Salford Mennonite Child Care Centers

With the budget impasse more than 100 days long, the clock is ticking for our youngest children, with hundreds of thousands losing out on the opportunities of early education. Finally, the legislature is getting serious about negotiations. Early learning will only be a priority if EVERYONE raises their voice.

The time is NOW to message Harrisburg. Take these four steps to make early learning a priority in Harrisburg.

1. Call your Representative and Senator in the next week and deliver the message below.  (This is surprisingly easy to do.  When you call, a staffer will answer.  You simply say, “My name is ___ and I am a constituent.  Could you please deliver the following message to the legislator?”  They will say that they will.  You deliver the message, thank them and hang up.  It takes about a minute.)
Here is the message to legislators (to find your legislator’s number, go to www.tinyurl.com/palegis):

• We need a budget.

Children are starting lose Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental services as programs close their doors.

• We need the right budget.

Currently 200,000 young children in Pennsylvania are waiting for a high quality Pre-K seat –a $120 million increase is a good start to chipping away at the generation of children missing out.

• We support you.

It’s not easy to make young children a priority, so when you vote to support early learning, including finding new resources for funding, we will support you.

• The message needs to be heard by leadership.

We are asking you to also tell your leadership that you support $120 million

2.  Copy this email and give to your parents, colleagues, friends, and family. The legislature needs to hear from EVERYONE.

3. Tell your story. Answer these questions and email rsantanam@paeyc.org. We need to tell both the big picture and individual story of the impact of the budget impasse on classrooms.

• Do you intend to close your program?
• If yes, when will your program close?  Will it be a permanent or temporary closure?
• Have you taken out a loan to stay open?
• What was the impact of the loan on your program’s fiscal health?
• How many kids are impacted?
• Where is your program located?
• Are you willing to share your story publicly and/or with media sources? (if you do not agree to share your program name, we will use your stats anonymously to add to the statewide total):

4. Join us in Harrisburg starting the week of October 19^th. We are going to get loud in the Capitol. Email: hturner@paeyc.org for more information.