MEDIA REPORTS

Investing in pre-K is investing in a strong future for Pennsylvania, according to a new report from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.

During the event organized by the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and Pre-K for PA, both Rendell and Schweiker said they placed high priorities on pre-K spending during their administrations but were often thwarted by their legislatures.

Governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf flipped the switch lighting the Capitol Christmas Tree in the Rotunda. 

There’s a mountain of data out there proving what I already know in my gut: Kids with access to high-quality, early childhood education exhibit higher levels of proficiency in math and reading; they’re less likely to be held back in the primary grades and more likely to graduate high school; they need less remediation, and there’s less of a need for those “individual education plans,” often formulated for struggling students. 

Four-fifths of eligible Lancaster County children don’t attend high-quality, publicly funded pre-k programs, a new report says.

“I have spent far too much time telling parents who would like to enroll their children in our program that they cannot, simply because we don’t have more public funding,” said Carol Barone-Martin, executive director of early childhood programs in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

A new report from the Pennsylvania Principals Association says 99 percent of surveyed elementary school principals throughout the commonwealth agree that publicly-funded, high-quality Pre-K is an important tool for preparing at-risk children for kindergarten.

Advocates for establishing pre-kindergarten classrooms across the state arrived Wednesday(Sept. 20, 2017) at the Pottsgrove School District’s West Pottsgrove Elementary School to promote findings of a new report that says enrolling children in quality pre-K programs gives them important tools for learning.

Advocates for publicly funded pre-kindergarten classes said Wednesday that almost two thirds of eligible preschool-age children don’t have the ability to attend quality classes and urged lawmakers to support funding increases for pre-K. Leaders of the statewide Pre-K for PA campaign said their goal is to ensure every student in the state with a financial need can attend publicly funded pre-K by 2022.

Between April 11 and June 18, his organization asked every elementary principal in Pennsylvania to take a survey about the importance of pre-K education. Of the 351 principals representing 217 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts who responded, 99 percent either agreed, or strongly agreed, that it is very important.