Gov. Wolf applauds state investment but warns more than cash is needed for early learning

October 12, 2021

An additional $30 million in state funding for early childhood education in 2021-22 will provide early learning programs for an additional 3,200 Pennsylvania children this school year.

But the investment isn’t all that is needed to ensure that children from six weeks to kindergarten age have the opportunity for quality education and care, Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday.

Wolf joined local early education advocates, educators and elected officials at the Gilson Child Development Center on Payne Avenue in Erie to celebrate the increased funding and warn that more needs to be done to provide a solid foundation for later learning.

“It’s not all that we need,” Wolf said. “There’s also a need to figure out how to make this system work better. We need to reinvent and drastically transform this industry. It’s that important.

“We also need to pay our teachers more, tens of thousands of dollars more, in the professional range,” Wolf said, commensurate with the important work that they do.

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