If you could invest $1 and receive $13 in return, would you do it? According to Nobel Laureate economist James J. Heckman, quality preschool programs for disadvantaged children can deliver a 13% per year per child return on investment.
Poverty is a key risk factor for younger children and can fundamentally interfere with a child’s readiness to learn. If children do not have proficient reading skills by the third grade, their ability to progress through school and meet grade-level expectations diminishes significantly. This is not the case in other industrialized countries that outperform the U.S. on international comparisons of student achievement, such as the Programme for Student Assessment, or PISA, exam. Those countries spend considerably more resources on students with the greatest needs.
The newest research shows that high-quality early intervention and prevention programs can produce savings for state and local governments by successfully preparing children for education. They can reduce rates of grade retention and the need for remedial instruction, and the costs of social services and crime.
The opposite is true for low-income students who do not have access to high-quality early learning programs. They are more likely to drop out of school, never attend college, be arrested for a violent crime, or become a teen parent.
Prominent studies of early childhood education have shown average societal rates of return range from 7% to 20% annually. A well-respected cost-benefit analysis of more than twenty different studies of preschool programs demonstrated that a quality preschool program could return on average a “profit” to society (economic benefits minus costs) of nearly $30,000 for every child served.
How might that apply in South Dakota? In 2018 983 children qualified for Head Start programs but were unable to attend due to a lack of funding.
Not only can investments in young children reduce societal costs and increase tax revenue, but those investments can also boost future labor force productivity, a key ingredient of economic growth. The skills employers look for-including ability in math and language, working well in teams, critical thinking, self-motivation, and persistence-are shaped during the first few years of life.
A high-quality preschool program also helps parents enter the workforce. Such a program makes it less likely that parents will be absent or less productive because of unreliable childcare arrangements.
The path to success in life is driven by school readiness, the ability to get along with others, academic success and high school graduation. We cannot afford not to invest in these children now. South Dakota needs a state-funded, voluntary preschool program.
We need to be sure that every one of our most vulnerable, neediest children has an opportunity to begin kindergarten school-ready; in helping these children, we help ourselves.
The choice is simple: we can pay for high-quality preschool programs now or pay far more later.
It is imperative that each of us contacts our state senators and representatives and encourage them to invest in our children.
Tom Holmes
Former educator
Former state legislator
Current Early Learner South Dakota Stakeholder