TKW Consulting

Preschool investment pays off big, report finds
Posted: May 3, 2007

Through investments in high-quality voluntary preschool for at-risk children, by 2050 Wisconsin could reap benefits of $13.60 for every dollar it puts into early learning, according to a study released Thursday.

(For more on the report, go to www.epi.org/.)

The report estimates that early education programs begun now at a cost of $6,300 per child for Wisconsin's poorest 3- and 4-year-olds would result in more than $5.1 billion in annual benefits by 2050, largely because more children would mature to be taxpaying wage-earners and fewer would fall to crime.

Robert Lynch, an economist at Washington College in Maryland, wrote the study for the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Lynch adds to a growing body of research suggesting that good preschooling for needy children can lower costs later for remedial education, law enforcement, child welfare and even health costs, while helping children become higher achievers with greater earning potential.

Lynch estimated that the annual benefits from early education aimed at the poorest children nationwide would surpass annual costs within six years of start-up and gain momentum afterward, amounting to an annual benefit ratio of 12.1-to-1 by 2050. A plan for all 3- and 4-year-olds would begin to pay for itself within nine years, according to Lynch, and reach a payout of 8.2-to-1 by 2050.

In state-by-state breakdowns, Lynch figured that universally accessible pre-kindergarten in Wisconsin would have a benefit ratio of 9.5-to-1.

Although he hadn't yet seen the report, Dennis Winters, chief economist for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, said the ratios appear to fit with findings from other major research. Winters includes himself among a number of economists encouraging pre-kindergarten for disadvantaged children as a cost-effective form of economic development.

Others are scrutinizing the numbers.

"This is more of a political document than sound scientific research," Bruce Fuller, author of "Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education" (Stanford University Press, 2007), said in an e-mail Thursday.

Fuller, a sociologist at the University of California-Berkeley, is critical of what he sees as attempts by child advocates to push for universal standardized preschool nationwide based on findings from limited studies focused on children from the neediest
families.

In an interview, Lynch said he was cautious in his calculations. He said $6,300 per child in costs and 3.5% annual inflation were generous.

Arthur Reynolds, a professor of child development at the University of Minnesota, said it's important to consider the quality of education offered.

"If you do a run-of-the-mill program, you're not going to find these effects," Reynolds said.

As opposed to the $6,300 per child cost used by Lynch, Reynolds said the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool program is about $5,000. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, state and local governments contributed $4,590 per child enrolled in preschool in Wisconsin.