What’s the best insurance policy for our city’s growth? Any city’s growth? Any county’s growth? Any state’s or country’s growth? Answer: An infrastructure plan that turns babies and toddlers into voracious learning machines. In short, early childhood education – also known as universal preschool.
We mention “insurance policy” because economists say that for every $1 we put into quality early learning, we get $7.30 back in benefits, including increased wages, improved health and reduced crime.
And we call it an “infrastructure plan” because what possible building initiative is more important to any community’s future than its children – children who become that community’s residents, workers and parents when they grow up.
Research has shown us that a child’s brain achieves 80% of its growth by age 3, and 90% of its development by age 5. But we grownups have to turn on the switch. Sadly many of us just don’t really know how.
That’s why the $1.8 trillion American Families plan proposed by President Joe Biden can help better prepare more children to succeed in school by giving their families more economic support and by supporting programs to expand and improve early childhood education.