Early Childhood Education

IT'S JULY, and much to the delight of schoolchildren everywhere, summer is here. In just a few days, members of the state Legislature will join them on summer break - but not before passing the state budget for the next fiscal year. At this late date, the question remains whether the final version will include full funding for the early-childhood-education proposals made by the governor. These include Pre-K Counts, a new initiative to provide pre-kindergarten to 11,000 3- and 4-year-olds across the state, and Keystone STARS and Child Care Works, two well-established and effective programs that are improving the quality and availability of early education and care.

An all-day event focusing on early-childhood education will be held at Bucks County Community College on Oct. 7. Sponsored by the Bucks County Association for the Education of Young Children, the event will feature June S. Delano, who works with Head Start and other early-childhood programs. Delano will talk about the importance of good teaching in helping children thrive. In addition, the conference will offer more than 25 workshops on early- childhood education. For more information, call Pat Miiller at 215-493-4679.

Almost half of children entering kindergarten in the United States are unprepared for the journey they are about to begin. Forty-eight percent of these children have moderate to serious cognitive and social problems at kindergarten entry. This is a shocking and sobering statistic. The effects extend through the rest of these children's lives, in most cases affecting future educational success and, consequently, professional and career advancement. Even more distressing, it's preventable - yet little is being done to improve the odds for our children.

This week, thousands of parents, teachers and child-care directors have been meeting to discuss an issue crucial to the future of our regional economy: early-childhood education. The conference, which continues through tomorrow and is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children, couldn't be more timely. This year, voters will be electing local, state and national officials and it will be important to learn where they stand on more funding for early-childhood education.

HARRISBURG — Spring is the season of pushback in the Capitol. The governor's spending plan is on the table, and invariably there are groups unhappy about its contents. With steep cuts proposed by Gov. Corbett in education and social services, the chorus of voices has grown louder this year — no fewer than a dozen rallies are scheduled in the Capitol this week alone — as the June 30 budget deadline looms. So, too, has the response by lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, who think Corbett's "tough choices" budget cuts too deeply in the areas of education and social services.

WHEN columnist John Baer writes that cutting state early childhood education programs is debatable, he ignores 40 years of research showing these programs increase academic achievement and graduation rates, and reduce special education, juvenile justice and welfare costs. For every dollar invested in good early childhood education, the public saves $8 to $17. Despite all we know about the benefits, publicly funded early childhood education reaches only four in 10 eligible children in Pennsylvania.

FOR MANY parents in the workforce, particularly those raising children on their own, the cost of quality child care can be out of reach - and high-quality child care, which is part of early-childhood education, is even pricier. According to a report from Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the average cost of such care for two children was more than $19,000 in 2007. The state Department of Public Welfare provides subsidies for low-income parents, but thousands of Philadelphia-area families are stuck on a waiting list.

Allison Elizabeth Bladt Fawcett, 32, of Lansdale, an elementary teacher in the Central Bucks School District, died at her home Tuesday, Oct. 5, after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. Mrs. Fawcett grew up in Lansdale, and graduated from North Penn High School in 1996. She earned both a cum laude bachelor's degree in elementary and early childhood education, and a master's degree in reading education, from Millersville University in 2002. While there, Mrs. Fawcett met her husband, Brian, who was from Manheim, Pa. In 2002, she was hired to teach first grade at Groveland Elementary School in Doylestown.

  Carol Hill Tatta, 76, of Wayne, director of what is now the Central Nursery School in Wayne from 1975 to 2010, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, on Tuesday, March 27, at home. In 2010, Eastern University in St. Davids named Mrs. Tatta its alumna of the year, her husband, Joseph, said. She was an instructor in early childhood education there in the 1980s, he said. Born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, Mrs. Tatta attended what is now Eastern University in the 1950s, and, after marrying and raising her children, earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education there in 1984.

HARRISBURG — Spring is the season of pushback in the Capitol. The governor's spending plan is on the table, and invariably there are groups unhappy about its contents. With steep cuts proposed by Gov. Corbett in education and social services, the chorus of voices has grown louder this year — no fewer than a dozen rallies are scheduled in the Capitol this week alone — as the June 30 budget deadline looms. So, too, has the response by lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, who think Corbett's "tough choices" budget cuts too deeply in the areas of education and social services.

  Carol Hill Tatta, 76, of Wayne, director of what is now the Central Nursery School in Wayne from 1975 to 2010, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, on Tuesday, March 27, at home. In 2010, Eastern University in St. Davids named Mrs. Tatta its alumna of the year, her husband, Joseph, said. She was an instructor in early childhood education there in the 1980s, he said. Born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, Mrs. Tatta attended what is now Eastern University in the 1950s, and, after marrying and raising her children, earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education there in 1984.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and five other states are winners in the latest round of federal Race to the Top education grants. New Jersey will receive $37.8 million and Pennsylvania $41.3 million from a pot of nearly $200 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education, in an announcement to be made public Friday. The money is intended to support changes to the educational system advocated by the Obama administration and to bolster science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)

Officials for the Philadelphia School District and the city council Tuesday agreed on how to spend $53 million that will be raised by a property tax hike. As officials had promised in recent days, the money will fund yellow school buses, reduced class sizes, accelerated schools and early childhood education. The district also has been counting on the city's money to cover $11 million in shared costs that aren't related to teaching children. On Tuesday, the district agreed to make other "adjustments" to its budget to cover that $11 million, thus dedicating all the new city money to educational priorities laid out by Mayor Nutter and Council.

BETTY Gordon-Elliott, a retired teacher and guidance counselor in the Philadelphia public schools, an active churchwoman and community leader, died March 18. She was 63 and lived in South Philadelphia. Betty was a familiar sight in her Point Breeze neighborhood, and earned the title "Mayor of South Philly" because of her friendly demeanor and desire to help anyone who needed her. "She was always friendly, cheerful and willing to lend a helping hand," her family said. "Betty Gordon-Elliott was a true humanitarian and caring educator.

On a recent morning, kindergartners in Hollie Citerone's class at the Southeast Delco School District Kindergarten Center settled in for "kid writing," a daily activity in which the children draw a picture, create a story about it, and write the sentences that make up the story. Seven children sprawled on a rug and opened their books to pages on which they had drawn pictures. With help from Citerone, they wrote their stories, sounding out words and referring to "helper" words posted on the wall.

Gov. Corbett slashed public-education spending in a major way yesterday, cutting nearly $550 million for basic education and the entire budget for charter-school reimbursements. Many of the cuts represent a huge blow for Philadelphia, which has the state's largest school system. Here are a few programs Corbett proposed to cut: Statewide charter-school reimbursements: $224 million to zero. Philadelphia has the state's most charters, with 74. In fact, Philadelphia's charters - with 43,574 students - are considered the state's second-largest school district and account for nearly $310 million of the district's $3.2 billion budget.

PENNSYLVANIA Attorney General Tom Corbett and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato were in town yesterday to address the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity during a nonpartisan gubernatorial forum at the Freedom Theatre, on Broad Street. "Nonpartisan," as in, Mayor Nutter warmed up the crowd for Onorato, a fellow Democrat, by ripping into Corbett's education proposal, cracking jokes about "crazy" tea-partiers and urging everyone to support President Obama's agenda. "I'm not suggesting how people should vote," Nutter said, drawing chuckles from the audience.

AT THE beginning of MSNBC's weeklong Education Nation summit, educators deliberated the state of American education and the many challenges affecting the nation's schools. There was lots of hand-clapping and plenty of "Amen" moments as the teachers, gathered from schools across the country, stepped to the microphones, offering insights into our classrooms and proposing solutions reforming the way we educate our children. But amid the talk of greater teacher accountability, charter schools and teachers unions, the meeting's biggest wave of applause was provoked by a comment from Art Costa, a Connecticut middle-school teacher who suggested that President Obama "flood the country with early-childhood education money.

Allison Elizabeth Bladt Fawcett, 32, of Lansdale, an elementary teacher in the Central Bucks School District, died at her home Tuesday, Oct. 5, after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. Mrs. Fawcett grew up in Lansdale, and graduated from North Penn High School in 1996. She earned both a cum laude bachelor's degree in elementary and early childhood education, and a master's degree in reading education, from Millersville University in 2002. While there, Mrs. Fawcett met her husband, Brian, who was from Manheim, Pa. In 2002, she was hired to teach first grade at Groveland Elementary School in Doylestown.