Pre-K commission mulls support for soda tax

The commission formed to study universal pre-K in the city is weighing whether to include Mayor Kenney's sugary drink tax in its final recommendations report.

The independent commission, which began work in June, published a first draft in February that offered no proposals for how to fund pre-K, but did outline a breakdown of the benefits and costs of adding 10,000 quality pre-K seats.

On Tuesday, at the commission's monthly meeting, members of the administration who are on the commission said the report should include the three-cent-per-ounce tax. Meeting attendees said conversation grew heated with some members not wanting the tax included in the proposal.

"The commission hasn't taken an official stance yet, we're still having conversations," said Sharon Easterling, co-chair of the commission and executive director of the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children. "I will say the commission is in strong agreement that we have to have sufficient funding."

The 17-member commission includes members of Kenney's administration, early education advocates, two principals and two city council members.

The majority of the commission supports recommending the tax, according to one member, who did not want to be identified. Two members of the commission voiced opposition to including the tax, according to two meeting attendees who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, a member, who sponsored the legislation to create the commission, is also against the tax, but said she had no problem with its inclusion in a report.

Easterling said the commission would continue to discuss whether to include the tax in a final report due April 15.

The commission, made up of staunch early childhood education advocates, certainly has a reason to support the tax given it would funnel a projected $256 million into pre-K over five years. Kenney has argued expanding pre-K is only possible with the levy.

"It's a group that has a vested interest in seeing an increase in quality pre-K citywide so we hope that they will understand this is the best funding mechanism to get the revenue that's needed to do that," said Deana Gamble, a spokeswoman for the administration.

While Kenney's administration works on implementation and funding plans, the commission continues to finalize recommendations which largely align with the work already underway.

Kenney's head of pre-kindergarten, Anne Gemmell, is a member of the commission and often takes a leadership role in meetings.

"It's kind of Mayor Kenney's baby," said Dolores Shaw, a member of Philadelphia for Early Childhood Education, who attends the meetings but is not on the commission. "This is supposed to be an independent entity in and of itself but they report directly to the mayor as a commission and there are commission members there at the table who are designed to help provide the commission with info and data and research they need."

Easterling doesn't see collaboration between the administration and the commission as a bad thing. Both are working toward the same goal , she said.

"The work of the commission straddled two mayoral administrations. It could have gone completely differently, we could have had a mayor who didn't see the importance of pre-K," she said. "We actually wound up getting a candidate who ran on a pre-K platform. Because of that, as that transition took place, leadership from the commission and administration came together."