{"id":148609,"date":"2026-04-12T19:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148609"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:56:18","slug":"treasurer-stacy-garrity-keystone-scholars-partners-with-pa-one-book-to-promote-early-reading-and-financial-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148609","title":{"rendered":"Treasurer Stacy Garrity: Keystone Scholars Partners with PA One Book to Promote Early Reading and Financial Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania One Book provides books to about 16,000 children statewide<\/i><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Harrisburg, PA<\/strong><\/b> \u2013 Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity today announced that Treasury\u2019s Keystone Scholars Program<\/a>, which provides every Pennsylvania child born in 2019 and after a $100 scholarship to jumpstart their education savings, has partnered with Pennsylvania One Book to help promote financial literacy for our youngest Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough our Keystone Scholars Program, the Pennsylvania Treasury is thrilled to team up with PA One Book to reach more young Pennsylvanians and their families,\u201d Treasurer Garrity said. \u201cTogether, we\u2019re inspiring kids to dive into reading and helping their families start saving early for their future education.\u201d<\/p>\n

PA One Book encourages families and communities to read together to promote early literacy.<\/p>\n

PA One Book is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Education\u2019s Office of Commonwealth Libraries (OCL). This year\u2019s selected book is \u201cThe Great Cookie Kerfuffle,\u201d written by Jessica Shaw and illustrated by Pauline Gregory. Approximately 16,000 copies are distributed statewide to libraries and early learning centers. Each book includes a book plate that shares information on how families can claim their child\u2019s $100 scholarship from Keystone Scholars.<\/p>\n

OCL is hosting a virtual meeting with the author of \u201cThe Great Cookie Kerfuffle\u201d on April 15 at 10 a.m. Families can register by visiting paonebook.powerlibrary.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOCL is proud to lead the PA One Book Program with our colleagues from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning and our partners in early learning across the Commonwealth,\u201d said Deputy Secretary for the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and State Librarian Susan Banks. \u201cWe celebrate 20 years of this program connecting young children, caregivers, and their families with a shared reading experience. Early literacy is the foundation of the success of our Commonwealth and we\u2019re excited to share another story in the long list of One Book titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 100,000 Keystone Scholars accounts have been claimed, totaling more than $10 million<\/a> in scholarships.<\/p>\n

Scholarships from Keystone Scholars are invested by Treasury and grow alongside the child. The money can be used after the child turns 18 for qualifying technical, collegiate, apprenticeship and credentialing education expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrograms like Keystone Scholars can have a big, positive impact on families beyond the financial boost,\u201d Treasurer Garrity said. \u201cThey can help improve social-emotional development for children, reduce maternal depression and increase parental educational expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research shows that even with a modest amount of savings, like Keystone Scholars provides, children are three times more likely to enroll in post-high school education and four times more likely to graduate.<\/p>\n

Families should claim their child\u2019s scholarship from Keystone Scholars, and they are encouraged to continue saving on their own with the PA 529 College and Career Savings Program. Families who have claimed their Keystone Scholars accounts have already saved over $200 million in their own PA 529 accounts.<\/p>\n

With a PA 529 account, families can steadily and strategically save in a tax-advantaged way for a wide variety of qualifying technical, collegiate, apprenticeship, credential and K-12 educational expenses. Assets in PA 529 accounts do not impact eligibility for Pennsylvania state financial aid.<\/p>\n

To learn more about PA 529 and Keystone Scholars, or to claim your child\u2019s scholarship, visit pa529.com\/keystone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To learn more about PA One Book, visit paonebook.powerlibrary.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSteve Chizmar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania One Book provides books to about 16,000 children statewide Harrisburg, PA \u2013 Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity today announced that Treasury\u2019s Keystone Scholars Program, which provides every Pennsylvania child born … Continue reading Treasurer Stacy Garrity: Keystone Scholars Partners with PA One Book to Promote Early Reading and Financial Literacy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Pennsylvania-Treasury.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148610,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148609\/revisions\/148610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}