Early ed is a true stimulus
Boston Business Journal, Op-Ed by J.D. Chesloff, October 23-29, 2009

A generation ago, business leaders would not have gathered yearly to discuss the importance of investing in high-quality early childhood education. The baby boomers were young. The economy was only beginning its shift away from manufacturing, and forward-thinking business leaders were starting to put energy and resources into improving K-12 education.

Who would have thought then that more than 100 business and government leaders would gather, as we did last month, in Colorado for the third annual Telluride Economic Summit on Early Childhood Investment? Yet profound demographic and economic changes, coupled with our increased understanding of the long-lasting benefits of high-quality early education, convince us of the urgency of the issue.

Congressional leaders and President Obama understand the urgency, too. Federal legislation that would establish a billion-dollar-a-year Early Learning Challenge Fund has passed the US House of Representatives and awaits action by the Senate. Here in Massachusetts, the challenge is to find ways, as several other states have, to maintain our investment in early education despite the tough budgetary times and to boost that investment as soon as possible.

Business leaders are a bottom-line bunch, and the bottom-line is that in 2015, according to Northeastern University economists, the population of working-age adults in New England will be more than 100,000 people smaller than it was in 2005. Add to that sobering projection this equally sobering fact: The 43 percent of Massachusetts third graders who cannot yet read proficiently, research tells us, face a significant risk of continuing to struggle in school and perhaps not even finishing high school. An increasingly knowledge-based economy that faces a labor shortage simply cannot afford to have sizeable numbers of children – tomorrow’s workers – without the education to fill the jobs of the future.

The good news is that we know that high-quality early education works. Not only does it pay off in terms of later academic achievement, but it also produces a handsome return on investment. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, that return is about 16 percent for every dollar spent. Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, writing in the journal of the American Enterprise Institute in August, calls investing in early education “ America’s best economic stimulus package.”

As I said in the workshop I co-led at the Telluride conference, business leaders and advocates around the country have found various ways to advance the cause of high-quality early education. In Minnesota, for instance, business leaders motivated by the research of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis are leading advocacy coalitions focused on early childhood. The Iowa Business Council, acting on it its own, has led a statewide effort to build legislative support for early education. Here in Massachusetts, business leaders have joined the broad-based Early Education for All coalition created by the non-profit Strategies for Children, Inc. Nationally, the Business Roundtable recently released an updated call to action and series of principles to guide early childhood advocacy.

No matter what the approach, the lesson is clear. Today’s business leaders are making decisions for tomorrow’s economy. Investing now in high-quality early education will make a lasting and important difference in the lives of children, in our labor force, and in taxpayers’ wallets.

JD Chesloff is deputy director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and vice-chairman of the state’s Board of Early Education and Care.