February 4, 2007: Early childhood education wise investment

by Joan Kagan, published in the Sunday Republican, February 4, 2007

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. - Benjamin Franklin

In preschool classrooms throughout the city, our future workforce is in training.

    Every day, thousands of children enrolled in quality education and care programs are developing the skills and tools they will need to succeed in school, in the global workplace and in life.

    Studies have consistently shown that children who become early learners, become better learners for life. Children who experience all the benefits of early education get better grades, stay in school longer and are more likely to go to college.

    They grow up to be better educated, more motivated and more productive adults, which makes them better citizens of our community and better employees for the companies - your companies - that do business here.

    Children in the care of organizations like Springfield Day Nursery will be the adults best suited to perform the most challenging jobs in years to come.

In conference rooms throughout the business community, public officials, strategists and those responsible for economic development are talking about young children and early education.

   Why? Because they know the key to realizing business success and economic prosperity is through an early investment in human capital.

    The idea of early childhood education as an economic development strategy is gaining momentum as a number of influential business groups and companies, including MassMutual Financial Group and Verizon, have stepped forward in support of new investments in early childhood education. In fact, BusinessWeek magazine identified universally accessible preschool education as one of its 25 Ideas For A Changing World.

    As the nature of our economy continues to shift to high-tech and biotech industries, better-educated and more highly skilled employees are needed.

    Preparing tomorrow's workforce and positioning Massachusetts for future economic growth requires making substantial improvements in children's early learning opportunities. If you want an advance look at the people who will comprise tomorrow's regional workforce, pay a visit to an early childhood center.

    According to a report by the Trustees of the Committee for Economic Development, a national nonpartisan organization of business and education leaders, "poorly educated workers are increasingly unable to earn a living wage in a global marketplace where skills matter more than ever before.

   "Society pays in many ways for failing to take full advantage of the learning potential of all its children, from lost economic productivity and tax revenues to higher crime rates to diminished participation in the civic and cultural life of the nation."

    Despite the growing volumes of research, statistics and speeches on the economic and educational benefits of early childhood education, 6,000 Massachusetts children a day - 1,477 of them in Springfield - are growing up without the pivotal preschool experience that will allow them to answer the school bell ready and able to learn.

    We know all too well what happens when children enter kindergarten without the skills to learn - skills like listening, following directions, getting along with other children, knowing their letters, writing their names and taking personal responsibility for their actions in the classroom.

    We know they fall behind their peers on day one and rarely, if ever, do they catch up. Imagine being 5 years old and already experiencing the defeating emotions of failure. And who will be to blame when that child, 10 years from now, joins a gang, has a child, is unemployable and lives in poverty? Failure so early in life transcends into every aspect of a person's life, setting the stage for an inability to succeed as adults.

    Right now in our community and throughout Massachusetts, there is a growing list of efforts to spark and sustain economic development. Topping the list of real estate for business, retaining graduates from our regional institutions of higher ed, commuter rails, safe neighborhoods, and affordable housing should be a quality public and private education system that includes preschool and all day kindergarten.

    The window of opportunity for lifelong learning is most open in the first five years of a child's life. It is a window that as adults and policymakers we must make certain is never closed.

    Springfield's renaissance rests not solely in a balanced budget or in a reconciled ledger. It lies in the ability of forward thinking adults who understand there is no future without prudent investments made today. When it comes to securing the workforce that will fuel our community's health and well being, a quality, affordable, accessible early education and care experience for Springfield's children is truly the little engine that could.

    Log on to www.sdn.org to learn more about and to support local initiatives supporting early education and care, including the George A. and Irene E. Davis Foundation's Cherish Every Child and the Early Education For All Campaign.

Joan Kagan is the president and chief executive officer of Springfield Day Nursery, Western Massachusetts' largest not-for-profit provider of early education and care.