The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) has launched a multi-year Early Childhood Initiative designed to spur national debate about early education, provide information to the business community so it can advocate for policies that support high-quality early education, and develop an early education business network.
“Global competition for human talent and innovation, long-standing educational achievement gaps, low high school graduation rates, and the pending retirement of 77 million baby boomers have placed tremendous workforce pressures on American business,” ICW states in the introduction to its newly released report “Ready, Set Go! Why Business Should Support Early Childhood Education.”
“These pressures, if not checked, will jeopardize our national economic security and the viability of the American dream…. Achieving a world-class [education] system begins with high-quality early learning opportunities for children from birth to age five.”
The report recommends six actions for business communities to take:
1. Support a mixed provider delivery system.
2. Encourage early learning system and K–12 alignment.
3. Promote early learning policies as part of the economic development agenda.
4. Encourage the inclusion of early childhood data in the statewide longitudinal data system.
5. Encourage your state to adopt a Quality Rating Information System (QRIS).
6. Encourage business organizations and networks to adopt a policy position in support of public investments for effective, high quality early education programs.
The report also summarizes research demonstrating the educational and economic benefits of high-quality early education. “Research shows that quality early education programs have positive impacts on all children’s cognitive and language development, regardless of income level or program setting,” the report notes. In addition, the report highlights promising business community initiatives in Virginia, Minnesota, North Carolina, California and Washington state.
“Early childhood education is not only a smart investment with positive returns, but it is the right thing to do. Our nation cannot afford the cost of inaction. In decades past, the United States proudly claimed premier international status as home to the best and brightest. Today’s U.S. rankings, however, prove that we have a long way to go to reach the top of the list again,” the report states.
“With current early childhood education resource levels, too many kindergartners will continue to begin school ill-prepared, language skills and achievement scores in math and reading will likely remain at mediocre levels, costs for interventions during the K–12 years and after will continue to rise, high school graduation rates and post-secondary degree completion rates will likely remain unchanged, and businesses will lack the necessary workforce to fill the jobs of the future.”
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