Early Care and Education Forum
Brings Legislators Home
On October 27th, Angela Bayer of Angela’s Child Development in Stroudsburg, PA, led a fight for early childhood education rights. Bayer gave her opening speech to a crowd in the Hughes Library in Stroudsburg. Her event, called the Early Care and Education Forum, was designed to “bring Action Day home,” as she said.
Representatives Scavello, Siptroth, and Carroll were all in attendance. Representative Shimkus, Senator Boscola and Comissioner Asure were invited but were unable to attend.
Bayer immediately pointed out that without a genuine focus on the future of our children, all of the other prominent political issues will simply become insignificant. “I believe that children are the cornerstone for the future,” she said. Bayer advocated for the rights of every parent to have the option of available quality child care. She also reiterated the dangers and costs associated with the lifestyles of those adults, who as children were poorly taught.
The issue of overlooked special-needs children was also brought up. As a result, a Monroe County task force is now being organized to deal with the issues of leadership and services for those children. “There were several exhibitors on hand to help out and set this up,” Bayer said.
She also pointed out the high cost of child care in a question addressed to political leaders in attendance. However, current budget constraints prohibited a definitive answer as to how to address the problem. Scavello pointed out that Pennsylvania currently has a budget shortfall and that funding for early childhood education will not come easily.
Yet, in spite of financial problems, all three representatives agreed that any budget cuts should be done in places other than early childhood education. “It was a bipartisan table and the consensus was unanimous in accepting and acknowledging the fact that Early Care and Education are an important part of our society that cannot be overlooked,” Bayer said.
Bayer got the idea of hosting the event with some help from her husband. She and her husband both wanted to get more exposure for the Keystone STARS program and for quality child care in general. “I believe in the statement, ‘Don’t wait for someone else to do something that you can do yourself,’ so I put it together,” she said.
In the future Bayer would like to coordinate regional meetings across the state to address ECE issues. Her plan is to bring six representatives to each meeting and to have each meeting scheduled in a different location within the Commonwealth. She says that this approach is an excellent compliment to having Action Day in Harrisburg because providers can help to make an impact from their own communities.
Bayer single-handedly organized her event. She was able to coordinate the gathering through her own personal initiative and was even able to entice the media to cover the event just three days before it was scheduled to occur. Bayer said that more forums are already being requested.
Angela Bayer is a model example of a goal-oriented and dedicated child care professional. It is because of people like her that elected officials are aware of the voice calling for quality early childhood education.
Ms. Bayer can be reached for comment or questions at Angelab@chilitech.net