From Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (http://www.papartnerships.org):
We’re happy to report that Governor Wolf’s proposed 2018-19 includes substantial investments in early learning, K-12 education and efforts to support strong parenting.
See line items related to children’s investments.
Below is PPC’s recap of some of the more notable areas of the governor’s budget proposal that impact the Commonwealth’s 2.8 million children.
EARLY LEARNING
The budget proposes an increase of $40 million in funding for the state’s Pre-K Counts program ($30 million) and Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program ($10 million) to serve an additional 4,400 children.
Currently, only 39 percent of eligible children in Pennsylvania benefit from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend high quality, publicly funded pre-k. Approximately 106,200 eligible children remain unserved. PPC is a partner in the Pre-K for PA campaign and we urge Pennsylvania legislators to support Gov. Wolf’s $40 million proposed new investment and build on it by investing an additional $270 million over the following three fiscal years to serve every eligible child.
The governor also proposed increased funding for child care – some highlights include $23 million in new state funds including $10 million to reduce the Child Care Works waiting list by 1,600 children and $10 million to increase tiered reimbursement for Keystone STAR 2, 3, and 4 providers. In addition, $3 million is slotted for an infant/toddler child care pilot program to improve access and quality.
HOME VISITING
An increase of $6.5 million is slated for home visiting initiatives, including training for child welfare, treatment and home visiting staff, and a long-overdue COLA for Nurse Family Partnership and Family Centers-Parents as Teachers programs. The proposal builds on the state’s past investment and expands resources to help 800 families suffering from the ravages of the opioid crisis to improve their capacity to raise their young children.
Home visiting programs recognize parents are children’s first teachers, but sometimes even parents need help. Nurses and other trained professionals visit with women, families and children as early as beginning in pregnancy to promote positive birth outcomes and provide parent education and support which promotes child health, well-being, learning and development. Voluntary home visiting programs can lead to improved maternal and child health outcomes, positive parenting, safe homes and connections to integrated services and improved family economic security.
K-12 EDUCATION
The proposal contains an increase of $100 million for basic education funding, which would be driven out through the state’s fair funding formula that increases the state’s fair share of providing basic education services to students.
It also includes a special education funding increase of $20 million, a $10 million increase in base funding for career and technical education, and advances a $40 million new initiative called PAsmart, focused on workforce development skills that includes programming in both the Department of Education and the Department of Labor and Industry.
One of the most important roles state government plays is to support an adequate and equitable public school funding system. The governor’s proposal to increase funding for basic, special and career and technical education is an important step in the right direction
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