Original Source | The Register Guard
By Mary Louise McClintock, Tuesday November 8, 2011

On Oct. 3, The Register-Guard editorialized about a Maryland school district that was investing in early childhood education, as well as the work of The Pew Charitable Trusts. At the end of the piece, the editors suggested that Oregon should take heed.

I'm proud to say that we already are. Several Oregon school districts put a priority on pre-kindergarten programs and services, and Oregon is poised to become a national leader in early childhood systems.

During the 2011 legislative session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 909. This landmark bill, proposed by Gov. John Kitzhaber, integrates state-funded early childhood programs as part of a birth-to-20 education continuum that includes high standards.

I was honored to represent the Oregon Community Foundation as a member of the Early Learning Design Team, a group assembled by the governor to develop recommendations on how to implement SB 909's provisions for early care and learning. The governor recently named nine Oregonians to the new Early Learning Council.

Again and again, research shows how these policy changes will affect our state's future. In late September, the Whipple Foundation Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation sponsored a Douglas County Business Leaders' summit on early childhood education. At that summit, Rob Grunewald, associate economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, stated clearly that dollars invested in early childhood development yield extraordinary public returns.

Investing in pre-kindergarten education is an economic development strategy, Grunewald explained, as it produces a much higher return than traditional economic development tools and subsidies. That's because children's quality of life from birth to age 5 has the greatest influence on their contributions to society as an adult.

During those formative years, a child's brain undergoes tremendous growth and change. When provided support for cognition, language, motor skills, adaptive skills and social-emotional functioning, a child is more likely to succeed in school and later contribute to society. Without that support, a child has a greater chance of needing costly special education services, dropping out of school, receiving welfare benefits and committing crimes.

Quite simply, early childhood education builds a foundation for success. James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, has proven that investments in early childhood education more than pay for themselves. Indeed, he argues, they pay a return of 7 percent or more ­- better than many investments on Wall Street.

Another Harvard scholar, David Deming, studied the differences between children who were in Head Start and siblings who did not participate. He found that the Head Start advantage in test scores faded quickly. But in other areas, Head Start had a significant long-term impact: The former Head Start participants were significantly less likely than their siblings to repeat grades, be diagnosed with learning disabilities or suffer the kind of poor health associated with poverty.

In addition, Head Start alumni were more likely than their siblings to graduate from high school and attend college.

Long-term effects of early childhood education are well documented. In one study that began in the 1960s, data showed a $16 return for every dollar spent on children in pre-kindergarten settings. The results of the Perry School research were significant, even though program participants lost their advantage in IQ scores over nonparticipants within a few years of completing the program.

During elementary and secondary school, Perry School participants were less likely to be placed in a special education program. At age 14, they had significantly higher-than-average achievement scores than nonparticipants. More than 65 percent of program participants graduated from public high school, compared with 45 percent of nonparticipants.

And the positive results continued into adulthood. At age 27, four times as many program participants as nonparticipants earned more than $2,000 per month.

Oregon's governor and Legislature support early childhood education. It makes sense - economically and socially -to prepare all of Oregon's children for success. As Governor Kitzhaber said at the Douglas County summit, "This is about changing the future." And Oregon is laying the foundation so that all children enter school ready to learn and succeed academically and in life.

Early childhood education improves the lives of children who receive it, and it allows them to contribute to the state's economic vitality when they become adults. It's an investment that makes sense, and Oregon is seeking to do more of it.

Mary Louse McClintock of Portland is the early childhood program director for the Oregon Community Foundation.