Ev Ehrlich and Tracy Kornblatt, Committee for Economic Development
September 2004
The Committee for Economic Development recently released these two working papers, which analyze the economic benefits to the community of investing in early childhood education. In short, both conclude that it can have greater long-term economic benefits than short-term, incentive-based investments that are designed to draw businesses into the community. In the first report, the authors set the stage by summarizing the current value-added research of early childhood education, which they argue shows that the "right" early childhood program will help the child succeed not only academically, but also in smoothly transitioning into adulthood. The second report goes a step further, concluding that "there is active interest in public investment in economic development, even if it is at a high cost and with low expected benefits." Thus, not surprisingly, CED instead favors increasing funding for "quality" early education programs (which the authors argue Head Start is not). To read both papers, click here.