The economics of inequality: The value of early childhood education

Excerpts:

Educational equity is often seen as a social movement to bring equal educational opportunities to disadvantaged populations, as well as to equalize education achievement across a wide range of people with different backgrounds, skills, abilities, and family resources.

It's a noble cause. But one person's nobility can be seen by another as an entitlement program that provides great value to the reciever and little to the giver. This is why I have not focused my work on the moral aspects of providing equity through early childhood education- even though the case for early intervention could be framed this way. I've focused on its practical value - why it makes sense and how it generates 7 to 10 cents per year on every initial dollar invested.

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The logic is quite clear from an economic standpoint. We can invest early to close disparities and prevent achievement gaps, or we can pay to remediate disparities when they are harder and more expensive to close. Either way we are going to pay. And, we'll have to do both for a while. But, there is an important difference between the two approaches. Investing early allows us to shape the future; investing later chains us to fixing the missed opportunities of the past.