Times Square: Not Just for Broadway and Tourists, Now a Showcase for the Importance of Early Learning
The First Five Years Fund airs Early Learning Matters commercial in bustling center of New York City
CHICAGO – At a critical time for early learning investments nationwide, the First Five Years Fund on Monday began airing a video on a Jumbotron in New York City’s Times Square about how smart investments in our youngest children build better educational outcomes and a stronger economy. The 30-second video, titled Early Learning Matters, will air at 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues on the CBS Jumbotron through July 8.
“Our hope is that Early Learning Matters will help bring the importance of early childhood education to the center of the American conversation,” said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of First Five Years Fund. “And where better to do that than amid the bustle of millions passing by Times Square in New York City.”
Investing in the first five years of a child’s life is critical to strengthening the economy, now and for the future. Assuring that our least advantaged children receive quality early learning in their first five years of life is one of the most cost-effective approaches to improving education, health and economic outcomes, according to Nobel Prize Laureate Economist James Heckman. Quality early education, in turn, lowers the costs of remediation, crime and social dependence. Heckman’s research shows that every dollar invested in quality early childhood education for at-risk children delivers economic gains of 7 to 10 percent per year.
We live in an incredibly challenging budget environment, and yet policymakers in Congress and in states still see how smart investments like these can serve as cost-efficient links to future prosperity.
Help spread the word that Early Learning Matters by sharing this two-minute version of the Jumbotron video with your friends and family, community group, church or elected leaders via email, Twitter, or Facebook. Tell them why Early Learning Matters.