Preschool Pays Off for Kids, Public: House Democrats Show How

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Preschool Pays Off for Kids, Public: House Democrats Show How
Preschool is a proven investment; Alaska can do better for our kids

JUNEAU – Representatives Les Gara and Chris Tuck (both D-Anchorage), and Representative Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) made the case for increasing early childhood development efforts in Alaska. The representatives highlighted the economic returns of preschool education to Alaskan children, their families, and to the state as a whole, and they offered specific solutions for how Alaska can start realizing those benefits.

“Early education is an extremely wise investment,” said Rep. Kawasaki. “The public economics cannot be understated.”

The representatives pointed to multiple studies that show children who go to preschool make more money and save the public money throughout their lives. Preschool attendees do better in school, get better jobs, depend less on public support, and commit fewer crimes than those without early childhood educational opportunities.

“We know [early education] works, the business community knows it works. If you’re looking to find a way to provide more jobs, with higher incomes and lower jail rates, this is the way to do it,” said Rep. Gara.

The representatives presented a variety of complementary proposals to meet Alaska’s unique early education needs. Rep. Kawasaki’s HB 154 would have the state devise an education plan for three and four-year-olds with the goal of creating optional, effective and cost-efficient solutions that work with existing early development programs like Head Start.

Rep Tuck has re-introduced his Parents as Teachers initiative which passed the House last session on a 32-5 vote but ran out of time in the Senate. The program, already active in 47 Alaska communities, teaches parents about how their children learn during the critical developmental stages between birth and age five.

“These programs really are about economic efficiency,” said Rep. Tuck. “All the data confirms what we already know, bang for the buck pre-K is the best investment we can make for the state of Alaska.”

Rep. Gara is working through the budget process to ensure that Alaska’s fledgling efforts in early childhood development get the support they need. Alaska has a limited preschool pilot program in its third year and contributes to the federal Head Start program in Alaska. Alaska is one of less than a dozen states without a permanent statewide preschool program.

Read a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return.”

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Fact Sheet: Early Childhood Development: A Wise Investment

“If properly funded and managed, investment in [early childhood development] yields an extraordinary return, far exceeding the return on most investments, private or public.”
– Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota

Education Returns

• • Children who attend preschool
    • are more likely to graduate from high school¹
    • are more likely to earn a higher degree later in life¹
    • show 31% greater gains in vocabulary learning²
    • improved their math skills 44%²

Individual Economic Returns

• • By age 40, children who attend preschool
    • are more likely to be employed.
    • earn roughly 30% more than those who don’t attend preschool¹

Public Economic Returns

• • Children who attend preschool
    • are less likely to commit violent crime¹
    • are more likely to be self-reliant as adults¹
  • School districts save significant money because preschool participants are less likely to require special or remedial education⁴
  • By age 21, taxpayers receive $4 for every $1 spent on early education programs⁴
  • 67% of Parents as Teachers parents worked as volunteers in the school or classroom monthly⁵

“Early childhood development programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives, and we think that is a mistake.”³
– Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota

1. High/Scope Perry PreSchool program: Cost-Benefit Analysis Using Data from the Age-40 Followup. The Journal of Human Resources, Winter 2006.
2. The Effects of State Prekindergarten Programs on Young Children’s School Readiness in Five States. The National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University, December 2005.
3. Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, March 2003.
4 Early Learning, Later Success: The Abecedarian Study, Early Childhood Educational Intervention for Poor Children, Executive Summary. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, FPG Child Development Inst., Chapel Hill, NC, 1999.
5 The Parents as Teachers Program: Longitudinal follow-up to the second wave study. Research and Training Associates, Overland Park, KS, 1996.