HARRISBURG, Pa. – More than 90% of Pennsylvania kindergarten teachers agree that high quality pre-k prepares children for school success, according to a new report.

The Pre-K for PA campaign and the Pennsylvania State Education Association surveyed kindergarten teachers about the value that access to publicly funded, high quality pre-k has in promoting school readiness.

Kari King is president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, one of the founding organizations of Pre-K for PA. She says 96% of teachers surveyed agree that high quality pre-k is an important tool for helping children develop the physical, emotional and social skills that are needed to succeed in the classroom.

"And 98% said that they see investing in high quality pre-k makes sense for the return on investment that you're seeing throughout the child's life," King states.

Since 2014 the state has invested $115 million to give 12,000 additional at-risk children access to pre-k, but more than half of eligible children are still left out.

With the state budget for the coming fiscal year due at the end of June, King is hoping legislators will agree to invest an additional $40 million in the state's Pre-k Counts program, and $10 million in the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program.

"With that we'll be able to provide access to about 5,500 additional three and four-year-olds who are eligible and continue to chip away at about 56 percent of eligible preschoolers who currently don't have access," King states.

King points out that Pennsylvania still ranks 18th out of the 30 states that do invest in high quality pre-k.

King says it's an investment that pays. Research shows that a child who attended a high quality pre-k program sees benefits that can last a lifetime.

"That child is less likely to need remediation, and even into adulthood where you see that they're more likely to have successful outcomes in terms of not entering the criminal justice system and gaining employment," she states

King notes that every dollar invested in high-quality pre-k returns $4 in savings and benefits to the Commonwealth from reduced crime, higher earnings and more.

BOISE, Idaho -- The Build Back Better Act could provide universal pre-K to states, including those such as Idaho that currently don't fund school before kindergarten.

Idaho is one of six states that don't. As the bill is written now, the federal government would cover 100% of school costs for three and four-year-olds until 2025, when states would gradually be required to match funds.

Beth Oppenheimer, executive director of the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, said states would have the option to say no.

"In Idaho, that obviously remains to be seen in regards to if the state will choose to opt out or if the state will choose to participate in this program," Oppenheimer noted.

Under the current proposal, states would put forth plans on how they would use funding. Oppenheimer pointed out the funding could go to a variety of options, including public and private programs and Head Start. The Build Back Better Act could get a vote next week.

The early childhood initiative, which totals nearly $400 billion over six years, also includes provisions to improve the quality and affordability of child care.

Oppenheimer stressed child care and preschool complement each other and pointed out child care plays an especially important role in Idaho.

"Let's remember that the state does not have a state pre-K system, and so child care is serving as our pre-K system in this state," Oppenheimer observed.

Oppenheimer also emphasized how important child care is for the economy. Low pay in the industry has made it hard to compete for workers, leading to shortages and costs many families cannot afford.

She added the low pay also makes it hard for child-care workers to afford things such as housing; already hard to find in places like Boise.

"All of these pieces of this puzzle create this inability to be able to hire and retain a workforce that is built and designed to support other workforces," Oppenheimer explained.

The goal of the early childhood initiative is to subsidize child care, so no family is spending more than 7% of its annual income on care.

HOLYOKE, Mass. - With the school year in full swing for Massachusetts K-through-12 students, many parents are seeking early-childhood education and care for their younger kids. Recent U.S. Census Bureau surveys show more than 2 million Americans took unpaid leave to care for a child in the last month.

Steve Huntley, executive director of Valley Opportunity Council in Holyoke, said their early learning and care programs, which are subsidized for eligible families, shut down for a few months at the start of the pandemic - but as soon as they reopened, the demand was there.

"It was in part because they felt safe with with us, etc.," he said. "But it was more importantly that it was out of necessity for them to get back to work. We continue to see folks truly needing our centers in order to keep their employment, to keep their jobs."

Valley Opportunity Council is among 23 community action agencies working to end poverty in the state. Huntley said they put high priority on high-quality programs so children in working-class families have the same educational opportunities as those in more affluent families.

Birgitta Damon, chief executive of Lynn Economic Opportunity, Inc., runs the Head Start and early Head Start programs in Lynn. She said these federal programs prepare kids for kindergarten by assessing their developmental, social and emotional, and academic needs. While theirs has long been a critical service for many families, the pandemic has led to more kids experiencing isolation and disruption from their usual routines.

"We also provide nutrition services, health services," said Damon, who also is board president of the Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP). "We do 11 assessments during the school year to ensure that children are on a path for school readiness, to enter kindergarten."

Damon added that if a child shows signs of needing additional support, Head Start programs refer families to local agencies, pediatricians or the public school systems for Individualized Education Programs. Low-income families can find out if there are spots in local Head Start or child-care programs by contacting their local community action agency.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Gov. Tom Wolf signed the new state budget last week, which includes a historic $416 million increase in public-education funding.

While the investment was praised by some, child-care providers say the budget missed the mark in their field. They also want to ensure the $1.2 billion dollars the state received from the American Rescue Plan for child-care centers gets to them as soon as possible.

Jen DeBell, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, said child-care line items got no state-budget increases despite being devastated by the pandemic, so the federal funds are critical.

"We've seen almost 700 programs close, and more than 360 are still temporarily closed," DeBell observed. "So, we don't want to see those numbers driven up because the money isn't going out quick enough."

Some areas she'd like to see receive increased funding include hiring or retention bonuses to help centers build back staff lost in the pandemic. DeBell noted the average child-care teacher in Pennsylvania makes $10.69 an hour.

Nancy Frederick, director of The Learning Center at Third Street Alliance, a child-care center in Northampton County, said they've been struggling to hire teachers, making it difficult to increase classroom size to meet the growing need.

She argued government support is necessary for them to increase pay and offer teachers a living wage, and stressed the importance of high-quality early learning.

"I think the state and federal support financially there would be greatly put into use," Frederick asserted. "Because they are really getting students early on, where they can make a difference and build those connections before they even go to the public school, or whatever school they go to once they are the age of five or six."

Frederick added she also hopes to see funds for expanding what's known as the Infant/Toddler Contracted Slots Program, which provides free child care for children of eligible families, up to age three.