The Following post provided by The Community Outreach LEARN community listserv who provides tips and tools to promote quality early education to school, community and business leaders and policymakers.

Last week, the Independent Fiscal Office reported that they estimate that the state’s revenues will be $520 million short of the revenues predicted for next year’s budget. That prediction came in its initial revenue estimate, released on May 3. A final and official estimate will follow June 17 and the governor’s budget office will issue the final revenue estimate when the budget is completed.

You can read more about the announcement in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

The state is required to pass a balanced budget and will have to address this shortfall. This the time that legislators and the administration will be deciding on their priorities for the budget- what programs they will protect from funding cuts.

The deadline to pass a budget is June 30 – only 9 weeks away! 

Now is the time to tell your elected officials that you feel quality early education needs to be a priority for Pennsylvania and share with them the impact that quality early education is having in your community.

Telling your story is easy – visit the PA’s Promise for Children website for tips on what you can share. You’ll find questions that you can answer for parents, teachers, and providers.

Here are other resources that you can share with your story:

  • We Are Pennsylvania’s Future video. The “We are Pennsylvania’s Future” video shares from the children’s perspective how investments in quality early education build a brighter future for Pennsylvania’s families, businesses      and communities. You can view the video on the PA’s Promise for Children YouTube channel.
  • Pennsylvania      Results in Early Education 2011-2012 (PPT) – powerpoint slides with outcomes from Pennsylvania’s early education programs that you can add to your presentations
  • The Heckman Equation: Invest in early childhood development: Reduce deficits, strengthen Pennsylvania’s economy. This brief  references Pennsylvania data to reinforce Nobel Laureate      Heckman’s argument that making greater investments in young children creates greater returns in education, health and productivity.
  • Ready Nation: Building a Stronger Commonwealth: The Business Case for Investing in Pennsylvania’s Youngest Learners. This brief shows how investing in quality early education fixes the skills gap by building children’s skills and alleviating toxic stress which produces long term development and health issues.

Thank you for your continued commitment to Pennsylvania’s young children!