Gold in Rio, but we don’t value kids’ mettle

Olympic and Paralympic fever may have subsided but two local sports heroes have their sights trained on an altogether different finish line: Olympian Bruce Baumgartner and Steelers legend Franco Harris.

As a four-time Olympic medalist, Baumgartner knows that it doesn’t just take the drive and discipline of an athlete to win gold, but also the support of parents, communities and the entire nation to cheer them on.

But elite athletes, he explains, are growing more concerned about losing the academic medal count.

“In Rio, America’s 121 medals vastly outpaced second-place China. However, our children’s 2012 international academic scores ranked 35th in math and 27th in science,” wrote Baumgartner, president of USA Wrestling and director of athletics at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, in a recent op-ed published Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Erie Times.

High quality pre-k, he continues, sets up toddlers for kindergarten “with the pre-math, pre-reading and social/emotional skills needed to reach their full potential.”

“Unfortunately, here in Pennsylvania access to quality pre-kindergarten is limited,” Baumgartner laments.

“Among the 170,000 Pennsylvania 3- and 4-year-olds living in lower-income households, and therefore at greatest risk of academic failure, nearly 70 percent lack access to quality publicly funded early-childhood programs each year. This represents missed opportunities for 120,000 young children annually.”

Those dismal international academic rankings mean squandered potential.

“In athletic terms, it’s as if Kyle Snyder had never taken to the mat, or Simone Biles had never chalked her hands for the balance beam.”

Franco Harris on the same team

Franco Harris, Board Chair of the Pittsburgh Promise, an organization that works to boost educational outcomes, believes in the same academic game plan for Pennsylvania and wrote a letter to the Post Gazette, published this week.

“He poses a truly Olympian idea: Invest more in quality education for students to greatly improve the chances for their success at the outset of their lives,” wrote the four-time Super Bowl champion, urging action.

“If our leaders in government and business would adopt such proposals to fund a game plan to enhance and expand a quality-driven prekindergarten plan for the children of Western Pennsylvania, educational interventions would conceivably be less necessary.”

As a founding member of the Pre-K for PA campaign, a non-partisan coalition dedicated to securing high-quality pre-k to every at-risk youth in Pennsylvania and lowering the current high cost barriers for middle-class families, PCCY routinely shares updates of new developments through social media.

As momentum for Pre-K for PA continues to build, we look forward to bringing you passionate voices from across the state speaking on behalf of children.

Join Pre-K for PA today and help make it happen!