Former Governors Campaign For High-Quality Preschool Funding

Former governors Ed Rendell and Mark Schweiker stopped in Doylestown Wednesday to promote a statewide campaign to push for more high-quality pre-kindergarten education programs.

The press conference at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit was part of the Pre-K for PA campaign, a statewide campaign to secure funding and increase the availability of high quality preschool for all Pennsylvania children.

Todd Adelfer, the senior vice president of commercial lending of QNB Bank and a United Way of Bucks County board member, explained the work that the United Way of Bucks County does in making sure as many kids as possible receive a strong preschool education. The Falls Township-based United Way of Bucks County provides 160 pre-kindergarten scholarships every year.

Pre-K for PA released a study on Wednesday titled “Pre-K Works, So Why Not PA?” The study found that only 36 percent of eligible children in Pennsylvania benefit from high quality, publicly-funded pre-kindergarten. It was stated Pennsylvania invests $792 per student, while other neighboring states spending more include New Jersey ($3,227), New York ($1,736), Maryland ($1,005) and West Virginia ($2,248). Out of the 30 states that make these investments for high quality pre-kindergarten, Pennsylvania ranks 18. Currently, Pennsylvania allocates $226 million each year to the fund.

Making the pre-kindergarten available for every eligible student would cost about $300 million or more, experts at the conference said.

“Candidates seeking public office must commit to getting Pennsylvania out of the bottom half of states and make it a top state for pre-kindergarten investments,” former Democratic governor Rendell said. “Our children do better if we lay a foundation of pre-kindergarten and full day kindergarten.”

During his talk, Rendell explained that he took over the work that then outgoing Gov. Schweiker was doing in terms of getting all at-risk kids quality pre-kindergarten education. When Rendell took the cause over from Schweiker, a Republican from Middletown, he thought it would be easy, Rendell recalled.

“If we want to attract Amazon and the next cutting edge technology, then we need to start by educating our kids, and that starts at pre-kindergarten,” Rendell said.

Spending money on giving more kids access to school isn’t about throwing money at something that doesn’t matter, Schweier told reporters.

“But really, it is about making sure the taxpayer is honored,” Schweiker said.

Both Rendell and Schweiker emphasized the importance of holding elected officials to high standards and the importance of being emboldened to ask about their stances regarding pre-kindergarten funding during the campaign season.

“It’s time for Pennsylvania’s leaders to follow the lead of two of the greatest governors this state has ever had,” said Joan Benso of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has focused on pre-kindergarten programs and increased funding by $75 million in the current state budget, according to his office.

The goal for the campaign, Benso explained, is for every at risk child to have access to high quality pre-kindergarten by 2022.