PHILADELPHIA, PA — Pennsylvania is one of six states that does not require school districts to offer Kindergarten classes. A growing number of officials say not only is Kindergarten essential to a child’s wellbeing, but so is pre-K.

The House Democratic Policy Committee held a public hearing on the matter on April 18. The hearing was requested by Rep. Brendan Boyle, who is working on legislation that would provide for universal pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten in the state.

Among those testifying was Sharon Easterling, the executive director of the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children. She said, “The primary point of contention between those who favor public investments in pre-K and those who do not, is that initial gains of preschool tend to ‘fade out’ after the first few years of primary school.

“It is important to note that this is not true of all studies, but even in the same studies in which preschool and non-preschool children have similar test scores after a few years, children who had preschool benefit in other important ways for years thereafter.

“Studies of small intensive preschools, larger programs and Head Start show preschool children are more likely to graduate from high school, complete more years of education, earn more money, have fewer teenage pregnancies and are less likely to become involved in crime.”

Ronald Cowell, president of the Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC) said the state lags behind most others in terms of early education requirements. He said, “In Pennsylvania, except in Philadelphia, parents do not have a legal obligation to provide for the education of their child until the age of eight. Just a couple of years ago, with the leadership of the Philadelphia legislative delegation, the compulsory attendance age was changed to six for children in Philadelphia.

“According to the Education Commission of the States, in March 2014, the compulsory school age is eight only in Pennsylvania and Washington. It is seven in 13 states, and six or five in all other states. In our contiguous states, the compulsory school age is five in Delaware and Maryland, and six in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.”

Adele Robinson, deputy executive director at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, said there are economic benefits for early education. She said, “Business leaders, military leaders, and sheriffs all are actively advocating for an increased investment in early childhood education. Studies by James Heckman, Nobel laureate in economics, as well as other recognized economists, conclude that for every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood education, there is a significant return to the taxpayer from avoiding the higher costs of special education and remedial education, juvenile detention and school dropouts.

“Politically, preschool is a ‘trending’ issue. Four polls conducted in 2013 showed very strong public support—across political affiliations—for more public investment in preschool. Governors of different political ideologies are proposing funding increases for preschool, and fewer than 10 states lack a designated state funding source for preschool.”

One of the most successful universal pre-K programs in the country can be found in conservative Oklahoma, which started offering pre-K education to all four-year-olds in 1998, require class sizes of no more than 10 per teacher, and required teachers to have a certificate in early education.

The state paid for the program by embedding the cost into the state school system. Instead of funding a K-12 system, it changed so the state began funding a pre-K-12 system.

Steven Dow, executive director of Community Action Project (CAP) of Tulsa, who was involved in establishing pre-K as state policy in Oklahoma, testified in front of the New York City Council recently and countered claims made by the Heritage Foundation that benefits of pre-K don’t extend beyond the fourth grade.

He said, “looking at the results over a very long period of time, the difference between the performance of those children who had early childhood education in terms of their graduation rates from high school, their attendance rates at college, their earnings over their lifetime, their reduced involvement in the criminal justice system—those are all things that proved out over a longer period of time.” He said that they last well into adulthood.