The Daily Item: Editorial: Funding Early Childhood Education is Always Money Well Spent
February 25, 2023
New analysis from the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children presents a lot of the same conclusions and data stakeholders have long known about the impact of funding early childhood education. Essentially, you can never go wrong putting money into programs that boost high-quality programs and make them more accessible to more people.
The number of families with access is slowly returning after they cratered early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The new polling also shows near unanimous support for increased funding in the next budget, the first under new governor Josh Shapiro. According to the poll conducted in the first week of February, 98 percent of those who responded said early childhood education is important.
In that same poll, 78 percent supported spending more to increase public funding for the programs.
The list of things 98 percent of Pennsylvanians agree on is incredibly small.
There is clearly a want, perhaps only topped by availability.
It is incredibly troubling to read that more than 60 percent of Pennsylvanians ages 3 and 5 had no access to proven programs like Pre-K Counts or Head Start. To fill that need, an additional 5,075 additional classrooms are needed to serve those children, the study found.
In that same poll, 78 percent supported spending more to increase public funding for the programs.
As we have noted time and again in this space, it is money well spent.
According to the National Education Association, the benefits from a solid foundation built on programs like Pre-K Counts are immense. Consider:
Children in high-quality programs are projected to make roughly $143,000 more over their lifetimes than those who didn’t take part in such a program.
School districts can expect to save more than $11,000 per child because participants are less likely to require special or remedial education.
Read the full editorial here.
