Report calls for pre-K funding increase
Over the last five years, Pennsylvania has pumped $145 million in funding increases into the effort to make sure kids have access to high-quality prekindergarten programs.
The Pre-K for PA Campaign is looking for an additional $243 million.
In a report released Tuesday, the campaign says that Pennsylvania
ranks 19th out of 28 states that provide high-quality, publicly funded prekindergarten when it comes to how much money the states provide per student. The $966 per capita spending in Pennsylvania is less than a third of what the top state, New Jersey, spends.
The newest “The Road to Success Includes High-Quality Pre-K” is the third version of the annual report. In each, Pennsylvania has fared similarly, coming in at 20th in 2017 and 18th in 2018.
“We’ve really been hanging around the same range,” said Kari King, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, a principal partner of The Pre-K for PA Campaign.
King said Tuesday that the importance of high-quality prekindergarten programs is wellknown. Study after study has shown its positive impact on students both inside the classroom and out, helping to develop curiosity, problem solving and social and emotional skills and other traits.
Kids who go through the programs perform better on standardized tests, have higher graduation rates and are better prepared when they reach the workforce, she added.
Despite the obvious benefits, King said, there are still a lot of kids not getting the opportunity. Only 44% of the eligible 3- and 4-yearolds eligible for statefunded prekindergarten — as determined by financial need — are currently enrolled.
And that, she said, needs to change.
“If we don’t break down barriers to access for more children at risk of failure, then we cannot expect them to enter adulthood prepared to make meaningful contributions to our economy and society,” King said.
That’s why King and others involved with the report are calling for the state to increase funding for prekindergarten by $243 million by the 2022-23 school year.
During a teleconference to discuss the report, a pair of men involved with efforts to increase prekindergarten funding in states that fare much better than Pennsylvania in the rankings shared their experiences.
Ken Sikkema, a former Michigan state Senate and House majority leader, said his state made a significant push to increase prekindergarten funding in 2013. Michigan ranked fourth in the report, spending $2,143 per student.
Sikkema said Michigan started a program to provide prekindergarten for low-income children in 1985, initially providing $1 million in funding. The program grew year after year, he said, sitting at about $70 million when he retired from politics in 2006.
Then, in 2012, a report came out that showed lowincome students in the state who went to a quality prekindergarten program ended up being much more successful than the ones who didn’t.
“The results were really quite startling, to be honest with you,” Sikkema said.
Paired with encouragement from business leaders, who saw prekindergarten as a stepping stone for creating a skilled workforce, Michigan’s governor and legislature decided to go all in, Sikkema said.
“Basically, the decision was made to ensure there’s a spot for every 4-year-old whose eligible,” he said.
Selling the idea, he said, wasn’t difficult. Politicians on both sides of the aisle could see the return on their investment would be enormous, adding more productive citizens to the population while cutting future costs for things like special education and the justice system.
“It was a pretty persuasive argument,” Sikkema said.
Rep. Corley Ellis has been in the Alabama state house for four years. Early on in his tenure, while sitting in a 2016 budget hearing, he heard for the first time about the successes of the state’s First Class Pre-K program, which had begun in 2013.
Ellis said that as he listened he had one of those moments, one of those instances where you suddenly realize why you’re doing what you’re doing.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think this is why I’m in Montgomery,’” he said.
Ever since, Corley has been an advocate for the program.
He helped secure a thenrecord $18.5 million for the program in the 2018-19 budget, then surpass it in the current budget with a more than $25 million investment.
Alabama ranked fifth in the report, providing $2,100 per student in prekindergarten funding.
Corley said it’s pretty easy to open a prekindergarten program in Alabama. But to run a highquality one takes money. He has worked to make sure prekindergarten teachers are paid the same as teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade.
“I think that relates to and translates into results,” he said of adequate funding.
Corley said he will continue to fight until every kid in Alabama has access to high-quality prekindergarten.
“Until we reach all the kids in that way, we’re failing, in my opinion,” he said.
King said right now is the perfect time to talk about prekindergarten funding.
Gov. Tom Wolf is scheduled to present his 202021 budget proposal this week, and finding more money for prekindergarten should be part of it, she said.
“This is a no-brainer,” she said. “Supporting pre-K just makes sense.”
The governor’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on prekindergarten funding.