WCGPHL: States Lead on Early Childhood Education
“Under Rendell’s leadership, Pennsylvania established both the Early Learning Investment Commission (ELIC) and PA Pre-K Counts. ELIC engages business leaders to advocate for access to high-quality early learning; Pre-K Counts provides quality pre-k opportunities to low- and moderate-income kids. Over the last decade, these initiatives have helped thousands of youngsters be ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. Today, 53,000 three- and four-year olds attend high-quality, state and federally funded pre-k programs in the Commonwealth.
However, advocates will tell you that it’s foolhardy to think this is good enough. Across the Commonwealth, just three out of ten kids are in high-quality pre-k programs. And just 18 percent of these kids are in publicly funded programs. In all, there are more than 125,000 three- and four-year olds eligible for state programs who aren’t being served. The impact of this shaky start plays out down the road.”
Read the full story here.
The Notebook: Editorial: Glimmers of optimism
“With a bleak financial predicament facing Philadelphia public schools, it is hard to maintain optimism about the future of public education here. As the Notebook reflects on 20 years of publishing in pursuit of educational quality and equity, we cannot say students are better off than they were in 1994. But we do see encouraging trends – both growing wisdom and evidence that an informed, engaged community can make a difference.
For example, we know now that the early years are critical for child development and that high-quality pre-K can help ensure success in school. In 1994, full-day kindergarten still was missing from most high-poverty schools here. That fight has been won, and now the public campaign has moved to expanding access to quality pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. With most state legislators and the governor up for election this year, the “Pre-K for PA” campaign is positioned to win a statewide commitment to new investments in early education.”
Read the full story here.
Guest Column: Investing in high quality Pre-K benefits children
Published 5/7 in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and 5/14 in DelCo Times
By Jack Whelan and John W. Peck
The call for providing increased access to high quality pre-kindergarten programs is not a rallying cry heard only from educators. It’s one coming from all segments of the community — and for a good reason.
As prosecutors, our job is to hold criminal offenders responsible for their actions, which unfortunately also includes juvenile offenders. When we deal with them, we often think about their childhood and what led them to their criminal behavior. We see children and young adults who are on a self-destructive path and question: Could this have been prevented in the first place?
Read the full article:
Jack Whelan is the District Attorney of Delaware County and John W. Peck is the District Attorney of Westmoreland County. Information about the Pre-K For PA campaign can be found at www.prekforpa.org and about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids at www.fightcrime.org.
PennLive: Pennsylvania needs to double-down on early childhood education:
A bipartisan polling team– Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews — share their findings on pre-k in Pennsylvania:
“Voters strongly value education and believe that pre-K education helps children arrive to Kindergarten (and beyond) ready to learn. Voters believe pre-K can improve a child’s social skills, which helps them through grade school. They see the long-term benefits in terms of better test scores, graduation rates, and lifetime earnings and employment.
They overwhelmingly agree that the more kids who have access to high-quality pre-k, the better it is for ALL students in kindergarten classrooms, so teachers aren’t stretched doing remediation and classrooms aren’t disrupted.
And voters are right: The benefits of pre-k, both short and long-term – for kids, for schools and for the economic benefits – are indisputable fact.”
Read the full guest column at pennlive.com.
Delco Times: Rep. Margo Davidson pushes for more education funding
“State Rep. Margo Davidson hailed the importance of early education programs, urging legislators to find other ways of trimming the state’s projected $1.2 billion budget deficit.
Davidson, D-164, of Upper Darby, organized a press conference Friday to highlight the impact early education programs have in preparing children for lifelong success.
“High-quality Pre-K prepares our kids to succeed in school and in life,” Davidson said. “It helps schools by reducing grade repetition and special eduction costs. It saves the commonwealth and taxpayers in more costly services later — like prison.
“We’re trying to end the education-to-prison pipeline by making sure that children are ready to learn by grade 3.””
Read the full story here.
The Tribune-Review: Pa. needs high-quality pre-K
Westmoreland County district attorney John W. Peck and Delaware County district attorney John J. Whelan share the benefits of high quality pre-K on behalf of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids:
“Fortunately, there is an intervention that has been proven to work. Investing in high-quality pre-K can help ensure that every child has the best chance possible for academic and social success. Data collected on more than 10,000 children throughout Pennsylvania show that Pre-K Counts Public Private Partnership worked to reduce disruptive problem behaviors — reducing the percentage of children with low levels of social skills or self-control from 21 percent to 4 percent. This is significant because 60 percent of children with high levels of disruptive, aggressive behaviors in early childhood will manifest high levels of anti-social and delinquent behavior later in life.
Such data compel our membership in the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a statewide organization of more than 200 Pennsylvania district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs, to advocate for expanded access to Pennsylvania’s high-quality pre-K programs. Decades of research show that at-risk children who do not receive a high-quality early-childhood education are more likely to drop out of school, to be placed in special education, to never attend college and to be arrested for committing crime.”
Read the full story here.
