Why It Matters

High-quality care and early childhood education services are cost-effective investments over the long term.

Research on comprehensive, high-quality early learning shows that such programs are cost-effective investments - promoting substantial economic and social benefits, while reducing the need for more expensive, less productive interventions for older children and adults. Or, as the Nobel-Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, James Heckman says, "the real question is how to use available funds wisely. The best evidence supports the policy prescription: Invest in the very young."

Heckman

One of the world's leading economists - Dr. James Heckman - urges an early education to help children do better in school and to save money down the road. Heckman argues that early interventions for disadvantaged children "raise the quality of the workforce, enhance the productivity of schools and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare dependency. They raise earnings and promote social attachment. Focusing solely on earnings gains, returns to dollars invested are as high as 15-17 percent (per year)."

To read more about Dr. Heckman's work in this area, go to:

High-quality care and early childhood education services lead to higher earnings, longer stays in school, more employment opportunities and decreased chance of a criminal record.

Perry Preschool

Begun in 1962, this study showed that by age 40, those enrolled at age three or four in this high-quality early learning program were more likely to have high school diplomas, jobs and higher earnings than their peers. The study also found that participants committed fewer crimes than those who never enrolled in the program.

The study followed 123 high-risk three- and four-year-olds in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Nearly 60 children were randomly assigned to a high-quality early care and education program; the rest received no preschool. All were tracked until age 40. In 2003, a report by Arthur Rolnick and Arthur Reynolds of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis called "Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return" analyzed the data from the Perry Preschool Project and concluded a 16% Estimated Real Internal Rate of Return for every dollar invested.

For more information on High/Scope Perry, go to:

http://www.highscope.org/Content.asp?ContentId=219

To read more about Rolnick and Reynold's study, go to:

http://minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/abc-part2.pdf

High-quality care and early childhood education services reduce crime and increase international competitiveness.

RAND

In 2005, a RAND study calculated that every dollar invested in early childhood education leads to a future return of $2.62, as well as additional benefits to the state, such as reduced crime and greater international competitiveness.

To read more about RAND's study, go to:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2005/RAND_RB9118.pdf

High-quality care and early childhood education services provide a great return on investment.

Economic Policy Institute

In 2007, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a study titled "Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation." According to this study, providing voluntary, high-quality, publicly funded pre-kindergarten education for the poorest twenty-five percent of three- and four-year-old children would have an enormous impact on everything from the annual budget to crime prevention. EPI estimates that these annual benefits would surpass the costs of the program within a six-year timeframe. According to the EPI, by 2050, the overall benefits of such a program would total $315 billion. The breakdown for this total includes $83 billion in budgetary benefits for the government; $156 billion for increased employment compensation; and $77 billion resulting from savings associated with the reduction of crime and child abuse. These annual benefits - as projected for the year 2050 - would exceed the costs of the program by a ratio of 12.1 to 1. www.epi.org

To read more about EPI's study of Pre-K programs, go to the executive summary at:

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_enriching#exec