Early childhood education increases earning power Wednesday, November 27, 2002 Recently, Committee for Economic Development, a leading business group, endorsed a rapid expansion of high-quality preschool programs, with the goal of making them available for all youngsters starting at age 3. The reason: a huge potential payback. The National Institute for Early Education Research, a New Jersey-based and foundation-supported think tank has released research indicating the scale of the return. The Institute evaluated a well-establlished child care program based in North Carolina. The lifetime earnings of those in the project are projected to be $143,000 greater than those in the control group. The program also involved the mothers of these youngsters, helping them improve their basic skills in reading, mathematics and other subjects. As a result, the mothers' incomes are projected to grow by $133,000 over the years. Overall, $4 are returned for every $1 invested. Read more. Go Now think of your community. Count how many 4 year olds you have. Multiply that by $143,000. That gives you the range of income your community is likely to lose each year with inadequate child care programs. So, for every 100 4 year olds, your economy is losing $1.4 million in lifetime earnings. As you can see, these are not small numbers. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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