A stronger state

Pre-K investment pays dividends

Business and economic development leaders in Arkansas have identified a lack of skilled workers as a big drag on the state’s economy. There is no argument here—a skilled workforce is the key to economic growth and competitiveness. As policy makers debate ideas to strengthen our economy, I encourage them to embrace programs that help develop a workforce ready for the challenges of a fast-paced, evolving, and increasingly global market.

Companies in Arkansas are finding there is a growing skills gap, an inability to find workers with even the most basic reading and math skills required to do the job and/or an inadequate educational foundation upon which to learn the new skills required. As we track this problem down, we find that our educational systems have to expend extraordinary resources playing catch-up with students who enter each phase of their education illprepared. This has led business leaders to the conclusion that a better-educated workforce built upon a foundation of early childhood learning is critical for future prosperity.

Overwhelmingly, research has shown that 80 percent of brain development occurs before we reach the age of 5. In Arkansas, developmental gains have been significant among children who are served by the Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) pre-kindergarten program. In the fall of 2005, an average of 23.7 percent of ABC children demonstrated proficiency across seven areas of development. By the next spring, after only one year of Pre-K, that number had increased to 82.2 percent. These are children who experienced significant gains in early language, literacy and mathematical development, along with improved social skills.

When children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn, they are better able to take advantage of the educational benefits of classroom learning. Research has shown that high-quality Pre-K improves children’s overall performance in grades K-12 and reduces special education placements and grade repetition, and increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment.

In business, we rarely have the luxury of making investment decisions with as much supporting evidence as we have when it comes to the economic value of investing early in our children.

Arkansas has not infused new funding into the ABC Pre-K program since 2008.

Studies show that Pre-K investment pays dividends over and over. In a state-specific study, it was found that investing in early education would boost Arkansas’ economy. A five-percent increase in male high school graduation rates is estimated to save Arkansas $53 million in annual incarceration costs and crime-related expenditures. If just one year’s high school dropouts could be converted to high school graduates, Arkansas households would have an additional $2.7 billion in accumulated wealth over the lifetime of the students from the graduation class, according to James J. Heckman in his study Invest Early in Early Childhood Development as a Means to Deficit Reduction in Arkansas.

States like Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama are moving forward with Pre-K investments, and we can’t afford to be left behind. As a proven means of building a stronger workforce and providing economic returns, early education funding should be a state priority.