12 May 10
New Mexico's Kids Our Best Investment Strategy
By Larry Langley, CEO/President, New Mexico Business Roundtable

There has been a lot of talk lately, both here in New Mexico, and in other communities all across our nation, about the potential long-term economic and workforce benefits of early childhood education.

There always has been a powerful consensus among our service providers — those people who work daily meeting the needs of families and children — that providing every child with an opportunity to be healthy, educated and successful in life is the right thing to do. What has changed radically in the last few years is that experts in economic theory have joined the discussion.

Scientists studying early childhood development have long pointed to a compelling body of research that concludes that more than 85 percent of a child's brain network is wired in the first five years of life, and that environmental and health factors, combined with early learning experiences, join to determine a child's lifelong ability to learn, to relate to others, to be productive in the workplace, and to be a fully engaged citizen.

What has been particularly striking to me as a business leader is that, recently, a series of evaluations and studies by the Federal Reserve Bank — not an organization generally known for its emotionalism or its focus on the well being of young children — have stated that public investments in early care and education draw returns of up to $18 for every dollar invested. In fact, in a statement issued by Art Rolnick, director of research, and Rob Grunewald, economic analyst, for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, they concluded that investment in early childhood provided a greater return for taxpayers' dollars than any other public investment approach.

Of course, I am sympathetic to the need to provide for every child and to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to nurture their talents and find success in life, but as a business leader I am sometimes skeptical about whether the programs we invest our scarce tax dollars in are actually producing any concrete benefits. Which is why this new development in the public dialogue really gets my attention.

As the leader of my organization, I am faced with important decisions on a daily basis. Choices that I make have real and immediate consequences and those consequences accumulate over time. A series of good choices is reflected in our bottom line — the organization grows and flourishes. To make the best choices for my business I can't just rely on common sense; I need as much data as I can lay my hands on, and the careful analysis of those often inconvenient facts is what leads to my best decisions.

Which is why I can get excited by a report from the Federal Reserve.

It may be common sense to think that intervening early in a child's life with high quality learning experiences will have positive outcomes, but when I read the detailed analysis that led the Federal Reserve to conclude that taxpayers dollars are best invested in the first five years of a child's life I recognize the same careful thought processes that I go through when committing our organization to a path of action.

I would appeal to all of you to get involved in this debate.

In New Mexico we have enormous economic challenges and a multitude of interests and voices compete for our scarce tax dollars. As business and community leaders we can have a much greater impact on how those dollars get spent than we have had up until now.

Advocate with our legislators for robust early childhood programs. The economic future of our people and our state depends on your active voice.

If our children fail in school because they didn't have the early support they needed when it could have made a real difference, how are we going to find the bright, inquisitive, well-rounded employees we need to ensure our futures? Where are the business leaders of the future going to come from to help grow our economy and to meet the complex challenges we all face?

I, for one, don't want to leave our future to chance. Contact the New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership at www.nmecdp.org for more information.