Because it will be the new governor and his administration setting the agenda for 2011 and beyond, your vote - and your voice - will send an important message to Pennsylvania's next governor about the importance of PA's early learning programs, including Pre-K Counts, Head Start and Child Care Works.

The First Steps PA campaign (www.firststepspa.org) is the largest voter education and registration effort of its kind ever launched in Pennsylvania, and includes nearly 400 diverse organizations statewide.

A strong and well-funded early childhood education system is critical to our students and to our state's long-term success. We've made great strides in the Commonwealth during the last eight years and we cannot afford to stop now. The breadth and depth of the First Steps PA coalition reflects that progress and the need to keep moving forward.

The campaign will engage in a sustained, aggressive voter registration, education and "Get Out The Vote" effort across Pennsylvania.

By highlighting the success of Pennsylvania's early learning programs and how these benefit all Pennsylvanians, the First Steps PA campaign will ensure gubernatorial candidates keep funding for these programs a priority, and voters keep this as a key issue as they make their decision in the voting booth in November.

Please visit http://www.firststepspa.org to join the First Steps PA Campaign and learn more.

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children

Gubernatorial candidates will have a lot on their plates: economic recovery, unemployment, transportation, health care, education, taxes – there's really no end to the "To Do" list facing our next governor.

But, in the midst of all the campaign chaos, one population needs to remain a priority come Election Day: children. Kids can't vote, so those of us who can need to ensure children's issues don't take a back seat to the usual politics.

Because it will be the new governor and his administration setting the agenda for 2011 and beyond, your vote - and your voice - will send an important message to Pennsylvania's next governor about the importance of PA's early learning programs, including Pre-K Counts, Head Start and child care.

Decades of research shows that early learning makes a difference and provides a strong return on investment. And in today's weakened economy, it makes far more sense to "frontload" the system to assure success, rather than "backload" it to compensate for failure.

I urge my fellow voters to join First Steps Pennsylvania, a statewide non-partisan campaign committed to making early childhood education a priority issue during the gubernatorial election as well as a continued focus of the next state administration.

By joining First Steps PA – either as an organization or an individual – you have the opportunity to tell the next governor how important high-quality early childhood education is to you, your children, your families, or your groups and communities.

But before we can communicate that message to gubernatorial candidates, the First Step is to join the campaign! The stronger we are, the louder we are, and the more clout we carry with candidates and the media.

Go to www.firststepspa.org to join or endorse the First Steps PA Campaign

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children

As I write this blog entry, Congress has just passed a six-month extension of unemployment benefits for the millions still out of work across the country. That's good news for the 2.5 million people whose eligibility lapsed while Congress debated the bill. Those of us who advocate for the health, education and well-being of children hope our federal lawmakers will act similarly, and end the stalemate over FMAP.

What is FMAP and why does it matter to Pennsylvania kids?

Also known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage ("FMAP"), this legislation was designed to help states handle their increasing Medicaid costs as a result of the recession. But in 2009 Congress provided the states, including Pennsylvania, with a larger share of Medicaid matching funds to assist in meeting greater demand for Medicaid during the economic crisis and stagnant unemployment.

But these funds are scheduled to expire in December and to date, Congress has failed to act on FMAP. This could mean a loss of $850 million to Pennsylvania because the recently-passed state budget included the assumption of these FMAP funds.

This likely will mean the reduction of basic education funding resulting in the layoffs of thousands of teachers statewide; cuts to child welfare funding that keeps kids safe and programs that serve children with mental disabilities; and damaging reduced support to early childhood programs including Pre-K Counts, the state's preschool program for at-risk three- and four-year-olds; Child Care Works, the program that helps low-income working parents pay for child care; and Nurse Family Partnerships, that program that provides low-income, first-time moms with the care and support they need to raise safe, healthy babies.

Inaction by Congress will force struggling states such as ours to make deeper cuts that will affect children and families still reeling from the effects of the recession.

Now is not the time to stop progress – in our schools, in our communities, or with our economy. Our leaders in Congress must do the right thing and pass the extension of FMAP.

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children.

Since much of what we do here at PA Partnerships for Children involves state budget advocacy, part of me wants to kick back with a frosty lemonade during this heat wave and just relax. After five continuous months of working to ensure children's health, education and welfare were represented in the 2010-11 state budget, it's tempting to want to take a vacation now that the governor has signed the bill.

But anyone who's employed here - or works alongside us as allies – knows the work of a child advocate is never finished. And it won't be until all children enter school ready to learn; have access to health care that assures their healthy development; are raised in loving and knowledgeable families free from abuse and neglect; have access to effective after-school and youth development programs, and receive high-quality public education.

But to get there costs money. The bottom line is Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children can't do the work we do without the financial support of our friends across the state.

As you may know, PPC uses individual and corporate contributions to support its lobbying expenses; therefore, the help we receive from YOU, the private citizen, is what enables us to do the work we do to achieve victories for kids. PPC neither seeks nor receives any government funds and our foundation resources cannot be used for lobbying efforts. In order to communicate the needs of children and youth to policymakers, we rely on the generous financial support of our individual and corporate donors.

Your tax-deductible support helps this organization thrive. Your dollars truly help assure that children and youth in Pennsylvania have an equal opportunity to live to their fullest potential. So please help us continue our work by making a tax-deductible contribution to Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children at the link below:

http://www.papartnerships.org/donate_online.shtml

Thank you for your support.

Joan L. Benso President & CEO Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children

It's not April Fool's Day and yet legislative leaders in Pennsylvania have reached an agreement before the start of the new fiscal year tomorrow. The $28.05 spending plan includes some important increased investments, but also contains a number of cuts that will have serious impact on the well-being of children and families in the Commonwealth.

But the news is not all bad. A $250 million increase is included to fund basic education as part of a six-year plan to close the adequacy and equity gap. This increase relies on a second year of federal stimulus money, but fails to fully fund the third year of the state's school funding formula. We are thankful for the commitment of the governor and the willingness of legislative leaders to increase school funding. Given the serious revenue shortfalls, the increase for basic education was a big increase indeed and another step to closing the education adequacy and equity gap.

However, it's a measure that continues to fail to provide the funding every school district needs to fully educate every child. This reduction in the funding formula comes at a time when school districts across the state already have enacted budgets with cuts to teaching staff and educational programs due to declining local revenue.

The budget also includes cuts (a combined $2.268 million) to Pre-K Counts and the Head Start State Supplemental Assistance Program. Small overall increases are achieved with the use of federal funds as is the case for child care and early intervention. A small jump in state funding for CHIP is enhanced further through federal funds.

Many other line items in the Departments of Education and Public Welfare have been cut such as tutoring, the Accountability Block Grant, dual enrollment, assessment, mental health, and more. All of this will cause serious strain on the fragile safety net in place for children and families and impact education opportunities in the Commonwealth.

However, in spite of Pennsylvania's dire fiscal health, this budget agreement does provide some reasons to celebrate – or at least breathe a little easier. For now, it's probably the best budget we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

But the future presents clear challenges. We will need lawmakers, including the next governor, to more fully address our state's fiscal health and the unmet needs of children in the years to come.

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children

Children don't teach themselves. They learn from parents. From teachers. From books and science experiments. Children come to our schools with a spirit of learning, and it's our responsibility as elected school board members to make certain we provide them with the resources and opportunities to learn as much as they can during their journey with us.

I've been a school board member for 11 years, and I've never witnessed a more difficult time than this year. We are close to losing valuable federal resources that have served to sustain us during the economic recession. Furthermore, all school districts have realized significant shortfalls in local school tax revenues and interest earnings totaling $343 million this year.

Almost one-quarter of districts across the state and more than half (52 percent) of the districts in southeastern PA have approved or proposed cuts in order to balance their budgets for the next school year. Due to these lost revenues, school districts have made cuts all the while counting on the General Assembly to maintain its commitment to basic education and the school funding formula for the third year in a row. These cuts will mean larger class sizes and less time for individualized attention and instruction. Full-day kindergarten, pre-K, special education, foreign languages, as well as cutbacks in teaching positions, transportation, technology and extra-curricular activities are all on the chopping block.

Everyone must tighten their belts as a result of these financial times. But without additional state support for basic education, the quality of public education will erode. Sixty-six percent of districts statewide reported in a recent survey that they will cut instructional staff and a third said they will cut instructional programs for the next school year. These cuts, already approved by districts, and the ones we will be forced to make if we don't receive adequate state funding, are driving at the heart of children's educational foundation.

Has the General Assembly's school funding formula made a difference? You bet it has. In 2009, the Center for Education Policy identified Pennsylvania as the only state that saw increases in student achievement in elementary, middle and high school from 2002 to 2008 in reading and math for all groups of students. Resources matter! To keep that progress on track and to help prevent further damage to students' education programs, opportunities, services and achievement, the 2010-11 state budget needs to include a $354.8 million increase for basic education funding. Investments in education are a down payment on the Commonwealth's future – our children. Let's not let them down.

Larry Feinberg is a third term school director in Haverford Township and also serves as Chairman of the Delaware County School Board's Legislative Council.

Everyone knows how dire Pennsylvania's fiscal health is, unless you've been living under a rock (which may not be such a bad thing, given the circumstances).

The state budget is a train wreck, and that's on a good day.

Fiscal year-to-date General Fund collections are down $1.2 billion, or 4.8 percent, below estimate. And the Rendell Administration is banking on $850 million in FMAP funds that may not happen. FMAP is the Federal Medicaid Matching Assistance Program.

The cost of Medicaid is shared by federal and state government. To assist states in meeting greater demand for Medicaid during the economic crisis, Congress provided the states with a larger share of Medicaid matching funds. These funds, however, are scheduled to expire in December.

Pennsylvania and 29 other states were building their budgets with the expectation that the aid would be extended from its current end date. If the aid is not extended, the Commonwealth will be facing yet another serious challenge in crafting a budget for FY 2010-2011.

In the meantime, the governor is pushing his $29.8 billion spending plan (that includes the assumption of the FMAP money). Without FMAP, Rendell said his increase for basic education plus other programs would suffer cuts – not to mention more state employee layoffs.

Where does this leave us? Anyone with a crystal ball can take a guess, but one thing's for certain: our fragile social services and educational systems cannot sustain further cuts without serious consequences (just like last year!) of child care centers closing, teacher layoffs, increased class sizes and cuts to child abuse and family strengthening programs, to name a few.

There's got to be a better way. The first thing you can do is urge your member of U.S. Congress to support FMAP. The second thing you can do is to ask your state senators and representatives to support new revenue measures that will bring in more money for the Commonwealth – and all these programs and services we value so greatly for children and families.

You can do something to help fix the fiscal malaise. Use your voice and speak out – for kids across PA.

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children

Reunification with family is a successful outcome for children removed from their homes and placed in foster care. More than 31,500 children lived in Pennsylvania's foster care system in 2009 and nearly half of these children and youth are reunited with their birth families within one year of entering foster care.

Reunification takes work, commitment, and investment of time and resources by parents, family members, social workers, and attorneys, but it can be done. Services such as strong case planning, assessment and family engagement can help bring families back together – and keep them together.

This year, a number of organizations – including Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Children, Youth and Families (DHS) – are working together to organize the first National Reunification Day on June 19. The goal of National Reunification Day is to raise awareness about the importance of family reunification to children in foster care.

We should celebrate the accomplishments of families who have overcome an array of challenges to reunify safely and successfully and inspire other parents – particularly those going through the reunification process – that it is possible to confront and resolve the issues that led to their separation, and to reunify with their children.

Read more about National Reunification Day: http://new.abanet.org/child/Pages/nationalreunificationday.aspx

Joan L. Benso is president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children

As school winds down in early June in Pennsylvania, school business officials and business managers already are looking ahead to September, working on 2010-11 school year budgets. And this year, perhaps more than ever before, school districts are under financial strain that could result in hundreds of teacher layoffs, or program and curriculum cuts in order to make ends meet.

The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign - supported by PA Partnerships for Children - released a new report today highlighting dramatic drops in local revenue, potential staff reductions and program cuts for school districts statewide. "Student Achievement Gains at Risk: Schools Cutting Staff and Programs as Revenues Decline," is the result of a recent survey of 52 percent of school districts across the Commonwealth coordinated by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) and the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA).

The survey findings indicate significant shortfalls in local school tax revenues and interest earnings of $343 million this year including a collective drop in Earned Income Tax revenue by almost $50 million, a $75 million loss in Realty Transfer Taxes and a decline of interest earnings of $220 million.

The bottom line is this: school districts collectively are short $343 million in revenue - local dollars lost due to a slow economy, lagging home sales and interest earnings from a financial market that has yet to fully rebound. To compensate, school districts are tapping into fund reserves (that may be needed to handle the looming pension crisis next year); reducing instructional staff (teachers and classroom aides) that will result in larger class sizes; cutting expenses for resources such as tutoring and textbooks; and trimming educational programs such as music and art classes, foreign language, computer instruction and physical education.

In fact, two-thirds of school districts reported they will cut instructional staff and one-third will cut instructional programs in 2010-11.

But we can help avert this crisis by urging the General Assembly to pass the governor's proposed $354.8 million increase for basic education. The answer will not be found in laying off teachers, getting rid of music and art and eliminating bus routes or field trips.

We must hold steady. We must not lose the gains made by our students - enhanced academic achievement by students that is the direct result of the state's commitment to increased financial support to school districts.

Joan L. Benso, president and CEO, PA Partnerships for Children