One of the programs that was on the chopping block during this year's protracted state budget negotiations was Pre-K Counts, a five-year-old initiative of the Rendell administration that combines public and private funding to boost enrollment in high-quality preschools.

In the end, this successful program escaped the ax and received the same state dollars it had gotten previously. Now there's fresh ammunition from The Heinz Endowments in a study of the program's effectiveness, which should help insulate Pre-K Counts from damaging cuts in the future, too.

Funded by the endowment and led by University of Pittsburgh Professor Stephen J. Bagnato, the three-year study covered 10,002 children, ages 3 through 6, in 489 classrooms across the state. Most of the youngsters were poor and many had other disadvantages such as developmental delays. Pupils in all ethnic groups made gains in spoken language, pre-reading skills, use of numbers, behavior and other tasks. Eighty percent demonstrated the skills necessary for success in school. Vastly fewer children who attended Pre-K Counts programs required special education when they reached kindergarten, just 2.4 percent versus a projected rate of 18 percent.

In releasing its study last month, the Heinz Endowments followed in the footsteps of public policy think tanks and philanthropies that have reached favorable conclusions about the value of preschool -- The Brookings Institution, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Center for Children in Poverty among them. The conclusions of all of this research can be summarized this way: Quality preschools give children a proper foundation for their formal educations, leveling the playing field regardless of a child's personal and economic circumstances, and that can trigger a lifetime of benefits.

In the longest-running study of its kind, researchers for 40 years followed youngsters who attended the Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti, Mich., from 1962 to 1967. Throughout their schooling, the participants consistently were less likely to need special education services and more likely to graduate than their peers. After high school, at age 40, they were more likely to be employed and earning significantly more money than members of control groups; they were half as likely to have criminal records and less likely to rely on welfare programs.

That is precisely the outcome Pennsylvania seeks for all of its children, and the road to success in life can be smoothed with a quality preschool experience.

Results from The Heinz Endowments study should shift future debates in Harrisburg from "Can Pre-K Counts work?" to "How can we make sure Pre-K Counts keeps working?"

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