Times-Leader: Early education key to developing skilled workforce, strong military
By Bill O’Boyle June 14, 2016
WILKES-BARRE — Education, particularly early childhood education, can be one of the best workforce development tools in Pennsylvania’s toolbox, Labor & Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino said Tuesday.
Manderino joined Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry officials and military leaders to discuss a new ReadyNation/Mission: Readiness report titled: “STEM and Early Childhood – When Skills Take Root.”
The officials warned of a “workforce skills gap” in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — skills affecting the pool of qualified workers needed today and into the future.
Manderino, Steve Doster (Pennsylvania State Director of Mission: Readiness), Wico van Genderen (Chamber president/CEO), retired Army Major General Joe Perugino, of Kingston, and retired Navy Rear Admiral Tom Wilson addressed a small group gathered at the Chamber’s Innovation Center on South Main Street about the need for additional funding for pre-K and Head Start funding.
The group wants the state budget for early education increased by $90 million to about $256 million — funding, they said, is necessary for a successful workforce development strategy to accommodate 21st century business and military workforce needs.
Citing the Read Nation/Mission: Readiness report, Manderino said, “This report shows the clear impact early childhood education can have on our STEM jobs gap. I want to thank Mission: Readiness and ReadyNation for their work in this clear and comprehensive report showing not just the virtues of early childhood learning, but the necessity of it.”
Both Manderino and Gov. Tom Wolf support an increase in funding for PA early childhood education programs.
Data shows a shortage of STEM workers is looming: nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania eighth graders are not proficient in math and science, and more than a quarter of students entering the PA State System of Higher Education require remedial education in math and English.
Business and military leaders in Pennsylvania are calling on policymakers to invest more in high-quality early education where STEM skills take root.
According to information provided at Tuesday’s news conference, of the 6,765 children ages 3 and 4 living in Luzerne County, 4,862 live in families below the poverty level and 3,517 of those children do not have access to publicly funded, high quality pre-K education.
Statistics show high quality pre-K programs reduce grade repetition, increase graduation rates, reduce special education placements, decrease crime and incarceration, create a stronger economy and preserve taxpayers dollars.
Van Genderen said STEM-based jobs like computer science and healthcare are expected to grow by 20 percent to 37 percent in coming years.
“They are driving the economy and yet, more than half of Pennsylvania’s employers have reported trouble finding people with adequate skills, training, or education — especially in technical and skilled job openings,” van Genderen said.
Perugino cautioned the U.S. tech-focused military faces similar challenges.
“It is, therefore, troubling to know that inadequate education is a major factor that precludes 72 percent of Pennsylvania’s 17-24 year-olds from enlisting in the military,” Perugino said.
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Citizens’ Voice: Event rallies support for pre-K funding
By Denise Allabaugh June 14, 2016
WILKES-BARRE — Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino says more funding is needed to support early childhood education.
Manderino said expanded early childhood education can ensure people gain needed job skills for the 21st century.
She joined military leaders and officials from the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce at a press conference today at the Innovation Center on South Main Street. The event aimed to show support for Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to increase funding for expanded access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs.
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (Ret.) Thomas Wilson, who represents Misson: Readiness, said he is urging lawmakers to include a $90 million expansion proposal for high-quality pre-kindergarten in the 2016-2017 budget.
That would allow 7,400 more Pennsylvania children to receive early childhood education and 6,200 would receive pre-kindergarten for a full year instead of half a year, he said.
Wolf has proposed an increase of $60 million in the 2016-2017 budget for early childhood education, but negotiations are still ongoing in Harrisburg, Manderino said.
Another $30 million was approved in the 2015-2016 budget for the first six months of the year for pre-kindergarten programs throughout the state.
Officials highlighted a new ReadyNation/Mission: Readiness report that details how high-quality pre-kindergarten is important to developing skills in science, engineering, technology and math.
According to the report, 3,517 children in Luzerne County and 1,775 children in Lackawanna County are living in poverty and do not have access to publicly funded high-quality pre-kindergarten. That means 72 percent of eligible children ages 3 and 4 in Luzerne County and 50 percent in Lackawanna County do not have access.
As a result, Manderino said a gap in skills in science, engineering, technology and math could have a serious impact on the economy in years to come.
She said she has talked to employers and manufacturing industry representatives throughout the state who are looking at significant numbers of retirements of employees over age 50. She said they worry about the talent recruitment pool available to replace those workers.
She cited studies that show early childhood education is important in terms of graduation rates, crime rates and ultimately attaining “jobs that pay.”
“Those early pre-K years are the most formative years of a child’s life,” she said. “It’s clear that early learning could have a tremendous impact on Pennsylvania’s workforce.”
Mission: Readiness formed in response to data from the Department of Defense indicating that 72 percent of young Pennsylvanians between the ages of 17 and 24 can’t join the military because they either lack proper education, are physically unfit or have criminal records.
“Like business leaders, we are concerned about recruiting talent and skills we need to ensure our national defense,” said Major General (Ret.) Joseph Perugino of the U.S. Army, former commander of the 28th Infrantry Division and a representative of Mission; Readiness.
Wico van Genderen, CEO of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber, said the chamber is pleased to partner with Mission: Readiness, a non-partisan national security organization made up of more than 600 retired admirals, generals and other military leaders calling for investments in America’s children.
“Early learning has an important role in assuring that we have the bright, skilled workforce that we need in the 21st Century,” van Genderen said. “We know that careers in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields will be a major driving force in our economy.”
Careers in these fields are expected to grow exponentially and he said the Innovation Center has become a hub for technology companies. The center and Wilkes Enterprise Center — in the Luzerne Bank building on Public Square, house 36 start-up companies — employing more than 200 people, he said.
“Companies like the ones found in the building and across the street need employees with strong-grounded STEM backgrounds,” van Genderen.
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PennLive: Is preschool the answer to increasing the future supply of scientists and engineers?
By Jan Murphy June 2, 2016
Those making a case for more state funding for preschool programs often cite a myriad of reasons for this being a wise long-term investment.
It decreases spending on special education and increases graduation rates. It reduces the number of youths entering the criminal justice system. It boosts the number of 17- to 24-year-olds eligible to serve in the military.
Now another reason has come along. A new report links access to preschool to helping businesses and the military fill their future need for workers possessing science, technology, engineering, and math skills.
A Mission Readiness/Ready Nation report, titled “STEM and Early Childhood – When Skills Take Root,” being released on Thursday suggests that there is a growing body of research that indicates that interest in the science, technology, engineering and math fields takes root as early as preschool and kindergarten.
“Young children can learn more STEM content than we may realize,” the report states. “Good early learning curricula capitalize on the natural curiosity and exploration of young children and can build an understanding of math and science concepts.”
The report indicates that early exposure to math is linked to later abilities not only in math but in other subjects. At the same time, children with persistent problems in math at ages 6, 8 and 10 were 13 percentage points less likely to graduate from high school and 29 percentage points less likely to attend college.
The release of this report comes on the heels of last week’s letter to the Legislature from former Republican Gov. Mark Schweiker and Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and more than six dozen business, law enforcement, education, faith-based, and civic leaders that calls for providing the $90 million increase that Gov. Tom Wolf proposed for preschool in his 2016-17 budget.
An increase of that size would raise the state’s investment in preschool programs to more than a quarter of a billion dollars.
The letter signers see that as an incremental step toward growing access to high-quality pre-k for all income-eligible children and making it affordable to middle-class families as well.
“Such an investment will set us on a path to reduce educational, public welfare, and incarceration costs and have the most important added benefit of ensuring brighter futures for more of the commonwealth’s children,” the letter stated.
With an additional investment of the size the governor is seeking along with the $30 million increase provided this year, some 14,000 more income-eligible three- and four-year-olds could be served, according to Pre-K for Pa, a coalition of groups supportive of expanding access to preschool particularly for at-risk children.
Support for funding for early education stretches across the aisle in the GOP-controlled House and Senate but it seems to come down to a question of whether and how much revenue is there to pay for any increase it might receive.
House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said any funding that can be raised beyond what is needed to cover the costs to carry the current state budget forward plus mandated cost increases would likely go toward education. However, it’s unclear at this point how any potential additional dollars would be distributed across the various education budget lines.
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City Council Members Join Education Activists In Push For Affordable Pre-K
May 23, 2016 By Sarah Schneider
Pittsburgh City Council members and education activists say it’s time for Pennsylvania lawmakers to prioritize affordable early childhood education in the state’s budget.
Pre-K for PA Coalition activists will travel to Harrisburg on June 14 to push for a sustainable source for publicly funded early childhood education.
They’re also supporting Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to expand funding for Pre-K Counts, a statewide program that provides subsidies for low-income families.
Councilman Dan Gilman said Monday he’s already exploring pre-K options for his three month old. Like Gilman, many advocates point to a correlation between Pre-K programs and a decreased likelihood of incarceration.
“(My son) is a lot more likely to have a lifetime of earning. He’s a lot less likely to be on welfare and other public subsidies. He’s a lot more likely to be an efficient reader in third grade,” he said. “We can go through all of the metrics and we know because of decisions I’m making now, we’re providing that opportunity.”
Council estimates Allegheny County currently serves 20,000 3- and 4-year-olds without access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-kindergarten programs.
Those figures include Jessica Conway of Squirrel Hill. The mom-of-two has a master’s degree in secondary education and worked at an early childhood education center in the city, but with her second baby, she had to quit. Conway said she was paying almost as much for tuition for her sons as she was making in income.
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Advocates in Pittsburgh say early education helps kids a lot, so why isn’t there more funding?
May 23, 2016 By Iain Oldman, PublicSource
Pittsburgh city council members, pre-K educators and child care advocates gathered Monday to raise awareness and issue a call to action about the need for affordable and high-quality early education.
Council members Dan Gilman, Natalia Rudiak and Deb Gross spoke at the City County Building in downtown Pittsburgh for a press conference planned by advocacy groups Pittsburgh Raising Every Kid: PreK Now, One Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC).
Nearly 12,600 children living in Allegheny County are part of a family who live three times below the poverty level in what equates to a family of four earning $72,750 or less a year, according to a report released by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Of those children eligible for pre-K programs, more than 7,300 do not have access to publicly funded, high-quality early education, according to the report. Statewide, the number of children lacking access approaches 120,700 children.
“It doesn’t matter what laws we pass… if you can’t afford to raise a family in Pittsburgh, it is not a city anymore,” said Councilman Dan Gilman, representative of Pittsburgh’s District 8.
The Pew Charitable Trusts describes high-quality pre-K programs as programs that include well educated teachers, low teacher-student ratios and small class size, curriculums aligned to K-12 standards and engaged families.
Numbers provided by the city council show that children who do not receive high-quality early education are 25 percent more likely to drop out of school, 50 percent more likely to be placed in special education and 60 percent less likely to attend college.
“So much of that can be avoided by providing early education,” Rudiak said. “We know we can’t sit around and wait for Harrisburg and D.C. to act.”As part of the City Council Women’s Caucus in Pittsburgh, Gross and Rudiak sponsored legislation that was passed unanimously in December to create the Office of Early Childhood.
According to the city council’s press release, the purpose of the office is to “align city services that affect young children,” including early education. The office has yet to name an Early Childhood Manager, though applications for the position recently closed. The position will carry a salary of $65,901 per year, according to Pittsburgh’s 2016 operating budget.
The City Council Women’s Caucus also introduced legislation in 2014 to conduct a “child care needs assessment” to evaluate where child care exists in the city and what providers require to boost their quality of child care. Rudiak, who represents Pittsburgh’s District 4, said Monday that the assessment will be released soon.
“Pittsburgh is ready to take the next step toward universal, high-quality early education” said Erin Kramer, One Pittsburgh’s Director, according to a press release. “As our state Legislature enters budget season, we are joining together with old and new allies to remind our representatives that investments in early childhood yield returns across a lifetime. Children are the future of this state, and we refuse to allow them to be left behind any longer.”
The PreK for PA campaign has an Early Childhood Action Day planned for June 14 in Harrisburg to meet with state legislators.
In February, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that he intended to ask the General Assembly to earmark $90 million of state funding to support preschool programs in fiscal year 2016-17. If the funds are granted, the state budget for preschool programs next year would increase from $166.5 million to $256.3 million.
That would open and expand access to preschool programs to about 14,000 children, according to the Wolf administration. A PreK for PA statement said that would still leave more than 107,000, or 61 percent, of at-risk preschool-aged children without access to high-quality programs.
Sarah Byrne-Houser, public policy and outreach associate for PAEYC, said the early childhood education advocacy groups anticipate challenges in the state budget process.
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Early childhood education advocates call for universal pre-K
May 23, 2016 By Lexi Belculfine / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A group of advocates, school board members, teachers and Pittsburgh City Council members called for affordable, high-quality, inclusive early education at a press conference this morning in the City-County Building.
“We know that early education gives children a chance to succeed later in life. We know that it allows parents to work, earning an income and creating a sense of pride,” said Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, who spearheaded legislation with the women’s caucus in December to create the Office of Early Childhood for the City of Pittsburgh. “The data shows that when children attend a high-quality early education they are more qualified to start kindergarten, less likely to drop out of school, more likely to attend college, and something like 70 percent less likely to be arrested for a violent crime.”
In Allegheny County, there are more than 20,000 three- and four-year-olds without access to publicly funded, high-quality Pre-K, according to Pittsburgh Raising Every Kid: PreK Now.
Gov. Tom Wolf has asked for a $90 million increase in the 2016-17 budget from the current year for early childhood education, according to his office.
Cara Ciminillo, executive director for Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children, said that while early childhood education has bipartisan support, finding funding isn’t always as easy.
Such education would be more readily available with a $500 million investment over four fiscal years at the state level, she said.
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