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By Megan Carolan Philadelphia is one of the largest U.S. cities to embrace a plan for universal pre-Kindergarten, highlighting the potential benefits for parents, children, and the city as a whole. The city has recently kicked off its PHLpreK initiative, which seeks to provide 6,500 high-quality slots over five years, with funding from a small beverage tax approved by the city council.
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By Theresa Hawley, PhD Preschool is now widely recognized as one of the most effective investments that a community can make to ensure that children from all economic backgrounds develop the academic and social-emotional skills that they need to succeed in school and in later life. Consequently, cities across the country are launching exciting new initiatives to greatly expand access to high quality preschool for young children. Philadelphia recently embarked upon one of the most ambitious of these plans: a major new effort to provide affordable access to high quality preschool to every 3- and 4-year-old in the city.
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This was a big week for PHMC’s Early Childhood Education Group. On Tuesday, there was an official ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony at the onsite Early Learning Academy, a new high quality early learning program from children from birth to 5 years old. Fewer than 10 percent of companies nationwide offer Early Childhood Education in or near their offices, PHMC is proud to be part of that 10 percent—offering places for children of employees and others in the community. The program is run by Bright Horizons, and operates in a space creatively designed specifically for young children. Click here for more information.
On Thursday, The Mayor’s Office of Education officially announced that PHMC and the Urban Affairs Coalition will be the administrative intermediary entity for Philadelphia Pre-K. They also announced that new programs will be enrolling 2,000 children as part of PHL Pre-K, starting in January. For more details, see here. Parents can also call 844-745-7735 to enroll, and find out about eligibility for related services.
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This question relates back to the inherent tension between ECE quality and access. A high quality programs can be defined as one providing a safe, secure environment offering opportunities to play and explore, with an integrated curriculum addressing all areas of development. High quality programs will provide opportunities for cognitive, social-emotional, and language skills growth, along with physical development. On the one hand, we know that high-quality care can improve child outcomes. On the other, with a limited budget, lower-quality, cheaper programs offer care to more children. If there were clear evidence that low-quality ECE leads to negative child outcomes—or does not significantly improve outcomes—policymakers could prioritize a baseline of quality, even at the expense of additional slots, confident in the knowledge that opting for more low-quality slots would be harmful or wasteful.
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