
“Crime prevention starts outside of these walls and these fences and really starts in the classroom for our most vulnerable kids,” explained John Wetzel, the state Department of Corrections Secretary.
“What we’re trying to do is invest in kids now so that we don’t have to deal with them later in the criminal justice system,” added Wilkes-Barre City Police chief Joseph Coffay.
Currently, PA spends $3.2 billion on corrections each year.
A report says a $50 million investment in high-quality Pre-K programs would save $150 million in criminal justice costs, but it’s not just about the money.
“This is about serving children in our community and I think when you come together to do that, we don’t worry about what letter is after your name,” said 20th District State Sen. Lisa Baker. She also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Governor Wolf proposed investing the $50 million in his 2019-2020 budget.
According to a study, that would add 5,500 Pre-K spots.
Giving the kids across PA access to the classrooms they need.
“We go over things like we treat people the way we want to be treated, to have manners, to have respect, to learn to cooperate,” explained Wilkes-Barre Academy Pre-K teacher Deborah Cooper. “All these things as a beginning will be fabulous as they get older.”
A strong foundation many behind bars might not have had.
“What we’re experiencing today is literally decades of neglect,” said State Rep. Eddie Pashinski of the 121st district.
Read the full article here.
Pottstown Mercury: Pottstown Singled Out for Early Education Leadership
By: Evan Brandt February 10, 2019
POTTSTOWN — As the state budget season kicked off with the presentation of Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget, early education advocates kicked off their efforts to ensure that budget funds pre-kindergarten education.
For their setting they chose the Learning Annex building on North Franklin Street where several of the Pottstown School District’s Pre-K Counts classrooms are held.
It is an easy program to support, said Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, because “it emotionally prepares students to deal with the world, and economically, it is the best way to invest in education.”
That too was the conclusion reached in a four-page study by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia which was released during the event.
Jeff Hornstein, the executive director of the Economy League, said Pottstown was chosen as a case study because it has been on the forefront of early education since 1989 when it implement half-day Pre-K classes in all its elementary schools.
More recently, for the last 13 years, that effort has fallen under the umbrella of PEAK, Pottstown Early Action for Kingergarten Readiness, spearheaded by former schools superintendent Jeff Sparagana, who was on hand and called the effort “a unique partnership” between the school district and larger community.
“It more than life-changing work,” Sparagana said of public education. “It’s life-saving work.”
In 2007, the state jumped into the game with a program called Pre-K Counts and because of Pottstown’s existing program, provided 108 slots for low-income children. By 2015, it had grown to 220 slots and is now more than 300 full-day slots.
According to the Economy League information, “children who participated in Pre-K Counts were less likely to need intensive literacy support” in 2017.
“Research from 2016 found that children who participated in PEAK’s pre-kindergarten programs performed better than the district average on literacy assessments when they arrived in kindergarten and each subsequent year through third grade,” according to the Economy League data.
Read the full article here: https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/pottstown-singled-out-for-early-education-leadership/article_62c60e76-2bf5-11e9-9b2a-879ef3fe7b36.html
The Intelligencer: DA joins call for more pre-K in Bucks County
January 10, 2019 by Christian Menno
Bucks County needs 174 more pre-kindergarten classrooms to meet demand, according to an educational group.
When Bucks County’s top law enforcement officer speaks in front of a crowd, it’s usually a throng of media members or a packed courtroom.
But on Thursday District Attorney Matt Weintraub had a captive audience of a different kind when he visited with youngsters at Radcliffe Learning Center in Bristol Borough.
He urged students to keep each other safe and treat each other with respect.
But his message to residents and lawmakers in Harrisburg was to continue to push for funding of quality pre-kindergarten programs, to which 74 percent of eligible children in Bucks County do not have access, according to studies.
“Pre-k is critical,” Weintraub said after interacting with the kids. “It’s been proven … time and time again that the more education that we can give to the children and the younger that we can start the less problems that they face as they grow up, less crime that we have to attend to, the more intact that their families will become and it’s just a positive cycle that continues to grow.”
The number of students without access to high-quality providers statewide is less than in Bucks and sits at 61 percent, says data compiled by KIDS COUNT: Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Thursday’s event, which also included Bristol Borough police Sgt. Pete Faight, was organized by Public Citizens for Children and Youth as part of the Pre-K for PA initiative.
PCCY’s Education Coordinator Bill Shoffler said the county needs 174 additional pre-k classrooms to meet the demand.
The benefits if that number is reach, he said, would be “immeasurable.”
“What studies have found is that kids who attend a quality pre-k do better in school, have higher graduation rates and as adults they’re actually healthier,” Shoffler said. “They rely less on social support and one of the reasons our district attorney is so supportive of pre-k is that they have less interaction with the criminal justice system.”
He called the $25 million in pre-kindergarten funding included in the final 2018-19 state budget a good start, but stressed that more efforts are needed.
One of the ways an institution in Pennsylvania is viewed as “high quality” is through participating in certification programs.
Read the full article here: http://www.theintell.com/news/20190110/da-joins-call-for-more-pre-k-in-bucks-county
Bucks County Courier Times: State Grant will Allow Neshaminy to Double its Pre-k Program
July 19, 2018 by Chris English
A $1 million state grant will allow the Neshaminy School District to more than double enrollment in its free pre-kindergarten program.
The grant, about twice the amount received by the district last school year, will give officials the latitude to increase total enrollment in the Pre-K Counts program to 120.
It will also allow the district to add Joseph Ferderbar Elementary School in Lower Southampton as a third site where the program is offered, in addition to the closed Lower Southampton Elementary School (now open as an early childhood learning center) and Albert Schweitzer Elementary School in Middletown, said Schweitzer Principal Amy Orlando, who oversees Neshaminy’s Pre-K Counts program.
“I think the foundation a pre-K program helps build for children makes a huge difference,” Orlando said. “There is often a wide difference in reading and other skills between children who have had access to a pre-K program and those who haven’t. It’s wonderful to get this additional funding so we can increase the access.”
Despite the state’s increased investment of $25 million in pre-K programs for this school year, there are still more than 106,000 eligible children in the state who do not have access to high-quality, publicly-funded pre-K due to limited state funding, according to the advocacy group Pre-K for PA.
Read the full article here.
