Delaware County Times: Letter: Pa. needs to invest in its future: Pre-K funding for more kids
Letter to the editor from Upper Darby School District superintendent Richard Dunlap Jr.:
“The good news is that support for high-quality Pre-K is reaching a tipping point in Pennsylvania. This is one issue that has bipartisan support in the state legislature’s 127-member Early Childhood Education Caucus.
However, we have much further to go. Too many three and four-year-old children in Pennsylvania still miss the opportunity to arrive at kindergarten with the same learning skills as their peers.
Just under one in six preschool-age children have access to publicly supported, high-quality Pre-K, leaving behind many families who may have difficulty affording or finding a good preschool for their child.”
Read the full story here.
Citizens’ Call: Coalition Calls for More State Investment in High Quality Pre-K Programs
“There are nearly 70,000 three and four-year-old children in SE PA who cannot enroll in high-quality pre-kindergarten (Pre-K), according to information released this week by the “Pre-K for PA” campaign. Despite the known benefits of Pre-K, public funds provide access to only about one in six eligible children in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties, said the group.
“Every family in PA should have the option of enrolling their child in a high-quality Pre-K program,” said Donna Cooper, Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), one of the founding partners of the campaign in a press statement. “Investing in these tried and true programs will make sure more of our children are ready for school.””
Read the full story here.
The Alternative Press: Access for All: A Fight for Pre-K for PA
“According to a recent study, 95 percent of children between ages 3 and 4 do not have access to a publicly funded high quality pre-kindergarten program. One organization is striving to change that.
On Wednesday, March 5, a crowd of 40 enthusiastic volunteers for Pre-K for PA, a statewide coalition focused on promoting accessible, high-quality pre-k for all 3- and 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania, gathered at Montgomery County Community College. The group of thoroughly engaged activists met to discuss what Sarah Whetstone called “an important goal.”
The meeting, led Sarah Whetstone, who serves as the director of United Way of North Penn, focused on ways to make the issue of early education a focus in the upcoming Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.”
Read the full story here.
Tribune-Live: Invest in Pre-K
Letter from Michelle Figlar, executive director of the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC):
“In response to the editorial “Universal pre-K? It would be a huge waste that would dwarf Head Start’s failure” : In my work with the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children, I see every day the benefits of high-quality preschool.
The evidence is overwhelming in proving that investing in high-quality pre-K is a smart choice. At-risk children who experience high-quality pre-K are less likely to commit crimes later in life. Society gains more productive citizens, with reduced reliance on social services and higher lifetime earnings.”
Read the full letter here.
BY CAROL PHILLIPS and SUSAN ECKERT Special to the Sunday News
There is no better investment opportunity than early childhood learning. While Lancaster County has a strong public school system, too many of our youngest children aren’t prepared for success in school, and consequently won’t be prepared for success in life. The problem is most troubling for young children in low-income families, where a slow start often translates into poor academic performance and lack of motivation throughout their entire school experience.
Consider the facts. Did you know?
• Nearly two-thirds of American children living in poverty have no books in their homes.
• A child from a high-income family will experience 30 million more words within the first four years of life than a child from a low-income family.
• Children who do not read at their grade-level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school.
These facts are really important to know because a child’s brain is 90 percent developed before age 5.
So often, Lancaster County’s fiscal health and prosperity have masked the bleak situation that a number of our young children experience during their first five years of life. Currently, there are some 35,500 children from birth to age five living among us. Sixty-two percent of them live in economically at-risk families. Thirty percent are born to mothers with less than a high school education; 5.7% percent are born to single mothers under the age of 20. These facts point to the reality that 26% of our children currently are entering kindergarten assessed as being unprepared to succeed in school.
Fortunately, a team of community leaders in its second annual review of “prosperity indicators” for Lancaster County has identified school readiness as the primary indicator on which our efforts should be focused. Thirty-five indicators are being monitored annually by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry in partnership with the Lancaster County, the Lancaster County Community Foundation, and the United Way of Lancaster County. Of these, preparing our kids for school success has been selected by a local collaboration of funders as the indicator that demonstrates the greatest promise for assuring the future prosperity of our county, in part because it is a driver of so many of the other indicators.
Additionally, a spring campaign will be unveiled by the United Way to focus our community on the issue of school readiness. While we have many good early care and education programs and providers, we need to broaden our efforts to include all of our children, particularly our most vulnerable, because they are at the greatest risk of failure and school dropout. Evidence indicates that our at-risk children who receive quality early education are able to catch up to their peers in cognitive and social skill development. They are prepared to succeed in school and to become productive fellow citizens in our community.
Investing in school readiness isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s the smart thing to do. Every dollar spent to improve early education saves at least $7 in special education costs, public assistance support, corrections expenses and lost taxes. That’s the return on investment Lancaster County taxpayers are looking for. And even more important, investing in early childhood learning will improve opportunities for disadvantaged students, and help prepare them for happy, productive lives.
Carol Phillips is vice chair of the Hourglass Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank based in Lancaster County. Susan Eckert, principal of the Eckert Group, is a member of the Hourglass board of directors.
By Letters to the Editor on March 06, 2014
Donald Gilliland’s recent PennLive article (“Rising prison costs spell trouble for Corbett’s signature reform”) details the multiple factors that led to a small state prison population increase last year, instead of the projected decrease. As a law enforcement official, I am tough on crime and believe that prison is necessary to help ensure public safety; however, the considerable challenges cited in the article should remind us of why it is so critical to keep people from ever becoming criminals in the first place.
Compelling long-term scientific research and common sense clearly indicate that investing in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs is a key strategy to help ensure that at-risk children get a good start in life thereby cutting the cycle of crime and incarceration.
Nearly 50 percent of Pennsylvania’s prison population failed to receive a high school diploma. High school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than graduates to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated.
Long-term studies are clear that pre-kindergarten programs are one of the most effective investments to boost graduation rates. The Chicago Child-Parent Center pre-K program and the High Scope Perry Preschool program increased graduation rates by 29 and 44 percent respectively compared to similar children who were not enrolled.
As a member of the statewide law enforcement leader organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, I commend Gov. Corbett for proposing a $10 million increase in the state Pre-K Counts program in next year’s state budget. To help put Pennsylvania on a path to having less state prison inmates, we need to build on this proposal to ensure access to high-quality pre-k for the tens of thousands of 3- and 4-year-olds across the state who are left out every year.
STEPHEN L. MARGESON, Chief, Carlisle Police Department, Carlisle
