Each month the economic argument for quality child care, preschool and pre-kindergarten seems to grow stronger and this week another writer linked investments in early learning with a stronger economic future.

In the Huffington Post piece, Pat Earley highlights many of the benefits of spending money on early learning, but she also explains that investments don’t always follow.

The United States currently faces serious education and budgetary problems. There is a growing body of work that shows that high-quality early childhood development and education is a powerful way to help address these problems and lay a foundation for human and economic growth.

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Although most policy makers agree on the importance of early childhood education, budgetary constraints, as well as an inability to view these programs as fiscally sound investments in tomorrow's future workforce, continue to stand in the way of redirecting funds toward the early years. – “Teach Your Children Well,” Huffington Post, 7/21/10.

The story also argues that early education isn’t only about teachers, classrooms and curriculums. It needs programs that “integrate the family into the solution.”

In a related development, the College Board reports today that the U.S. has fallen to 12th in the proportion of adults ages 25 to 34 who hold postsecondary credentials.

"The growing education deficit is no less a threat to our nation's long-term well-being than the current fiscal crisis. It requires the same kind of attention and action at the highest levels of our education institutions and national and state governments," Gaston Caperton said in a statement. "To improve our college completion rates, we must think 'P–16' and improve education from preschool through higher education."

Some would say there is a connection.

News

• Gov unveils study that shows Abbott preschool program is working fine – 7/13/09, nj.com
  • Study: The APPLES Blossom: Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effects Study (APPLES) Preliminary Results through 2nd Grade – June 2009, National Institute for Early Education Research
• Mountain View program gives kids a chance to practice for kindergarten – 7/9/09, The Mercury News (CA)

Analysis

• Preparing today's workers for tomorrow's jobs – 7/13/09, The New York Times Blog: Economix
• Towards universal pre-k: An update from West Virginia – 7/13/09, The Early Ed Watch Blog

Research

• Social reasoning and brain development are linked in preschoolers – 7/15/09, The Science Daily

Opinion

• Helping Students, in and Out of School – 7/12/09, The New York Times
• Editorial: Pre-K Black Belt kids overlooked – 7/7/09, The Selma Times-Journal (AL)

(Thanks to Pre-K Now and The Early Ed Watch Blog for helping find these stories.)

This week saw a great deal of discussion on how budget cuts will effect early learning and the impact this will have in the future.

Health

• “Children Suffer as States Cut Health Budgets” – The Wall Street Journal, 6/17/09
• “Shouldn’t every kid get the same quality health care?” – Children’s Alliance, 6/17/09

Economy

• “Why high quality pre-k is part of ‘Race to the Top’” – EarlyStories , 6/18/09
• “Early years are crucial for kids to become productive adults” – Star Telegram, 6/13/09

Opinion

• “Early education benefits economy, quality of life in Pennsylvania” – 6/19/09

From Around the World

• “Early education’s top model: Finland” – Globe Life, 6/19/09

(Thanks to Pre-K Now, Children’s Alliance, Foundation for Early Learning for helping find these stories.)

Researchers can flood policymakers with reports, but a single result of poor or no early learning can also effectively hit them in the face, such as the massive gap between urban and suburban high school graduation rates.

“…The average high school graduation rate in the nation's 50 largest cities stands at a devastatingly low 53 percent – an 18 percent gap. In some cities, including Indianapolis, Cleveland and Detroit, graduation rates are less than 40 percent.” – “Urban Drop-Out Rates at Catastrophic Levels,” Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, Afro, 5/5/09.

Morial takes a critical step, writing that top-quality early learning is one of the first steps toward closing that gap. The Urban League already made that link a key plank in its “Opportunity Compact,” which includes an eye-opening statistic: “At age 4, children who live below the poverty line are 18 months below what is normal for their group; by age 10 that gap is still present.”

A top policy priority for the Urban League is to “commit to mandatory early childhood education beginning at age 3 as well as guarantee access to college for all.”

The Urban League’s campaign connects key economic dots. A good start in child care can help lead all the way to a college degree, which may be the ultimate anti-poverty tool. Conversely, the lack of degrees among the poor is one of the nation’s more entrenched educational and economic challenges.

Unfortunately, over the last 30 years, students from poor families made little progress in earning four-year degrees.

In 1975, only 7.1 percent of the nation’s poorest young adults earned a bachelor’s degree, and in 2003 that number stood at 8.6 percent, according to the higher education research group Postsecondary Education Opportunity.

“… at a time when we are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, along with increased competition in the global economy, it is more important than ever that we produce the most prepared and best educated workforce in the world.” Morial wrote. “That is why the ‘Opportunity to Thrive,’ with its focus on early childhood education and making college more affordable, is one of the cornerstones of the National Urban League's Opportunity Compact.”