PRESS ROOM

If companies want to have a skilled and educated workforce in the future, supporting quality early education is key, according to Pre-K for PA, a statewide issue campaign.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate McGinty will visit the Hansel & Gretel Early Learning Center on Walnut Street at 10 a.m. to visit the pre-k classrooms and read to children. She will be joined by representatives from the military, law enforcement and business communities affiliated with the Pre-K for PA campaign.

An early child education event held for local state legislators was hosted by an enthusiastic group leading the cause. However, few lawmakers attended.

“The week of the young child is really an opportunity to raise awareness for the early childhood education,” Montgomery County Director of Child Care Information Services Elizabeth Adeyi said at the commissioners’ meeting Thursday. “Early childhood education is really the building block, the genesis to life-long learning and we really have to get it right. I’m glad to report that in Montgomery County we have the highest number of children in high quality learning centers in the whole south eastern region,” she said.

Luzerne County DA Stefanie J. Salavantis: The fact that two-thirds of Luzerne County’s 3- and 4-year-olds do not have access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-kindergarten programs creates an obvious school readiness gap and a less obvious crime prevention gap. But many law enforcement leaders, including myself, have long considered quality early childhood education as a critical component in an overall strategy to curb crime and violence.

The notion of providing Pre-K education has bipartisan support. Finding the money in these tight times is another matter.

PCCY is one of nine organizations behind the Pre-K for PA campaign, which advocates for investing in high quality pre-kindergarten education for every three-year-old and four-year-old in the state.

Ten advocacy groups across the state are making a push for more pre-K funding in Pennsylvania. This new coalition is seeking to use this year’s gubernatorial race as an opportunity to campaign for high-quality pre-K care for every family.

The coalition includes Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia (ELGP), Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

Olga Welch, dean of the School of Education at Duquesne University: “Not just talk about it,” she said, “but put the kind of resources into it so that no child is locked out of that opportunity. And I think we can talk about it all we want, but what we do is we invest in what we care about. So if we care about our children we will invest straight through from the time they are little all the way up through high school.”

Parents, educators, grandparents, and others who have a vested interest in getting more public funding for early childhood education in Pennsylvania were being encouraged today to get their message across to legislators by sending photos of themselves.

Guest opinion from Bensalem Township School District superintendent David E. Baugh and president of the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition Nancy Morrill: “Most professional educators, no matter whether we are public, private, parochial or charter school, believe that expanded investment in early learning is essential, because it helps ensure that every child has the best chance possible for academic and social success. Obviously this has long-term benefits for the country and the child.”