Finally getting smart about investing in learning early

By Kathleen McCartney

Early-Childhood advocates are pinching themselves. Plans to invest in early childhood are now part of the Democratic and Republican platforms. More important, needed funding is coming through the stimulus package. In his recent address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama explained that "we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life." He's right.

Numerous evaluation studies show that early education works. Children who attend quality early-childhood programs score higher on achievement tests, and quality is all about teaching. Young children thrive when they have sensitive and responsive teachers who offer a curriculum that is cognitively stimulating, developmentally appropriate, and engaging.

There is mounting evidence that the effect of early education matters more for children with less. Eric Dearing from Boston College and I have demonstrated that poor children who attend quality early-education programs outperform other poor children on achievement tests. Some of these effects last through fifth grade. This is important from a policy perspective - given scarce resources, programs that target low-income children make the most sense.

The so-called achievement gap is really a schooling gap. Everyone knows that children from poorer families and poorer communities do not receive the same education as other children. That is why property values are so highly correlated with school performance. With serious investments in early education, we could begin to level the playing field.

Citizens deserve to know that investments in early education pay off. Some economists argue that programs pay for themselves and then some. For every dollar invested in early education, states would save about $4 because children would be less likely to require expensive services, including special education.

Funding the status quo would be a mistake. Currently, early-education programs are supported through myriad funding streams, some administered from the Department of Education, such as Title I, and others from the Department of Health and Human Services, such as Head Start. California relies on 22 different programs to support early education. No wonder experts call the current state of early education "fantastically fragmented" or "a patchwork quilt" of programs.

We need to create an early-childhood system that makes sense. Doing so will require an expansion of programs and facilities, incentives for accreditation, professional development for a mostly untrained workforce, the creation of curriculum standards and assessment tools, and hard decisions, such as: Should districts offer universal pre-kindergarten? Should Head Start and Early Head Start offer full-day programs to meet the needs of working parents? What is the role of the for-profit sector? Massachusetts is off to a good start through the creation of the Department of Early Education and Care. Its new commissioner, Sherri Killin, can't let funding streams determine policy. She will have her work cut out for her, as she prods agencies to collaborate.

Obama has pledged to establish a Presidential Early Learning Council, modeled on the Illinois Early Learning Council, which he helped to create. This Council should include all stakeholders - educators, parents, researchers, advocates, and policymakers. Their task will be to design a system that is in the best interests of young children and not the best interests of the industry. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will need to provide incentives to states. When he led the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan increased access to pre-kindergarten programs to children from low-income families. It wasn't easy. As a practitioner, he understands the benefits of early education as well as the challenges.

It is common for advocates to use economic arguments to justify investments of public resources in education; in today's parlance, we now hear that education increases our economic productivity and our global competitiveness. In the context of a $5 billion stimulus for early-childhood education, some will no doubt argue that investing in early education will stimulate our economy through the construction of new facilities and the creation of new jobs. All true, but there is another reason to invest in education: It is the civil rights issue of our time. Education affords each citizen access to the American dream - to pursue one's life goals through hard work and free choice.

Kathleen McCartney is dean and professor of early-childhood development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

An Economic Stimulus that Keeps on Giving? Kids

By Pat Willis

After a year of spiking consumer prices, rising unemployment, a housing market crash, credit crisis and diminishing tax revenue, it's hard imagining anyone sad to see 2008 go.

Georgia began last year looking at a growing reserve fund, but begins a new year with budget cutting and juggling of finances like most other states to stay afloat. That’s just the reality and there’s no way around it. It’s important now to get through these tough times and maintain a solid foundation for future growth when better times return. And they will.

To jump start the process, the incoming president and Gov. Perdue have outlined bold plans for economic stimuli that include large-scale spending on infrastructure. Given the current global outlook, these are important moves to create jobs. But how can we, as a country and state, make this long-term debt pay off for future generations rather than burdening our children and grandchildren with payments for years to come?

If a healthy portion of the spending is devoted to strategic investments in our children, we could set in motion an economic stimulus that may keep paying us a healthy return for decades to come.

Even in the best of times, Georgia's children haven’t fared well. Their health, education, safety and employability outcomes have consistently rated among the lowest in the country as underscored by Georgia’s ranking of 40th in meeting its children’s needs, according to the 2008 Kids Count report issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

That ranking doesn't bode well for Georgia's future economic growth. But we can step up in rankings while improving our financial prospects if all of us -- consumers, educators, business leaders, clergy and legislators -- step up for our children. Let's take a look at what a stimulus package might look like in terms of priorities:

Education

Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) builds a foundation for higher educational achievement, which in turn creates higher earning potential. President Obama's recently announced $10 billion investment in early learning is a significant leap of faith, but it remains to be seen how that program will be implemented. Georgia’s lottery-funded Pre-K program hasn’t met its original promise to 4-year olds as slots are limited and participation has never exceeded 56 percent. Thousands of children are on waiting lists for available slots. Using the economic stimulus package to build quality centers can help take care of the waiting list and operations can be supported without additional taxpayer or federal dollars by tapping existing lottery reserve funds.

Child care

With about 300,000 Georgia mothers of children under 6 in the work force and 14,000 families on waiting lists for Georgia child care subsidies, how can we expect a productive, reliable work force? Research shows that just $1 invested in a high quality child care program resulted in a public benefit of $7.16. Based on current services, when we combine child care and Pre-K in the state, we infuse $2.4 billion in gross receipts into the economy, and we support $13.6 billion in parental earnings.

Child abuse prevention

Georgia’s children must be safe, especially in their own homes. Yet, 50 percent of Georgia’s abuse and neglect cases, close to 20,000 cases in 2005, occur among 0-6 year olds. Home visitation and other family supports could greatly ameliorate this problem, save child welfare dollars down the road, and strengthen family self-sufficiency in the short and long run.

Health

Studies show accessible, consistent medical care allows more kids to grow up to be healthier, more productive adults. Georgia’s health coverage for children ranks in the bottom third of states in terms of access and quality. About 300,000 of Georgia’s children are uninsured and vulnerable. Georgia’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), "PeachCare for Kids," which is designed to insure children in working families, is at risk of losing its funding in March if Congress or the state don’t act quickly.

Juvenile Justice

In 2006, 2,631 children in Georgia were in juvenile detention and correctional facilities on any given day, enough children for more than 100 classrooms. Georgia’s Juvenile Code, the laws that set the rules and procedures that govern the way that the Juvenile Court addresses deprived and delinquent children, is outdated, disorganized and difficult to apply to contemporary situations. It should be updated in short order.

These are some of the most pressing needs that will only cost the state more in the long term if we do nothing. We need to be smart. It is essential to embrace the idea of tax dollars spent on children not as an expense but as an investment that saves money later and, most importantly, ultimately generates tax revenues from healthy, productive adults. If our governments are committed to spending hundreds of billions of our tax dollars in the coming months on infrastructure as a means of economic stimulus, why don't we demand that they look beyond physical roads and bridges?

After all, children make up the foundation – infrastructure, if you will – of our society's future prospects that can be the highway for global competitiveness and economic growth. We can't afford to panic now. Let's stimulate the economy and, at the same time, stimulate prospects for our kids with smart investment.

Pat Willis is executive director of Voices for Georgia’s Children. Voices engages in research, analysis and advocacy to assist the state’s leadership in developing sound policy decisions that improve the well being of children. The independent nonprofit seeks to build consensus on a long-term agenda based on measurable goals that will significantly impact children’s health, safety, education, connectedness and employability.