Mark Lawrence hosts an update on the progress, mission, and why the biggest education issue of our time is still a slow process of gaining attention and funding.
- Norman Rich, former Pres and CEO of Weis Markets and a member of the PA Early Learning Investment Commission
- Carey Harris, executive director of the PA Early Learning Investment Commission
We’ll be talking about the PA Early Learning Investment Commission and its role of working with the business community across the state. They advocate for smart policy and public investments in early learning. We’ll discuss the recently released paper titled “The Power to Grow,” which highlights the critical need for high quality child care in the state, and specifically in the Valley, and how it impacts the workforce of today and tomorrow.
We’ll highlight the lament how few children are being served by a high quality early education system and why that may be the single most important education, development and quality of life issue of our time. We’ll discuss how a lack of childcare impacts today’s workforce because employees are less productive and don’t show up for work if they don’t have reliable childcare and how today’s workforce is struggling to find qualified and skilled employees. We’ll talk about why it’s more important than ever to make sure our kids have the best start to school and to life.
We’ll open the glossary and get a brief description of Pre-K, Childcare and Home Visiting, different public funding streams, and how each family is different in PA. A talk about this year’s state budget will be included.
9:15am to 10:00am: Open phones. We read the latest anti-President Donald J. Trump emails and get some responses from our audience.