The Most Critical Investment We Can Make

A child's ability to learn, and to ultimately become a positive contributor to society depends on the quality of intellectual, emotional and physical stimulation he or she receives from birth through age six. Without a strong educational foundation, our children – particularly disadvantaged children – will fall behind their peers long before they step foot in a kindergarten classroom. This often leads to an expensive reliance on remedial services. Such children often dropout of school and become a further burden to our society. Getting children off to the right start before they are labeled "at-risk" is truly one of the best investments a community can make.

Consider these facts –

• While 85% of the brain's core structure (size, growth and hard wiring) is developed by age four, less than nine percent of public investments in education are made at that time. - Early Learning Left Out: Closing the Investment Gap for America's Youngest Children, April 2005

• In the Houston Independent School District alone, $25.5 million dollars was spent on children who had to repeat either first, second or third grade during the 2006-2007 school year. State-wide this figure is over $300,000,000.

• Nearly 50% of HISD students dropout of high school. More than 75% of prison inmates are high school dropouts.

• Quality early care and education means higher math and reading scores, lower incidences of grade retention and dropouts, higher college attendance, fewer referrals to special education, more home ownership and higher income, lower crime and unemployment rates and fewer teen pregnancies. - Pre-K Now, 2006

• Despite the overwhelming evidence in support of quality early care and education investments, public pre-kindergarten programs, federal Head Start and all sectors of child care remain severely under-funded in Texas. In fact, Texas only invests $2,836 per child enrolled in pre-kindergarten, ranking in the lower third of all states that fund pre-kindergarten programs.

• A conservative cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Bush School of Government and Public Services at Texas A&M University found that every $1.00 invested in high quality pre-K yields at least $3.50 to $16.00 to Texas communities.

• Employers lose $3 billion a year due to absenteeism directly related to child care, and employees with work/family conflicts are three times as likely to consider quitting. - A.J. Reynolds et al., “Age 21 Cost Benefit Analysis of the Title 1 Chicago Parent Child Centers,” 2002

Learn More

If you want to learn more about early care and education, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) are great places to start.