In Pennsylvania, Gov. Wolf has proposed a $120 million plan to invest into early education, and a recently released report from the national non-profit Fight Crime: Invest in Kids suggests that the investment will increase high school graduation rates while decreasing jail rates and reducing what tax payers spend annually.

"The report makes the case that by the time at-risk children get to kindergarten, many are already behind in vocabulary development, as well as in preliteracy and premath skills. They can also have problems with behavior and impulse control, which makes it hard to get along with other kids and teachers," according to ThePhilly.com.

The report states that by investing in early education, the endeavor is proven to help at-risk students reduce disadvantages and "eliminate costly interventions" down the road.

The increased funding would serve over 11,000 students from families living below the poverty line, and would partly also go to "Head Start State Supplemental program, which would serve an additional 2,400 children in poverty. Both of these critical programs have shown significant success in improving student outcomes," the article said.

According to the report, the increase in funding would save the state over $350 million.

"The group said it calculated that figure based on a separate, independent cost-benefit analysis showing that on average such programs return a "profit" on early-childhood investments of $26,000 for every child served," ThePhilly.com said.

Though many support Wolf's plan, including many educators and law enforcement officials, such legislators are concerned about where the funding will come from.

"Legislative Republicans said...that it is one thing to go around the state advocating for laudable programs, quite another to find the money to pay for them," the article said.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/02/2015