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Guest Commentary: Early education feeds the workforce of the future

By Cort Boulanger

During his address to the citizens of the commonwealth last month, House Speaker Tom Finneran outlined his vision for the stateês economic recovery ã at the center of which was an ambitious plan to provide early learning opportunities for all Massachusetts preschoolers by 2010. After touting the stateês proactive response to the national recession compared with that of previous downturns, Finneran called for an early education system that will allow hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts preschool students to –gain fluency in the crucial disciplines of math and science.”

While some were surprised that Finneran, a fiscal conservative, would call for any increased investment during the current fiscal crunch, the speaker sees clearly what employers, educators and parents all know: Massachusetts cannot afford not to invest in early childhood education.

Preparing young children for school before they arrive for kindergarten gives them a much better chance to thrive on a social and educational level. But there are profound ã and measurable ã fiscal and economic benefits to early childhood education as well.

Multiple studies have shown that every dollar invested in a curriculum-based early childhood education program produces more than $7 in reduced special or remedial education costs, criminal justice and welfare burdens and increased tax revenues. Even though this is a tremendous return on investment, it fails to measure the full benefit to employers ã particularly in a state with nominal population growth.

Despite the recent economic downturn, Massachusetts technology employers are engaged in a fierce, global competition for talent in the crucial fields of science and technology. With flat population growth, a lackluster retention rate for engineers graduating from our colleges and universities and declining numbers of Bay State students interested in math and science careers, we must find a way to invigorate the high tech workforce pipeline from the pool of potential employees we already have in our public school system. By providing early educational opportunities throughout Massachusetts, we can instill fundamental skills and a love of learning that will allow students to succeed in challenging careers in math and science.

Math and science educators will say that if a child does not have the building blocks of learning when starting in school, it is less likely he or she will have the aptitude or confidence to commit themselves to learning ã and learning to love ã math and science. Any child whose imagination is not captured by math and science early on represents a lost potential employee for the technology industry ã lost nearly two decades before the child is ready to enter the workforce. For Massachusetts to create and retain new jobs in the innovation economy, we must maximize the precious human resources grown in the commonwealth.

But while students, parents and teachers quickly would see the positive educational, social and even fiscal effects of this bill, the benefit for technology employers is more long-term. Other states ã including technology competitors New York and Georgia ã have already begun the process of making early education an economic development priority.

Massachusetts must make the commitment to early childhood education by passing An Act Establishing Early Education for All (House bill 1838 or Senate bill 239) this year to avoid falling behind other states.

This bill will be a part of the debate on how the state should invest limited resources in its priorities. But as Speaker Finneran said, taxpayers and state leaders –should not shy away from that reality.”

Recognizing todayês tight state budget, the early education bill would phase in the program over 10 years as the economy and state finances bounce back. Massachusetts is currently spending significant state and federal resources on early education and care. These funds must be examined to ensure we are using them effectively, efficiently and in the best interest of childrenês health and educational development.

Creating an early education program will not mean the end of efforts to improve public education in Massachusetts ã we must continue to ensure standards and competition in K-12 education, invest wisely in our state colleges and universities, and maximize the contribution of University of Massachusetts to our stateês economy and research and development infrastructure. But starting the stateês children on an early path to math and science careers is key to reaching the potential of our stateês diverse and ever-evolving technology economy.

Cort Boulanger is vice president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, which represents companies throughout the stateês diverse technology economy, and he serves on the advisory board of the Early Education for All campaign.

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