A new campaign aimed at making sure candidates and voters know the importance of early childhood education was announced today.

The campaign is called First Steps PA and is made up of a coalition of more than 1,200 members. Steering committee members include the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, Pennsylvania Head Start Association, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children, United Way of Pennsylvania and others.

"The candidates as well as voters need to understand how important a strong and well-funded early childhood education system is to our students and to our state's long-term success," said Joan Benson, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, in a news release.

"The goal of First Steps PA is to make early childhood education a priority issue for the next state administration. We are not going to permit the commonwealth to slip backward," said Joni Askins, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, in the news release.

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