MEDIA REPORTS

Iroquois Elementary School formally dedicated its expanded prekindergarten classroom Tuesday.

“Pre-K Counts is a high quality, there are measures of standards for qualifications of teachers, curriculum, how it’s integrated with the kindergarten program. So, we’re investing in programs, that are shown by decades of research that meet these high quality benchmarks,” says Bruce Clash, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

The pre-K classroom at Iroquois Elementary School is a little bigger thanks to a $25 million investment in programs across the Commonwealth.

The Berks County Intermediate Unit on Friday celebrated the addition of seven new pre-k classrooms that have opened up across Berks County this school year with a special event at the BCIU Education Center along Centre Avenue. The new classrooms are the result of a $30 million increase in this year’s state budget for early childhood education.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan and state Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26 of Springfield, met with leaders of Today’s Child Learning Center in Clifton Heights and local and state pre-K advocates to reinforce why access to these high-quality, public early education programs in the state are needed to create better citizens.

Local and state officials helped mark the expansion of a pre-kindergarten classroom at YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh’s Homewood-Brushton Child Development and Education Center on Sept. 19.

With the state budget passed this year – state funded pre-kindergarten classrooms are expanding. On Friday, a ribbon cutting was held at the ‘Susquehanna Children’s Center’ in Selinsgrove.

What if I were to tell you Harrisburg was considering a proven way to create jobs, reduce the number of people in jail, and save more tax dollars than it costs? What if it made it far less likely for 1,500 high-risk kids to go to jail?

While the soda tax battle finally ended on Monday when Mayor Jim Kenney signed the long-contested sugary drinks tax into law, local business leaders are saying more needs to be done.

Pennsylvania businesses and military leaders are calling on state policymakers to put an additional $90 million towards quality pre-K, an investment they say will eventually help bridge a STEM workforce skills gap in the state.