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Early education success cited in call for funding

POTTSTOWN >> As the state budget season kicked off with the presentation of Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget, early education advocates kicked off their efforts to ensure that budget funds pre-kindergarten education.

For their setting they chose the Learning Annex building on North Franklin Street where several of the Pottstown School District’s Pre-K Counts classrooms are held.

It is an easy program to support, said Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, because “it emotionally prepares students to deal with the world, and economically, it is the best way to invest in education.”

That too was the conclusion reached in a four-page study by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia which was released during the event.

Jeff Hornstein, the executive director of

EMILY OVERDORF — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist., reads to children in one of Pottstown’s Pre-K classrooms in the Annex on North Franklin Street following an event Thursday calling for sustained funding of Pennsylvania’s Pre-K programs.