Robert P. Casey Jr.

August 30, 2007

Source: Montgomery Life

By Brandie Kessler

Sen. Bob Casey talked with educators, children and community members in Pottstown about his Prepare All Kids Act Tuesday and spoke in support of the Children's Health Insurance Program.
 
Casey stopped by Emmanuel Lutheran Church where one of the Montgomery Early Learning Centers early childhood education centers is located. Casey read to a classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds and took a tour of the classrooms before speaking.

"I was able to read a story uninterrupted, that never happens in Washington," Casey said jokingly.

Casey made the stop in Pottstown Tuesday after trips to Reading and Bethlehem Monday.

Standing before a room of educators, including Pottstown Superintendent David Krem and Owen J. Roberts Superintendent Myra Forrest, and various local officials, including Executive Director Dale Mahle, of the Tri-County Chamber of Commerce, Casey advocated his Prepare All Children Act, introduced in May, which is designed to give all children at least one quality year of pre-kindergarten education.

Casey explained that funding for Pre-K Counts, a new education initiative recently signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell, is beginning to reach schools. He said the program will serve Pennsylvania children well, but his goal is to see it expanded and applied to all schools in the U.S.

"I just think it's critically important we do this across the nation," the U.S. senator said. "It's not good enough to say that we have some states making progress."

The Prepare All Children Act calls for discretionary funding of $5 billion for fiscal year 2008 with a $1 billion increase each year through 2012, with states required to put up a 50 percent match in cash.

Casey said the benefits of a pre-kindergarten education exceed the benefits the children and their families see, emphasizing the "long-term benefits to our economy."

Casey said that children who do not receive a quality early education are more at risk for "academic failure, drug abuse and even criminal activity."

"They've got to get a healthy start," Casey said.

He referred to a 1993 study that indicated at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds randomly excluded from a specific preschool program were five times more likely to become chronic offenders with more than four arrests by age 27.

"If I were a CEO or president of a firm, I'd want to have this worker," Casey said referring to the adults who had an early childhood education and were less likely to have become a chronic criminal offender.

Casey noted that children whose educational skills are fostered at a young age can grow to become viable workers and develop a skill set to help us "compete in a world economy."

"It's much more of a wise investment to invest in a child ... by providing him or her a quality education" than playing the stock market or investing someplace else, Casey said.

A head teacher at the center who called herself Ellie said she is in favor of programs designed to give children an educational experience in a classroom before they enter kindergarten.

"It just helps them prepare for when they're in kindergarten for the full day," she said. "Some of these children are from single-parent families and their parents don't have time" to work with the children on academics.

Speaking on the issue of CHIP, Casey noted that people shouldn't have to fight for existing programs that provide a service to children like CHIP, "but we do under this administration."

Casey called tax cuts for the wealthy "immoral" in the face of programs that need funding, and that saying it's unfair or it's a lack of prioritizing is "a candy-coated understatement."

Tax cuts for the wealthy "are wrong. They shouldn't be in place and we should repeal them," he said.