READING, Oct. 31 – State Reps. Tom Caltagirone and Mark Rozzi and Sen. Judy Schwank announced Reading Area Community College will receive almost $43,000 in state funding from a Preschool Development Grant as part of a $1.5 million investment from the state to improve the quality of early childcare education.

“This grant will ultimately help provide a seamless pathway for students attending Reading Area Community College to pursue a Bachelor of Science in education at Kutztown University,” said Caltagirone, D-Berks. “The program will not only benefit college students by helping them earn teacher certification, but it has the potential to have a great impact on our region by improving the quality of the education our future teachers receive.” 

Reading Area Community College will receive a grant totaling $42,947.

“This grant will help provide a stronger relationship between a local college and local university, developing project partners that will ultimately benefit all of the students in our region,” Rozzi said.

The grants will allow the universities and colleges to design specific courses related to Pennsylvania’s Learning Standards for Early Childhood Infant and Toddlers and Pre-Kindergarten.

“We are fortunate in Berks to have institutions of higher learning that are willing to work together for the benefit of students,” Schwank said. “Well-educated early childhood teachers are a necessity if we are to properly prepare future generations of learners, and this grant will help pave the way for those teachers.”

The grant is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Human Services Office of Child Development and Early Learning and the Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education.