Bob's Blog
Focus on the Future: Early Childhood Education Roundtable in Harrisburg
As more of Pennsylvania’s children head back to school, on Friday, I travelled to Harrisburg to continue my conversations with state and local leaders about early learning opportunities in Pennsylvania to understand how we can ensure more of our youngest citizens get off to a good start in school and in life.
Whereas the week before I held a roundtable with leaders in Pottstown involved in the district’s pre-k readiness initiative (PEAK), this past Friday I met with leaders from across the state who are involved in implementing, overseeing and supporting early learning programs in the Commonwealth, including Head Start, Pre-K Counts, and Keystone Stars.
As was the case in Pottstown, leaders in Harrisburg voiced tremendous support for the programs and talked about the many ways that families and children have been helped by Pennsylvania’s investment in early learning. They emphasized that investments in early education and child care offer great value for the workforce of today, as well as the workforce of tomorrow, and that even in the face of tight budgets for families and the Commonwealth, they should be sustained. They also noted the need to support not just low-income families, but middle class families who also struggle to afford quality care and education for their young children.
Early Learning in Pottstown
On Friday, I travelled to Pottstown to meet with local parents and community and business leaders to talk about the Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness (PEAK) initiative. PEAK is a unique public-private partnership that members of the community launched in 2006 to ensure that every child enters kindergarten ready to learn. Roberto J. Rodriguez, Special Assistant to President Obama for Education, joined me for the visit.
The passion expressed by everyone involved was striking. By drawing upon all members of the community – public and private sector-alike – to enhance early learning opportunities, PEAK is really making a difference for Pottstown’s youngest citizens.
One of the most striking moments of the discussion was when PEAK parent, Christine Russell, talked about the difference the program has made in her son’s life. Christine was alerted that her son had a developmental disability long before most children are diagnosed with this particular condition because of the keen perception and intervention of her son’s teachers. Because of this, she was able to get her son the help he needed while he was still very young, which has allowed him to stay enrolled in the mainstream curriculum.
Early learning must be a priority not just in states but in Washington. I believe that we can’t be the nation we want to be without ensuring every child in this country gets a good start in life. That is why I have introduced legislation to increase access to high-quality pre-k education and increase the availability of high-quality and affordable child care, including:
- The Prepare All Kids Act (S. 839) – to provide more children, especially those from low-income families, with access to high-quality pre-k education;
- The Starting Early, Starting Right Act (S. 1000) – to help more families afford child care and improve care quality; and,
- The Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009 (S. 1002) – to provide funding to build high-quality child care facilities tailored to meet the needs of our youngest citizens.
These types of investments in early learning opportunities would not only help children, they would also improve our economy by strengthening our workforce, our productivity and our competitiveness.
I look forward to working with Roberto and others from the Administration as well as my Congressional colleagues, to ensure that early learning opportunities are expanded and strengthened – so that we can grow upon the good work being done in communities like Pottstown.
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