Why We Should Fund Early Childhood Education

by Stuart Shapiro

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for more funding for early childhood education.  While dollars are tight, economists agree that the best place to spend is on long term investments, and few investments pay off like good child care.  William Gormley explains the state of the research.

Let’s begin with the common ground. Most early-childhood-education researchers would agree with the following three propositions:

First, a high-quality pre-K program can boost school readiness substantially, for disadvantaged children. This has been amply demonstrated by the Perry Preschool Project, the Abecedarian Project, the Chicago Child-Parent Centers Project, and many others. High-quality universal preschool programs in Georgia and Oklahoma have also demonstrated big gains in school readiness for poor children.

Second, the cognitive benefits from pre-K often decline from kindergarten to 3rd grade. Sometimes, the “fade out” is modest, as in the case of the Chicago Child-Parent Centers. Sometimes, it is dramatic, as with a 2010 Head Start evaluation. Note, though, that the Head Start evaluation included high-quality, low-quality, and medium-quality programs.

Third, even if some initial fade-out occurs, the long-term benefits of a high-quality pre-K program can be substantial. These include higher high school graduation rates, lower rates of juvenile delinquency, less substance abuse, and higher adult earnings.

Critics like to focus on the second of these points, ignoring the first and the third.  The third one in particular is critical.  In addition better child care will alleviate inequality.  This is an investment that is close to a no-brainer.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.