web1_TTL091115lindaarmstrong.jpg

Linda Armstrong copes with 9/11 every year

web1_Richard-Zang-9-10-15.jpg

Police: Edwardsville man beat, burned boys for eating too slowly

<p>Renewed talk of deep, across-the-board cuts in federal spending &#8212; known as sequestration &#8212; would severely hurt the federal Head Start pre-school program and do more damage than good in the long run, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey warned in a teleconference Thursday.</p><p>&#8220;It is especially bad when you have politicians who want &#8212; and many do down here &#8212; to continue sequestration,&#8221; Casey said, &#8220;a long word which really means stupid cuts across the board that no business and no family would make. Yet some, because of their ideology, believe we should make those cuts to inefficient programs get cut the same as effective programs.&#8221;</p><p>Casey, D-Scranton, cited potential cuts to Head Start as particularly damaging. If anything, he said, money for pre-school programs should be increased. &#8220;About 90,000 people could benefit from an increased investment,&#8221; he said.</p><p>&#8220;If kids learn more now, they will earn more later,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a good rhyme and it happens to be true. Children who participate in high-quality early learning earn approximately 25 percent more per year than those who don&#8217;t.&#8221;</p><p>Casey also cited &#8220;numerous studies&#8221; that show a high &#8220;return on investment&#8221; for money spent on early education, some saying for every dollar spent the nation reaps $10 or more later thanks to less need for special education services in school, better health resulting in lower health care costs, fewer children turning to drugs or crime as adults and fewer ending up in the justice system.</p><p>&#8220;We can invest in children,&#8221; Casey said, &#8220;or fail to invest in them and literally be investing a lot more in incarceration later.&#8221;</p><p>Sequestration became part of the American vernacular in 2011 when a budget stalemate resulted in the &#8220;Budget Control Act.&#8221; A &#8220;super-committee&#8221; of legislators was formed to hammer out a budget deal. To motivate compromise, automatic cuts in both defense and non-defense spending would begin if no deal were reached.</p><p>It didn&#8217;t work. Cuts began in 2013 and were supposed to continue annually to 2021. But Casey noted &#8220;we had a reprieve from sequestration for the last two years&#8221; thanks to a bipartisan deal that ran from 2014 through 2015.</p><p>With that deal expiring, some legislators are calling for a return to the cuts to continue shrinking the federal debt &#8212; though prominent Republicans are insisting on a system that would avoid cutting defense spending, a move critics say defeats the purpose of sequestration.</p><p>Casey released state and county data showing the percentage of children ages 3 and 4 who benefit from subsidized pre-kindergarten. Statewide, 18.9 percent of that population attend Pre-K thanks to state, federal or school district funding.</p><p>Luzerne County fares slightly better, with 20.1 percent.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091415Head-Start1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Brittney Matechak assists J&#8217;yona and Emily, Head Start students with a computer activity Thursday afternoon at the school on Beekman Street, Wilkes-Barre. In a teleconference, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey urged an end to across-the-board cuts in the federal budget that would reduce the number of children served by Head Start. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL091415Head-Start1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brittney Matechak assists J&#8217;yona and Emily, Head Start students with a computer activity Thursday afternoon at the school on Beekman Street, Wilkes-Barre. In a teleconference, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey urged an end to across-the-board cuts in the federal budget that would reduce the number of children served by Head Start. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Casey: Cutting Head Start funding costs taxpayers more in long run