“Criminologists claim that they can predict the need for prisons in the future by the number of children who are not proficient in reading by the third grade,” writes Art Rolnick, senior fellow and co-director of the Human Capital Research Collaborative at the University of Minnesota.
The Pennsylvania Early Learning Commission expands on the importance of early literacy: “Students who lack the necessary literacy and language skills by third grade simply don’t catch up. Until third grade, children learn to read; from third grade on, they read to learn.”
I have completed two unpaid internships with Smart Start-Centre County, and I would like to clarify its description in the CDT on Thursday.
Smart Start prepares children to succeed in school not only with kindergarten transition programs, but with publications, speaker series, conferences and workshops to educate professionals and parents about healthy child development.
Smart Start also administers Educational Improvement Tax Credit Pre-K Scholarships to children who could not otherwise afford preschool.
Smart Start bridges the gap between families with and without access to good-quality early childhood information and programs, and for that it would surely be missed.
Emily Woodard Pennsylvania Furnace
