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In February 2009, nearly 800 individuals and organizations agreed to sign onto the letter to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in support of the Governor's FY 2009-2010 budget proposal to increase funding for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts $95.053 to serve an additional 1,050 children and provide the resources to remove 2,000 children from the Child Care Works Waiting List. February 25, 2009 - Letter to the PA General Assembly February 25, 2009 The Honorable William Adolph Jr. Dear Representative Adolph: The undersigned organizations and individuals, representing a wide array of early childhood education supporters, respectfully urge you to make investing in high quality early education and care for Pennsylvania’s children an integral part of the Commonwealth’s FY 2009-2010 General Fund Budget. Over the next few months, you begin the challenging task of weighing which investments Pennsylvania makes in this extraordinarily difficult economic climate. The Governor’s budget includes two critical investments in early childhood education: Child Care Works and Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts. Continued investment in these programs will help support Pennsylvania’s workforce now and into the future. Child Care Works provides an essential support for low-income, working families to gain and sustain employment. Parents of young children cannot work without safe and reliable child care. As families struggle to make ends meet in this weakening economy, more are turning to the Commonwealth for assistance with the high cost of quality child care. Child Care Works uses federal and state dollars to provide subsidies while parents help share the cost of their child care on a sliding fee basis. Child Care Works subsidies help parents go to work knowing that their children are safe, well-cared for, and having positive early learning experiences. Currently, there are over 15,000 children on the Child Care Works waiting list, which jeopardizes their parents’ ability to keep working. The funding of Child Care Works under the governor’s executive budget would allow about 2,000 more children from low-income working families to receive child care subsidy. We respectfully urge you to support the proposal to increase access to child care assistance. Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is providing high-quality, pre-kindergarten to nearly 12,000 three-and four-year olds at-risk of education failure. In its first year, nearly 70% of children participating in PA Pre-K Counts showed age-appropriate skills and behaviors after attending the program indicating their readiness to enter kindergarten prepared to learn. But, only 20% of Pennsylvania’s three- and four-year olds have access to high-quality, publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs in our state today and over 3,000 children were on waiting lists as programs began last fall. Research overwhelmingly demonstrates that public investment in high-quality pre-k improves school achievement, reduces special education spending, reduces juvenile crime, and increases lifetime earnings of the participating children. The governor’s executive budget provides funding to allow 1,000 more children at risk of education failure to participate in the program. We respectfully urge you to support this modest growth in PA Pre-K Counts. Based on the preliminary results noted above, our children, schools and the Commonwealth are reaping the benefits of this program. Strong support for state investments in early education exists in every community in the Pennsylvania. We ask that you remember the powerful immediate and long-term impact investments in early childhood education have on Pennsylvania’s children, their families, and future of the Commonwealth’s economy. With your assistance, commitment, and leadership we can continue to support today’s and tomorrow’s workforce even in this trying time. Sincerely For list of signing individuals and organizations please see Word or Pdf copies of the letters More than 800 individuals and organizations agreed to sign onto the letter to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in support of the Governor's FY 2008-2009 budget proposal to increase funding for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts by $12.6 million to serve an additional 1,000 children and expand some part-time programs to full-time. Additionally, the letter asked the legislature to support another critical investment of $48.8 million to improve child care programs through Keystone STARS and increase access to child care subsidies through Child Care Works. The letter noted that even with this investment, more than 8,000 children remain on the child care subsidy waiting list and urged them to increase this investment by an additional $9 million to reduce the child care waiting list by a total of 4,000 children. That letter hit the desk of legislators the first week of June as legislators returned to Harrisburg to begin budget negotiations in earnest. Let's keep the momentum going! May 5, 2008 - Download Letter to the PA General Assembly May 5, 2008 The Honorable Robert Regola Dear Senator Regola: The undersigned organizations and individuals, representing a wide array of early childhood education providers and supporters, respectfully urge you to make investing in high-quality early education and care for Pennsylvania's children an integral part of the Commonwealth's 2008-2009 General Fund Budget. Pennsylvania has made great strides in recent years in funding high-quality early education and care for our children. State funded programs such as Child Care Works, Head Start, Keystone STARS and Pre-K Counts promote high- quality learning environments. These programs are true investments in Pennsylvania's future. They create and promote successful students, successful communities and are good for the Commonwealth as a whole. However, we need to do more. Child Care Works keeps Pennsylvania's working families working and helps them afford quality child care for their children. The annual cost of child care for infants and toddlers is double the cost of one year's tuition at one of Pennsylvania's public colleges or universities. It is important that low-income working parents have the assistance they need to remain employed and to ensure their child is being cared for in a quality setting while they are at work. Pennsylvania's nationally recognized Keystone STARS program is making a difference. Keystone STARS is improving child care quality and helping parents make good child care choices. Evaluation reports show that Keystone STARS is reversing a negative trend in child care quality. Participating programs show higher quality than at the inception of STARS, and programs in Keystone STARS have higher quality than the Pennsylvania average. We support the Governor's proposed investment of $48.8 million in the improvement of child care programs through Keystone STARS and increased access to child care subsidies through Child Care Works. However, even with this investment, more than 8,000 children remain on the child care subsidy waiting list. We urge the General Assembly to support an additional $9 million investment in next year's budget that will reduce this waiting list by a total of 4,000 children. Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is providing high-quality pre-K to approximately 11,000 children across the Commonwealth who are at risk of education failure - giving them the tools they need to succeed in school and life. Research overwhelmingly backs public investments in high-quality pre-K - investments that can yield short-term education savings ranging from $0.78 to $1.16 for every $1 invested, and long-term public savings as high as $17 for every $1 invested. By December 2007, Pre-K Counts sites had waiting lists of more than 2,200 children. Still, just 20 percent of Pennsylvania's 442,000 three- and four-year olds have access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K programs. We support the Governor's 2008-2009 budget proposal to increase funding for Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts by $12.6 million in order to serve an additional 1,000 children. As you begin the challenging task of negotiating the fiscal year 2008-2009 budget, we respectfully ask that you remember the powerful impact investments in early childhood education and care programs have on Pennsylvania's children, their families and the future of the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania has proven itself a national leader in its investments and system building in early childhood education and care over the last five years. With your assistance, commitment, and leadership Pennsylvania will continue to have the resources to prepare its youngest children for success into the future. Sincerely, For list of signing individuals and organizations please see Word or Pdf copies of the letters.
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