Starting strong: The case for pre-K

With our daughter now in college, my wife Anne and I have reached the end of our journey through Virginia public education. As a parent I have learned many lessons from my children's combined total of 40 years in public pre-K through 12 classrooms, and one of the most significant is the importance of early childhood education programs.

Virginia started a modest early childhood education program after my two sons had already entered elementary school. My daughter, however, was just the right age to experience the program. And while my boys had a good experience with high-quality private child-care programs, the positive impact that a public, comprehensive pre-K year had on my daughter made me a true believer in the power of early childhood education.

I don't have to look far outside my own home to see the other ways expanding early childhood education has made an impact. Virginia is a perfect example of how investments in education will ensure that we have a skilled workforce ready to compete in a global economy.

As governor, I had to make tough decisions to invest in early childhood education programs while cutting nearly $6 billion in spending to balance the budget during a recession. Even in a time of tough cuts, I worked with legislators, educators and business leaders to expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative, improving the quality of pre-K programs and increasing the number of children they served by 40 percent.

Last week, I was proud to join eight of my U.S. Senate colleagues in introducing legislation to expand access to high-quality early education programs for children all over the country.

This legislation, the "Strong Start for America's Children Act," is a 10-year federal-state partnership to expand and improve early childhood education for 4-year-old children from families earning below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

While there is bipartisan support for early learning programs, many argue that to get our fiscal house back in order we need to slash spending across the board, including early childhood programs and other education priorities.

While I believe that everything should be considered when we look for cost savings, it is tough to identify an educational program with a higher return on investment than early childhood education.

A primary argument for pre-K programs is a scientific one - 90 percent of brain development occurs before a child's fifth birthday. Without early education programs that serve children under the age of five, our education system neglects children during the years its effects could be most significant.

Pre-K is also good for the economy. Nobel laureate James Heckman, an economist who calculates how public investments accelerate economic growth, has concluded that early childhood education has one of the greatest returns of any public investment.

Early learning programs make it more likely that children will do well in elementary school, less likely they will have to repeat a grade and more likely they will be successful in the future.

The return on investment may be even higher when children from low-income families gain access to pre-K programs. Research shows that the value of the program is most powerful for children who might otherwise have learning barriers - developmental disabilities, lack of access to books or other learning material, or a home where English isn't the primary language.

Part of this benefit comes from getting parents more engaged in learning so they can supplement their child's educational experience at home. Providing low-income families with access to pre-K education helps close the achievement gap between children of all backgrounds.

As governor, I learned that the commonwealth was funding certain early childhood programs through the Department of Education and others through the Department of Social Services, an approach that limited accountability and efficiency. I made changes to coordinate these investments in Virginia, and I support similar changes at the federal level to eliminate waste and bolster the structure of our education system.

Pre-K investments will pay huge dividends, both in the lives of individual children and for our nation as a whole. The "Strong Start for America's Children Act" is one of the smartest investments we can make.

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