U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan has a very deep and meaningful connection with education.

She told a crowd gathered at the Reading Area Community College’s Miller Center of the Arts on Monday that education was the key to her family being able to establish roots in this country.

“My father was a Holocaust survivor who came here as a very small child with his young mother as refugees — they had nothing,” she said. “He and my mother instilled in me the belief that education is one of the greatest equalizers in our country. The one thing that no one can take away from you.”

The Chester County Democrat, who represents the congressional district that includes Reading and much of southeastern Berks County, has only seen her views on the power of education strengthen since learning those childhood lessons. She developed a belief that all children, in particular the youngest learners, should have access to quality education.

And that eventually led her to pursue a later-in-life career change.

Houlahan went back to school when she was 45 to relearn chemistry and biology so that she could join Teach for America. It was in that program that she taught at Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia.

“My experience there taught me a really important lesson that I think you all know, which is if you don’t have basic literacy skills you’re going to struggle to participate in our economy in an active and productive way,” she said. “Many of my students were 11th-graders who were reading at the third- and fourth-grade level.”

So that’s when she pivoted toward growing a new organization called Springboard Collaborative. It focuses on providing underserved children with the reading skills they need to compete.

She said through her work in education and Congress she has developed the beliefthat one of the biggest threats to the success of our nation in the future is whether or not society can prioritize the education of the generations to come.

“Education is absolutely one of the most pressing and urgent needs of our nation,” she said.

And that’s exactly why Houlahan was at the Miller Center on Monday.

She was there hosting a literacy resource fair, an event that featured organizations such as the Sesame Workshop, Opportunity House in Reading, the Yocum Institute for Arts Education in West Lawn, the Literacy Council of Reading and the Reading Public Library.

Following the resource fair, Houlahan hosted a town hall discussion about childhood literacy that included education leaders.

The discussion was moderated by RACC President Dr. Susan Looney and included three panelists: Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president of U.S. Social Impact at Sesame Workshop; Shante’ Brown, state deputy secretary of the Office of Child Development and Early Learning; and Dr. Michelle Reichard-Huff, director of early childhood and student services at the Berks County Intermediate Unit.

A crowd of about 100 — made up largely of those working in the local education community — were given the opportunity to ask questions.

Here are some of the questions the panel addressed.

What are the most important things we can do to support literacy development starting with our youngest children?

Betancourt said we should nurture the connections and appreciate the conversations that children make with the adults around them at an early age.

“Language and conversation is the foundation of our literacy,” she said. “We build our literacy with vocabulary. We need to take advantage of everyday moments that become essential for children to understand their environment from the very beginning.”

Why is the topic of mental health so top of mind right now?

Betancourt said the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed this issue to the forefront of many conversations surrounding education. But she said the pandemic did not cause the problem, it only exacerbated it.

“We have neglected the mental health of our young children,” she said. “So our organization is looking at where the gaps are, and creating resources to help children develop their emotional well-being and identify emotional distress tipping points. The goal is to focus on prevention rather than intervention.”

How does Head Start prepare our children for elementary school?

Reichard-Huff  said one of the things that really stands out to her is how the program provides comprehensive support to those who may be at risk of struggling in school due to their socioeconomic status.

“The mission of the program is really to ensure that every child, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has quality early childhood experiences that are essential to their overall development,” she said.

Reichard-Huff said the program focuses on five key parts of development: social, emotional, cognitive, communicative and physical growth. She said mastering these skills will help prepare children for elementary school.

And the learning doesn’t stop with the children.

“We also focus on the families and what their needs are for supporting their children,” she said. “We offer workshops, training sessions and home visits. It’s really about empowering parents to be the first educator that the child has in life.”

With the rise of artificial intelligence and availability of voice to text applications, how do we convince children that reading and writing is still relevant?

Betancourt stressed that people should keep in mind that emerging technology always starts with more questions than answers.

Like with other technologies before, education will take some time to adapt. But eventually — like with computers and smartphones — educators will find ways to harness things like artificial intelligence and voice to text application and use them in the classroom while learning to minimize some of their potentially negative qualities.

“Young children are already learning differently,” she said. “They have been exposed to a variety of mediums in a variety of ways. You may see children in front of screens earlier and earlier. We always say it’s the quality of the experience on the screen and also the quality of experience on the screen.”

Betancourt said edicators have no choice but to learn how to deal with emerging technologies, just like people in the field have done time and time before.

“It will be with us — it’s not going away,” she said. “So it depends on how we use it to the benefit of young children.

Houlahan said a key point about emerging technologies is that not all students will have equal access to them. And that needs to be addressed to achieve equity in education.

For example, she said, a lack of access to broadband service is an issue for many households, and that must be confronted before a discussion can be had about artificial intelligence.

What can be done to improve wages for child care workers?

Brown acknowledged there is a serious concern regarding wage levels for child care workers. She attributed it to how the state funds the system. But, she said, state officials are committed to ensuring there is sufficient funding to meet the overall costs.

She noted that the state budget includes $67 million in new funding for the Child Care Services program to maintain subsidized child care access for 75,000 low-income working families and sustains Child Care Works reimbursements. But that budget has yet to be enacted, with Democrats and Republicans at odds over funding a school voucher program.

“We certainly have to talk more about the cost of care and elevate that as an issue,” Brown said. “And the new administration has been very, very invested in hearing more about that so I do think there will be changes over time. But change takes time.”

Houlahan said the people educating kids in child care centers have incredibly important jobs and deserve to be compensated fairly for their work.

“They’re taking care of our children and they’re also educating the next generation,” she said. “Those are probably some of the most important jobs that are out there and we don’t value them in the ways that we ought to.”