Capitol Caravan Parks in Harrisburg; 253 Pre-K for PA Education Kits Delivered to Legislators
HARRISBURG (February 2, 2015)– Pre-K for PA supporters hit the halls of the Capitol today to kick off a two-day Capitol Caravan. Parents and early childhood educators delivered Pre-K for PA Education Kits to members of the legislature as part of an ongoing effort in support of Governor Wolf’s campaign commitment to expand access to high-quality pre-k for all of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds.
“I joined the Pre-K for PA campaign because I believe that when parents raise their voice together, Harrisburg listens,” said Patricia Hunter Executive Director of Spring Garden Children’s Center in Easton. “I hope that traveling to Harrisburg will send a message that there is no more urgent issue than access to quality early learning facing our legislature and Governor in the 2015-16 session.
“As an early childhood educator it breaks my heart that not all young learners get the opportunity to enter kindergarten with an equal and solid foundation,” Hunter continued.
“I am encouraged by Governor Wolf’s campaign promise to expand access to high-quality early education and hope that the legislature will work with him to accomplish this laudable goal.”
Parents and early learning educators traveling to Harrisburg were among our nearly 11,000 supporters statewide. The Pre-K for PA campaign has successfully engaged communities and citizens throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to influence the platforms of the gubernatorial and legislative campaigns. In just one year, we have gained nearly 11,000 individual supporters, 550 organizations, and over 100 civic and business leaders in our Leadership Council.
In recent years, about 53,000 Pennsylvania children benefitted from high-quality pre-k funded through state or federal sources. But that represents only about 18 percent of the nearly 300,000 3- and 4-year-olds in the state. It means about 244,000 children lack access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-k every year.
The Pre-K for PA Capitol Caravan will consist of a series of journeys from all corners of Pennsylvania to help establish Pre-K for PA as a persistent presence in Harrisburg during legislative session days.
The Pre-K for PA Campaign was launched by a statewide coalition including: Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children, Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Mission: Readiness, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, Pennsylvania Head Start Association, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.
Pre-K for PA is an issue campaign supported by individuals and organizations across Pennsylvania who believe that investing in our children is the right choice and an urgent necessity. Our vision is that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality pre-k. We will not endorse nor oppose candidates, but rather we will advocate on behalf of this vision for Pennsylvania’s children, schools and communities. For more information www.prekforpa.org.
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Centre Daily Times: One-Stop Shop: Preschool Fair Allows Parents to Examine Child-Care Options
STATE COLLEGE — With 15 child service programs at the eighth annual Preschool Fair on Saturday, the Marion family may have found just what they were looking for.
“We want a place that’s going to feel like you’re dropping off your kids at a family member’s house, while we’re at work,” said Ferguson Township resident Joni Marion. “We want a place that, while we’re out for the day, the kids can learn a little something – not just be a babysitter.”
Tom and Joni Marion have 2-year-old twins, Cameron and Elsa.
On Saturday morning, the couple was doing research of preschools they want to enroll their girls in next year that will prepare the toddlers for kindergarten.
Sponsored by Mothers & More, and hosted at the State College Area High School South Building, fair director Melissa MacNeely said the event aimed to bring multiple preschools to potential clients at one venue.
“It’s a convenient way to bring their options to them,” MacNeely said. “They can look at the preschools and programs, and narrow down their search and find anything from Montessori schools or faith-based preschools or really anything they’re looking for.”
MacNeely said each year the event attracts 75 to 100 families.
“What we find is a lot of the families are looking for a second home for their child while they’re not around, and a place that child can thrive socially and academically,” MacNeely said.
Kerry Looper, a teacher at Abba’s House, off Benner Pike, said she takes potential families through a day in the life of their program, discusses enrollment options and assures them there is an education component to the program while being nurturing in the meantime.
The facility expanded its preschool to four classes last month to serve an extra 100 children, said assistant director Kim Stubblefield.
The daycare and preschool serves children from 6 weeks to 5 years old.
Millbrook Marsh Nature Center has a new program called Puddle Jumpers that brings an environmental aspect to child education, said Melissa Freed, program coordinator.
“When they come in, we want to make sure we’re going outdoors and learning about the nature while still providing them with basics of learning letters and numbers and more,” Freed said. “It’s a nature program for preschoolers, but they get a lot of outdoor activity and education through exploration.”
The program was established in the fall of 2013, and currently has about a dozen kids with two leaders.
The Preschool Fair equally helped the mission of the Pre-K for PA campaign, said Tracy Weaver, outreach and communications coordinator of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, that represents the initiative.
To read the full article, please click here.
Erie Times Editorial: Why PA Needs to Invest in Pre-K
By: Sam Talarico
The path to educational success for Pennsylvania’s children begins even before the doors open on the first day of kindergarten. There is already strong agreement across partisan and geographic lines that expanding access to high-quality pre-K is a smart, cost-effective way to ensure all children enter school ready to learn. Now the time has come for action.
Parents and educators see high-quality pre-K as an effective tool to improve school readiness and long-term student success. Law enforcement officials see it as a strategy to help at-risk youth avoid the criminal justice system. Business leaders see evidence of the proven benefits and know quality pre-K is a smart investment.
And yet, despite all of this support, only 1 in 6 of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds benefit from publicly funded, high-quality pre-K, leaving more than 200,000 young learners missing out statewide, including more than 4,200 here in Erie County. We need to improve on this sad statistic.
I am among those who believe if we want to build a stronger Pennsylvania, increased access to high-quality pre-K must be a building block for that foundation. That’s why I have joined the statewide Pre-K for PA Leadership Council, made up of more than 100 leading voices in Pennsylvania business, education, law enforcement, civic engagement and even the military, all of whom recognize the many benefits of high-quality pre-K. Pre-K for PA is a nonpartisan, issue-focused campaign that is working to make high-quality pre-K accessible to every 3- and 4-year-old in the state.
High-quality pre-K is an educational, moral and societal imperative essential to our economic success. A fiscal analysis found that if Pennsylvania funded pre-K for all 3- and 4-year olds, the commonwealth’s investment would generate $800 million in additional goods and services and create nearly 28,000 jobs statewide in the short term. The long-term benefits are even greater, with every dollar invested in pre-K returning up to $17 million in savings and benefits to the commonwealth.
As support for Pre-K for PA’s vision grows in this region and in communities across Pennsylvania, it is encouraging to see that so many of the state’s newly elected and re-elected leaders are committed to strengthening our schools and early learning facilities as a way to elevate our workforce and communities. Now that commitment needs to turn into action.
When Gov.-elect Tom Wolf announced his education transition team recently, the Leadership Council urged the newly formed team to focus on early learning as it crafts the new governor’s education policy.
In January, as the new Democratic governor and Republican-led majority in the state Legislature get to work, I hope they put partisan politics aside and work together to ensure an investment in high-quality pre-K is at the top of Pennsylvania’s priorities. We know it’s a smart investment that pays off for every Pennsylvanian, and we can’t defer such an important investment any longer.
SAM TALARICO is a teacher at Iroquois High School and president of the Northwest Region of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (stalarico@psea.org).
Philadephia Inquirer Op-Ed: PA Can Help Children and Save the Taxpayers Money
Rep. Todd Stephens
For the past year, working with the House Majority Policy Committee’s efforts to combat poverty, I’ve learned about the vast benefits that early-childhood education provides for Pennsylvania’s children and taxpayers.
The benefits of early childhood education include fewer special-education needs and repeated grades, higher graduation rates and earnings, and lower incarceration rates. These children enter the workforce prepared to succeed. For these reasons, education, law enforcement, military, and business leaders all support expanding access to early-education programs.
Investments in prekindergarten not only impact the child, but, in many cases, their parents as well. When parents receive quality, dependable child care, they can enter, return to, or grow in the workplace. Studies show that adults with dependable child care are viewed as 15 percent more employable, with a 40 percent to 60 percent chance of remaining in the workplace. That’s why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation strongly supports early-childhood education.
Taxpayers benefit too. The three largest cost drivers in Pennsylvania’s annual budget are education, human services, and corrections – accounting for almost 90 percent of all expenditures. Reductions in the need for the services provided by these departments would benefit all residents of the commonwealth.
Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming benefits, only 30 percent of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds have access to early-childhood education, according to the Pre-K for PA campaign. If we want to help children and taxpayers, we must look for fiscally responsible ways to expand access to these programs.
One method is “social impact financing,” which is also known as “pay for success.” This would allow private investors to provide up-front capital to expand social services that save taxpayer dollars. The approach is simple: If the program funded by private investors generates a savings for the taxpayers in the future, the investors receive a portion of the savings.
Such agreements have already been used to expand early-learning programs in Chicago and Salt Lake City. While both of those initiatives involved Goldman Sachs and J.B. Pritzker, financial institutions like Bank of America and philanthropic organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation are using this approach to expand access to government programs across the United States and in the United Kingdom.
Social-impact-financing agreements expand social programs without additional taxpayer funding, in addition to providing accountability. If the program is successful, the taxpayers save through future cost reductions; if the program is unsuccessful, the private investors bear the risk.
I have been laying the groundwork to initiate a pay-for-success program, targeted to expanding early-childhood education, in Pennsylvania, and will introduce legislation to accomplish this goal soon.
Recognizing our state’s budget constraints, this approach to expanding access to early learning would not only be timely, but it would be fiscally responsible, allowing private-sector investors to invest in programs for our children that save taxpayer dollars down the road.
Let’s provide children and taxpayers with a win-win by implementing a social-impact-financing program to expand prekindergarten in Pennsylvania. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the new administration to accomplish this goal.
State Rep. Todd Stephens (R., Montgomery) represents the 151st District. tstephen@pahousegop.com
Media Advisory: City Councilwoman Natalia Rukiak Reads Holiday Stories to Pre-K Kids
WHAT: Holiday stories with Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak
WHO: Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak will read holiday stories to 3 & 4 year olds at the Small World Early Learning Center in downtown Pittsburgh. Earlier this month, Rudiak, along with other members of City Council’s Woman’s Caucus, introduced and preliminarily passed an amendment to the 2015 Capital Budget to create a fund for improving child care facilities in Pittsburgh. The bill reappropriates $250,000 to a new “Council Facilities Fund” under the Mayor’s Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment. The funds will be used to seed a low-interest loan and/or grant program to help child care providers install certain safety features and amenities required for facilities to be considered high quality by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
WHEN: Tuesday 11:30 am, December 23, 2014
WHERE: Small World Early Learning Center, 960 Penn Avenue, 2nd Floor
ABOUT PRE-K FOR PA: Pre-K for PA is a growing statewide coalition that includes more than 1,000 supporters and 100 supporting organizations to date. The coalition is led by: the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children; the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; Mission: Readiness; Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children; Pennsylvania Head Start Association; Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children; Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children; Public Citizens for Children and Youth; and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Find more information online at prekforpa.org.
New Pa. Leaders Should Invest in Prekindergarten
By Carl M. Buchholz
The path to educational success for children begins even before the doors open on the first day of kindergarten. There is already strong agreement across partisan and geographic lines that expanding access to high-quality prekindergarten is a smart, cost-effective way to ensure all children enter school ready to learn. Now the time has come for action.
Parents and educators see pre-K as an effective tool to improve school readiness. Law-enforcement officials see it as a strategy to help at-risk youths avoid the criminal justice system. Business leaders know quality pre-K is a smart investment with proven benefits.
Despite all of this support, only one in six of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds benefit from publicly funded pre-K, leaving more than 200,000 young learners missing out statewide, including 27,401 in Philadelphia. We need to improve on this sad statistic.
If we want to build a stronger Pennsylvania, increased access to pre-K must be a building block for that foundation. That’s why I have joined the statewide Pre-K for PA Leadership Council, which is made up of more than 100 leading voices in business, education, law enforcement, civic engagement, and even the military who recognize the many benefits of high-quality pre-K. The nonpartisan organization is working to make pre-K accessible to every 3- and 4-year-old in the state.
Pre-K is an educational, moral, and societal imperative essential to our economic success. A fiscal analysis by the Leadership Council found that if Pennsylvania funded pre-K for all 3- and 4-year olds, the commonwealth’s investment would generate $800 million in additional goods and services and create nearly 28,000 jobs statewide in the short term. The long-term benefits are even greater, with every dollar invested in pre-K returning up to $17 in savings and benefits.
As support for this vision grows in this region and in communities across Pennsylvania, it is encouraging to see that so many of the state’s newly elected and reelected leaders are committed to strengthening our schools and early-learning facilities as a way to elevate our workforce and communities. Now that commitment needs to turn into action.
When Gov.-Elect Tom Wolf announced his education transition cochairs recently, the Leadership Council urged the newly formed team to focus on early learning as it crafts an education policy.
When the new Democratic governor and Republican-led majority in the state legislature return to Harrisburg in January, I hope they will put partisan politics aside and work together to ensure an investment in pre-K is at the top of Pennsylvania’s priorities. We know it’s a smart investment that pays off for every Pennsylvanian, and we can’t defer such an important investment any longer.
Carl M. Buchholz is a board member and public policy committee chair of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.
