Political Quotes

“Just a couple of more points, and I will move on. Even with these recent gains, according to one of the national groups that track this data, the National Institute of Early Education and Research, NIEER, shows that only 4 in 10 American 4-year-olds are enrolled in public pre-K and fewer than 2 in 10 3-year-olds. Let's just focus on the 4-year-olds. Four in ten 4-year-olds are in these kinds of programs. I don't know how we can compete and have the best workforce in the world and develop the highest skill level in the world for our future if we don't make a commitment to early learning. I don't know how else we can get there over time if we are going to continue to talk a good game about early learning. And to listen to the testimony of parents, CEOs, and business owners who come to us year after year, in addition to talking to us about taxation and other issues--they say: Please, please make an investment in early learning. Some of the biggest companies in Pennsylvania and some of the biggest companies in the world have come to us and said that. Whether it is a CEO or a parent or an educator, they all believe we have to finally, at long last, make a commitment to early learning as a nation because it is a strategic economic imperative. Even in Pennsylvania, where I mentioned before that we made some strides over basically the last decade or 15 years, we rank 10th in the amount of State resources invested. That is kind of good news but not enough.…”