$52 million grant goes to Pa. for early education programs

Pennsylvania has been awarded a $51.7 million federal grant to improve early education programs.

The money will help increase access to such initiatives, said acting Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq.

It will also support existing training and collaboration sessions for nearly 3,000 teachers in pre-kindergarten through third grade, she said Thursday.

“We bring in educators and practitioners to talk about proven practices, things that worked with young children, and then we can replicate those good programs,” she said. “And the sharing that goes across the commonwealth is a very important dialogue that we have.”

Dumaresq said the federal grant is the largest that Pennsylvania’s early learning programs have ever received.

Five other states will get a share of the combined $280 million in grants to improve early learning programs.

Each portion was awarded based on each state’s population. Fourteen other states previously have won the federal grants.