Big ROI for early childhood programs

How would you like to click your fingers and make more than one billion dollars in economic benefit come Michigan’s way?

Well, go ahead and click, and then express thanks for the state’s battered-but-still-alive early childhood programs for low-income children:

A new study by Wilder Research outlines $1.1 billion in estimated cost savings that can be attributed to the state’s pre-kindergarten/school readiness programs, including:

$221 million in K-12 savings: fewer students repeat grades and lower special ed costs.

584 million in reduced government spending and increased tax revenues: fewer criminals and lower prison costs, reduced child abuse, lower welfare and Medicaid costs, and increased lifetime earnings (for students who receive pre-K programs).

The Wilder Report, produced for the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, is perfectly timed just a couple weeks before Governor Jennifer Granholm’s budget presentation sets the stage for another year-long battle in Lansing over taxes, spending priorities, and reform options.

(Last year, kids took it on the chin as the Michigan Senate considered cutting all state-funded pre-school programs for more than 30,000 students.)

State Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan summed it up best: For K-12 education, the state invests “about a billion dollars a grade, and we don’t spend it where you get the biggest bang for the buck and the greatest brain development for the kids,” he told The Detroit News.

If your legislator is still not convinced, here’s Nobel-prize-winning economist James Heckman has a few more arguments in favor of early childhood investment…