Office of Early Childhood Education?

The Obama Transition Team Announces the Creation of the US Department of Education's Office of Early Childhood!

Just kidding. They didn't, but maybe they really should! As a Kohl McCormick fellow or friend, you are probably already clamoring for an Office of Early Childhood in the US Department of Education. Maybe you are even a little surprised that one doesn't already exist. Either way, most likely, you are already craving more advocacy at the federal level for more funding and dissemination of information about the importance of early childhood learning.

You might have already hoped that someone would find a way to make pre-kindergarten available to all who want it. You also might have already wanted someone to establish a good compensation assistance program so you and your aides can be fairly compensated for your hard work. (After all, good salaries and benefits allow you and your co-workers to keep coming back year after year, and that kind of commitment affords better quality in early education).

You might have already thought about all these things and more, and said to yourself, "Hey, a national department dedicated to crying out for kids under five - no matter their economics, ethnicity or ability? That's a pretty good idea!"

Currently, there are several sub-offices in the US Department of Education that serve specific aspects and stages of education, but no Office for Early Childhood. An Office of Early Childhood (OEC) would take all the early education initiatives and programs and organize them into one sub-office. The Bush Administration already has the Department of Health and Human Services and some sub-offices in the Department of Ed working on carrying out the "Good Start, Grow Smart" initiative**. Good Start, Grow Smart is an attempt at a large-scale push to emphasize the importance of early childhood. There are also other programs out there. If these were all place in the OEC, the missions and objectives of these programs would be handled with more intention and efficiency, potentially resulting in more benefits overall.

But other voices say that maybe now is not the time. After all, we have an economic recession to consider. Government needs to buoy the failing economy before we can ask for more investment in our smallest citizens.

Perhaps. But what if there is a case to be made for early childhood education being exactly the place where we should invest our national resources right now?

Putting aside my own bias, which screams that now is always the time to invest in our children, there are multiple studies that say that giving our newest members of society quality early education and care produces some pretty substantial economic returns. The High/Scope Perry Preschool Program study* looked at two groups of children over four decades - one group went to preschool, and one did not. They concluded that for every $1 invested in the early education program, the taxpayer saved $13. That money saved came from less need for remediation, special education, retention and the criminal justice system. That's a pretty good return, especially when it's extrapolated over years of investment in a much bigger program.

In addition to the savings, investing in early education programs would create more jobs, which in turn, would create more consumers and tax payers. And consequently, greater access to early childhood programs helps parents fulfill their own responsibilities at work as well.

Savings? More jobs? More consumption? More tax payers? Working parent benefits? That seems like a smart economic stimulus plan to me! Maybe we are on to something.

So, even in these tough economic times, now is the time to establish an Office of Early Childhood Education at the federal level. Now is the time to prove that our children ought to and can be our most valuable investments - not only for the economic benefits and developmental progress, but for the dreams we could protect and nurture.

And the sky's the limit on what the returns would be on those!

* Calman, Leslie J. Early Childhood Education for All Legal Momentum, April 2005: New York, NY
** The Bush Administration's Early Childhood Initiative