Transcript The Children’s Budget, 2000-01

The Benefits of Early Childhood Education
Who We Are
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Pennsylvania Partnerships for
Children
Advocacy organization
– Independent, non-profit
– Prevention-focused, research-based
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is a
strong, effective and trusted voice for
improving the health, education and wellbeing of the Commonwealth’s children.
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
 National Academies
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of Sciences
“Neurons to Neighborhoods”
Early experiences affect the development of
the brain and lay the foundation for
intelligence, emotional health, and social
development.
90% of brain growth occurs before age 5
Little public financing in the early years
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Key research findings:
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Neurons to Neighborhoods
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Importance of early life experiences and interactive
influences of genetics and life experiences –
– not nature vs. nurture but nature and nurture
Early relationships either support development or foster
dysfunction
Basic capacities (cognitive and linguistic), emotional
foundation and social skills are all well develop before
children reach school
The possibility to increase the odds for positive
development through planned interventions is substantial
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Bridging research to practice:
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Neurons to Neighborhoods
parents working more hours – juggling of
work and family at all income levels
 High levels of economic hardship for many
families
 Continued ethnic and racial disparities
 Growing number of children spending more
hours in child care settings, often of poor or
mediocre quality
 Greater awareness of stressors on the lives of
young children
 More
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Participation in high-quality early care
and education improves children’s
health and promotes their development
and learning. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics)
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Regardless of family income, highquality programs have positive impact
on children’s cognitive and language
development.
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
Children attending pre-school
Enrollment at Ages 3 and 4 by Mothers' Labor Force Status
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
% of 3 and 4 year olds
enrolled w' mothers in
labor force
% of 3 and 4 year olds
with mothers not in the
labor force
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
99
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96
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93
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90
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87
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76
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73
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70
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67
0.0%
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Landmark Study: Perry Preschool
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The study found that adults at age 40
who participated in the preschool
program had higher earnings, were
more likely to hold a job, had committed
fewer crimes, and were more likely to
have graduated from high school than
adults who did not have preschool.
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Return on Investment
 Overall,
the Perry Preschool
study documented a return
to society of more than a $17
for every tax dollar invested
in the early care and
education program.
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Kids who start behind, stay behind
Nearly 90% of children who are poor readers
in first grade will still be poor readers by
fourth grade
One-third of children entering kindergarten
cannot recognize the letters of the alphabet
and more than half do not know basic math
concepts. (Source: Pew Center on the States and National Conference
of State Legislatures)
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Conditions are worse for our lowincome children:
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During their preschool years, low-income
spend 25 hours reading vs. 1,000 – 1,700
hours spent reading by middle class peers
Start school with half the vocabulary of
middle class peers – gap widens
Learn best in heterogeneous groups
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
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Research comes from surprising sources:
– Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
“Investments made by families and society in
children early in life yield both public and private
long-term returns, including higher lifetime
earnings for children, higher tax revenues and
lower government transfer payments”
 12% public return
 16% public and private return
 Calls for large scale, public investment
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
 Support
comes from many:
– Committee on Economic
Development
– National Business Roundtable
– Fight Crime, Invest in Kids
– Philanthropy
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Early Childhood Education
A Strategic Opportunity
 Children
who attend high quality
ECE learn social skills, self
confidence and the ability to
deal with others.
– ECE
creates successful students
– ECE creates solid citizens
– ECE creates better communities
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Successful Students
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Children who enter kindergarten from high
quality ECE programs such as pre-K have
better reading, language and social skills than
those who didn’t go to preschool
ECE increases high school graduation rates
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Chicago children who attended a pre-K program were 29%
more likely to graduate from high school than their peers
who did not have pre-K. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study)
ECE helps children do better on standardized
tests
Children from quality pre-K get better test scores in later
grades and are likelier to graduate from high school. (National
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Research Council, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early
Childhood Development, 2000.)
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Successful Students
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ECE reduces grade retention
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Maryland fifth graders who attended pre-K were
44% less likely to have repeated a grade than
their peers who did not attend pre-K. (Source: "State
Efforts to Evaluate the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten,” Yale University Child
Study Center)
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ECE reduces the number of children placed
in special education
- Among Chicago children, those who attended preK were 41% less likely to require special
education services than their peers who did not
attend. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study)
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Solid Citizens
quality
As adults, children who attend high
ECE programs are likelier to be
married, with higher educational
attainments and better-paying jobs. (Source:
University of North Carolina, Early Learning, Later Success: The Abecedarian
Study, 1999)
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ECE reduces crime and delinquency
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Chicago children who did not attend pre-K were
70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime
by age 18 than their peers who had been pre-K
participants. (Source: Chicago Longitudinal Study)
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Solid Citizens
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ECE lowers rates of teen pregnancy
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North Carolina children who attended pre-K were
less likely to become teen parents than their peers
who did not attend pre-K: 26% vs. 45%.
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(Source: The North Carolina Abecedarian Project)
ECE leads to greater employment and
higher wages as adults
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Forty-year-old adults in Michigan who attended
pre-K as children were more likely to be employed
and had a 33% higher average income than their
peers who did not have pre-K. (Source: The High/Scope
Perry Preschool Project)
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Better Communities
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Return on Investment
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Pre-K results in savings by reducing the
need for remedial and special education,
welfare, and criminal justice services. (Sources:
The Economics of Investing in Universal Preschool Education in California,
RAND Corporation; The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project)
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Pre-K is a vital part of workforce
development
- Pennsylvania’s employers support ECE
investments because they equip young
learners with the skills for school success
and after graduation, workplace competence.
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School Readiness in PA
Conditions of Children 0-5
1 in 3 children lives in a low-income family
 1 in 6 babies was born to a mother with
less than a high school diploma
 900 children where victims of child abuse
and neglect
 66.5% of income-eligible children ages 3
and 4 are enrolled in Head Start
 Only 3.9% of young children have a
quality child care space available to them
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School Readiness in PA
Conditions of Children 0-5
Over 66,000 children receive subsidized
child care each day
 10,271 children were enrolled in public
school pre-K in 2004-05
 51% of PA kindergarteners are in fullday K compared to 65% nationally
 32% of our 3rd graders score below
proficient in reading
 20% of our 3rd graders score below
proficient in math
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School Readiness Cumberland County Conditions of Children
0-5
1 in 4 children lives in a low-income family
 1 in 8 babies was born to a mother with
less than a high school diploma
 40% of income-eligible children ages 3 and
4 are enrolled in Head Start
 Only 6% of young children have a quality
child care space available to them
 Over 500 children receive subsidized child
care each day
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School Readiness Cumberland County
Conditions of Children 0-5
No children were enrolled in public
school pre-K in 2004-05
 51% of PA children have FDK but only
23.9% of children in Cumberland Co.
 26% of our 3rd graders scored below
proficient in reading in Big Spring, 15% in
Cumberland Valley, and 24% in Carlisle
 15% of 3rd graders scored below
proficient in math in East Pennsboro,
13% in Shippensburg and 16% in
Camp Hill
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Better Communities
Stewardship: giving to children today
who give back to society later
 Increased tax revenue
 Increased competitiveness and more
skilled labor force/workforce
development – if young people aren’t
prepared for learning today, they’ll fail in
school and as young adults, fail at work
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 We
can and must do more….
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To Contact Us
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
www.papartnerships.org
800-257-2030
Joan L. Benso
President & CEO
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