Ron Grunewald, a recognized expert in tracking the connection between money and education, recently discussed how a Minnesota school is converting remedial dollars into early childhood education because of the vastly better return on investment.
Grunewald was a speaker at a forum hosted by the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way in Northumberland, where speakers displayed and explained evidence showing how investment in early education is vastly more cost effective than trying to patch missed opportunities later in life.
Citing a study of young children in a special program from the early 1960s that tracked costs and benefits over 62 years, Grunewald showed in terms of educational and economic attainment and crime and prison avoidance how the return on investment was 18 percent.
The target audience for Grunewald’s remarks was the business community here in the Central Susquehanna Valley. Early childhood education needs champions. The dollars and cents of it appeal to business owners and operators, who have influence through their associations, their broad-ranging investments in our communities and their roles in the overall vitality of the valley.
Early childhood education is a community-sustaining priority for the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Central Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.
Pennsylvania is among the leaders nationwide with nearly 36 percent of children under 5-years-old benefiting from quality early education programs. Closer to home, those percentages range from 33 percent in Snyder and Union counties to just above 40 percent in Northumberland and Montour counties.
The case for early childhood education couldn’t be clearer. Science, social science and economic analysis converge in the conclusion that the learning pathway to opportunity, productivity, competitive capabilities and personal and collective fulfillment starts long before kindergarten.
As progressive as Pennsylvania is, public support for early education is perennially vulnerable in the state’s budget battles for several reasons. The immediate constituents – providers, children and their (often struggling) families are relatively weak politically. The impressive payback -- $16 of benefit for every $1 of cost – is some time on the future. Against urgent needs and well-armed lobbyists for other priorities, early education funds are a tempting target for pruning.
A direct conversion – turning budgeted remedial money into preventive investment – is an avenue to pursue. Find out if your school district can shift funds being spent on remediation to early education. It would be better use of those dollars.
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Early education needs champions
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