Area District Attorneys Lobby for Pre-K Education Funding

Written by Bob Byrne

Saying that it could save the Commonwealth $195 million and eventually reduce the number of state prisoners in Pennsylvania by 5,000 per year, five Southeastern PA district attorneys met reporters in front of a state prison Wednesday morning to lobby for Pre-Kindergarten education funding.

The district attorneys from Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Cumberland Counties stood at the front doors of the state prison in crime-ridden Chester, Delaware County to support a national push for $75billion in federal funds for early childhood education over the next ten years.  It is a proposal being pushed by the Obama Administration and Fightcrime.org/pa, the lobbying organization that staged the press conference.

The five District Attorneys come from both political parties and different ends of the political spectrum. They all agreed that getting basic education services to children early, before age five, can have a dramatic impact onchildren's futures and dramatically reduce their risks of becoming criminals, or even victims of criminals.

Citing a new report: I'm the Guy You Pay Later, each District Attorney took a turn at the podium quoting the statistics for incarceration in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams(D-Philadelphia) commented, “The choice is simple: Pay for quality early learning for Pennsylvania children now, or pay far more for the costs of crime and lack of educational success in Pennsylvania for decades to come.”  

Williams, a supporter of President Obama, refused to take the bait when a Philadelphia newspaper reporter asserted that Governor Tom Corbett had cut the education budget.  Williams said he was standing with fellow District Attorneys in a bipartisan effort. Williams offered to give his opinion of the governor in another forum, but said that Governor Corbett had in fact increased funding for early childhood education.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan (R-Chester County) addressed an issue the other four did not. Hogan said young children could avoid future problems with the law by spending "about three months living with the parents he grew up with. We didn't have much money growing up. There were six of us. Both of my parents worked, but there were clear rules. Education came first. You were expected to work around the house, and God help you if you disrespected anyone in the house or were lazy.  But not everybody is lucky enough to grow up with parents like mine.  Not everyone is lucky enough to have that support early on, " Hogan said.  "No child is destined from birth to end up in jail.  We'd all much rather see kids in graduation gowns and caps than in handcuffs and prison jump suits."

In a sweeping indictment of parents on welfare the report (see page 2) asserts that:

 "for example, by age 6 months, babies start to understand the link between words and their meanings. This sets the stage for language development and later reading. Yet children from different backgrounds have very different early experiences. Researchers observed children in their own homes monthly for over two years, until the age of three, and recorded how many words their parents spoke to them. There were large differences in the average number of words spoken to the children by professional parents, working class parents, and parents receiving welfare: 

• Professional Parents:45 million words
• Working-Class Parents: 26 million words
• Parents Receiving Welfare: 13 million words

These differences affected the children’s vocabulary development: by age three, children with professional parents had average vocabularies of 1,116 words, compared to 749 words for working-class and 525 for children of parents receiving welfare. By the time children reach kindergarten, too many are not only far behind in vocabulary development, but on pre-literacy and pre-math skills (such as knowing their alphabet or being able to count to ten), as well. Many also face challenges in learning to control impulses and behavior so they can get along with other students and teachers," the report states.

The report offers statistics to support the Obama Administration's push for federally-funded (funneled through the states) early childhood and pre-kindergarten programs.  

According to the website USGovernmentspending.com welfare spending under the Obama Administration has been higher than at any point since 1997.

That might present a catch that would not bode well for local school districts left with the task of implementing any future federal or state mandates for pre-K programs but not given the money to pay for it.  "We're not looking for unfunded mandates, Fightcrime.org State Director Bruce Clash told Patch," This proposed federal-state partnership would bring money to the states to spend money as they see fit to drive it out through the existing programs that they have like Pennsylvania Pre-K counts, like other existing programs. So it would provide additional resources and I think, as I've seen the proposal, minimum strings and unfunded mandates.  It's really intended to be a supplement to what's working to get more kids into programs."