State and national reports published in the past few weeks reveal distressing facts about the plight of children everywhere. New Census figures show an increase in poverty across the country while data from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children corroborates that the number of children living in low-income families in the commonwealth grew this past year to nearly 40 percent of children birth to age 5.Their parents are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads while facing fewer work hours and even unemployment. Children who live in low-income families are likely to have poor nutrition, chronic health problems, and fewer educational opportunities, causing them to be less prepared for school.
School readiness means more than just having the right school supplies. It's about a child's social, emotional and cognitive development and the ability to hit the ground running when kindergarten starts.
High-quality early learning can help enhance a child's school readiness and yet, all across Pennsylvania, including right here in York County, investments in pre-kindergarten and other high-quality early learning programs are down.
York County lost a little traction in providing access to public pre-kindergarten. In 2009, 8.1 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds were served in publicly funded preschool programs while this year it slipped slightly to 7.8 percent. While not a huge deficit, we should be growing this early learning investment, not diminishing access.
The county also lost ground in the availability of child care subsidy offered to low-income working parents. Due to a loss of resources, there were 170 fewer slots in the child care subsidy program this year resulting in almost 240 children unable to receive subsidized child care. (Part-time children can share one full-time slot.)
Subsidized child care helps keep low-income parents working so they don't have to make the difficult decision in choosing between employment and child care. The number of children statewide on the subsidy waiting list is now more than 12,000.
As Pennsylvania prepares for a new governor, two key issues confront our state: making sure our children are ready to compete in a global economy and seeing that every tax dollar invested in an austere budget produces significant returns.
This is why I, along with nearly 1,400 other individuals and organizations, have joined a new, diverse statewide coalition called First Steps Pennsylvania (www.firststepspa.org), to encourage our next governor to make investing in early childhood education a priority.
More and more research shows the importance of high-quality early learning experiences as not only getting a child started off well in school, but increasing the odds for that child's success throughout his or her entire academic career -- and work life as well.
Results for children enrolled in pre-kindergarten through PA Pre-K Counts classes show significant gains. At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, nearly 75 percent of children who attended Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts finished the school year with age-appropriate proficiency in literacy, numeracy and social skills. Of those children who participated in Pre-K Counts in 2007-2008, a smaller percentage required Early Intervention services in kindergarten than among the total kindergarten.
Children who attend high-quality pre-K programs enter kindergarten with better language, reading, math and social skills. They have fewer grade retentions, less remediation, higher standardized test scores, and higher graduation rates.
Recent analysis of the Perry Pre-School Program in Michigan shows each dollar invested returned $16 in crime, education and welfare savings, higher earnings and taxes paid, as students are more likely to succeed in school, stay out of trouble with the law, graduate and get better jobs.
The success of these programs in aiding the academic achievements of children and providing a substantial return on investment for taxpayers is well documented.
Unfortunately, so is the lack of access to these programs for so many of our youngest citizens.
Will our next governor make early learning a priority in his agenda? Will he be committed to helping to create a strong foundation for all children?
Our next governor will have lots of tough decisions to make, though one decision should be fairly simple: Early education is a sound investment that reaps rewards for a lifetime.