Pay now, break out of poverty later

An Illinois academic is making the case for unprecedented investment in pre-school education as a cost effective way to help the children of poor families in the US escape the costly intergenerational cycle of social disadvantage.

Greg Duncan [1], Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research, has proposed a radical change in funding strategies by calling for two years of intensive, half-day, high quality, early childhood education for all low-income three- and four-year-olds.

He specifies that classes should be led by college-educated instructors supporting no more than six children at a sitting. They would spend at least half their time involving parents as partners in their children's education and helping them to locate available support and social services.

Professor Duncan's approach draws heavily on the country’s record as developer and evaluator of quality programs such as Abecedarian, Perry Preschool and Head Start which have entered the vocabulary of most prevention scientists and policy makers and practitioners who carry a responsibility for children's services.

But, for all their strengths, implementation of these well tested programs has been inconsistent even in the US, and resources for pre-kindergarten early education and childcare for three- to five-year-olds remain limited. It has been calculated that seven times more is spent on mainstream schooling than on preparing children and families for it.

Professor Duncan’s strategy extracts the features common to all the proven models. They include employing teachers who have received specialist training in child development and paying them at least as much as primary school teachers. Consistent implemention of a strong curriculum with stimulating materials in a safe setting is critical. Small class sizes, high adult-to-child ratios, a language-rich environment and caring, responsive interactions between staff and children are other essential ingredients.

It all sounds expensive – and it is. Professor Duncan reckons about $8,000 per child per year, or $16,000 in total would be needed for the two-year intervention. Helping parents get fully involved and maintain a working life would add another $4,000 a year to the bill.

So what would policy makers get for their $24,000 per child investment? He maintains that the returns are enough to balance the equation.

“Although costly, the benefits deriving from a two-year pre-kindergarten program for low-income children would almost certainly exceed the costs of such a program, as earlier evaluations have shown, " he says. "Indeed, it is likely that program benefits would exceed costs several times over, as they would provide a firm and vital foundation for later learning and positive behavior."

Greg Duncan is a member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, a collaboration designed to bring latest evidence to the attention of policy makers and practitioners. His argument is well summarized in The American Prospect as High-Quality Preschool as Antipoverty: A child's early years are a fertile time to eliminate the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage [2]