Spare early-childhood education from cuts

1/19/2010 10:55:51 AM

Posted on Sun, Jan. 17, 2010, Lexington Herald-Leader
By Robert F. Sexton

Without question, Kentucky's legislators face a tremendous challenge in producing a balanced budget for the next two years in the face of revenue shortfalls and a continuing economic crisis.

Pain is predicted in all quarters as budget cuts are considered inevitable in important social service, public protection and education programs. Most would agree these programs provide necessary and valuable services to Kentuckians, and the consequences of reduced spending could be dire.

But there is one area in particular that, in our view, should be spared the ax: early care and education for Kentucky's children.

Writing last summer in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks established in one sentence the foundation of a persuasive argument for investing in these programs. "By age 5," Brooks wrote," it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won't."

There is a compelling body of research that children whose early days are spent in healthy, stimulating surroundings have much stronger prospects of succeeding in school and as adults. Conversely, children whose start in life is marked by a series of struggles and challenges are more likely to encounter similar difficulties in later years.

The Partnership for America's Economic Success, a project of the Pew Center on the States, offers some specifics:
■ By age 3, children of parents on welfare have a vocabulary of about 500 words. Children of working-class parents know 700 words and, of college-educated parents, 1,100 words.
■ Of 50 children who have trouble reading in the first grade, 44 will still have trouble in the fourth grade.
■ Quality pre-kindergarten, especially for disadvantaged children, reduces placement in special education, grade retention and juvenile crime, and improves high school graduation and earnings.
■ Proven early childhood programs could produce stronger economic development results over time — on job growth and earnings as well as on the gross domestic product — than traditional business tax subsidies.

Early childhood education has been on the Prichard Committee's agenda since our founding more than 25 years ago. It has taken an even higher place on our list of concerns in recent years with our Strong Start Kentucky effort, developed with the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts, that focuses on making quality preschool available to more children.

Like many other advocates around the country, we have frequently cited national research, such as that noted above, in making the case for public investments in quality early care and education programs. But we now have Kentucky-specific research that shows just how important those investments could be for the commonwealth.

The University of Kentucky Center for Business and Economic Research recently concluded a cost-benefit analysis that found that each $1 invested to make quality preschool available to more Kentucky children will result in benefits of more than $5 for the state.

The study focused on both private benefits — those that would accrue directly to a preschool student and his/her family — and benefits that the public would realize overall as a result of more children participating in preschool.

The economists, who described their conclusions as conservative, studied the results from four notable early childhood programs in other parts of the country and compared the programs' services with those available in Kentucky.

A number of findings emerged from the work, but one conclusion was particularly compelling: "When we consider the combined public and private benefits of pre-K, the total estimated benefit is more than $5 for every $1 the state would invest in an expanded pre-K program."

Beyond the financial return on investment, additional benefits from an expanded preschool program in Kentucky would include:
■ Reduced need for special education,
■ Lower incidence of crime,
■ Welfare-related savings,
■ Lower incidence of grade retention,
■ Lower incidence of child abuse and neglect,
■ Higher high-school graduation and post-secondary enrollment rates for low-income students.

In other words, Kentucky's performance would be strengthened in areas well beyond the classroom — potentially reducing the need for the social service programs whose funding is of such critical concern today.

Clearly, Kentucky will be better-served, both today and in the future, if our elected leaders can sustain the state's current investments in early care and education programs and plan for significant expansions when the economy improves.

Robert F. Sexton is executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

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