September 2016

About 3 in 4 young children are in non-parental care. Research on early brain development highlights the importance of quality early care and education, yet low wages make it difficult to attract and retain qualified staff. Here are five critical facts about the early childhood workforce. We need to do much more to support childcare providers. Read the full article from Child Trends with links to lots of information, data, survey results from a recent National Survey of Early Care and...

"A new working paper released by the Upjohn Institute and Georgetown University’s Center for Research on Children in the United States suggests that the benefits of universal pre-K exceed the costs of administering such programs. This study, which I co-authored, examines the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) universal pre-K program in Oklahoma. We found that the benefits (specifically, increased earnings and reduced crime of TPS pre-K participants as adults) outweigh program costs by almost 2-to-1.

Early childhood education makes a valuable contribution to society by advancing children’s learning and development, enhancing their path toward success in school and beyond. Because of this, and tied to the belief that tangible contributions, both immediate and long-term, will be forthcoming, public investments in early childhood education are rising at federal, state, and local levels. But these results won’t be achieved if we don’t also invest in the preparation of early childhood...