Speaker: More funding needed for early education
MONONGAHELA – A child starting kindergarten now is at a severe disadvantage if the student has not already been exposed to a smartphone, a technology expert said Tuesday at Mon Valley Hospital.
“They are not part of the real world,” said Audrey Russo, president and chief executive officer of Pittsburgh Technology Council.
She said children are wired for learning by the age of 5, and Pennsylvania needs to do a better job in meeting the educational needs of that age group to prepare them for changing requirements in workplaces.
“If kids don’t have access to this, we’re hampering them,” Russo said at a Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting in the Carroll Township hospital’s conference center.
There are 1,778 children who are eligible for high-quality prekindergarten services yet don’t have access to the programs in state Sen. Camera Bartolotta’s district, which includes Washington and Greene counties and parts of Beaver County, according to information presented at the meeting.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do here,” said Russo, who also is a member of Pennsylvania’s Early Learning Investment Commission.
The commission is a network of business leaders who are working to create smart policy investments in young children. As part of that effort, Russo said, Gov. Tom Wolf is seeking $112 million in his next budget for improving educational services for children 5 and younger. She said children tend to fail when they’re not exposed to quality early learning initiatives.
“I care about growing talent. That’s where it starts, and that’s what people want to know about when they come to a new town – the schools, early learning.”
She said there is a demand for employees in the technology security field, and those companies are not looking so much for nerdy computer geeks but rather workers who are curious, can navigate the facts, influence people and play well with others.
Over the next decade, jobs in science, technology, engineering and math are expected to increase by 17 percent, compared with a 9.8 percent increase in other jobs, Russo said.
“As for technology security, the world is your oyster,” she said.