Teach your children well

Softhearted people always advocate spending more on kids. But according to a new and authoritative synthesis of available evidence, there8217;s a hardheaded case for investing more in young kids over older ones. In the United States, we8217;ve spent trillions of dollars over decades on K-12 schooling in the hopes of making young people more productive, or at least less criminally delinquent. The results have been mixed. About 20 percent of the American workforce is essentially illiterate8230; creating a major drag on our international competitiveness8230;

Why doesn8217;t all our spending on education buy better results? Nobel Prize winner James Heckman of the University of Chicago and Dimitriy Masterov of the University of Michigan argue that by waiting until kindergarten, we throw money at kids when it8217;s too late. Their evidence urges shifting educational spending to younger children. The early investment is needed, the authors argue, to supplement the role of the family. Recent developments in neuroscience have shown that the early years are vital to cognitive development, which in turn is important to subsequent success and productivity in school, life, and work. Early-childhood nurturing has been the province of families. But families are deteriorating. Roughly one in six kids was born into poverty or single parenthood or both in 19708230;

The big economic return for intensive preschool for disadvantaged kids has two implications. First, while many people advocate spending on these kids for reasons of fairness or justice, Heckman and Masterov make a different case. They8217;re saying this preschool spending is a sound economic investment. Each dollar we spend on targeted, intensive preschool returns more than a dollar invested in, say, a pretty good mutual fund. Many families already make this investment on their own, either by spending time with their kids or by purchasing high-quality child care. Why involve governments? Well, Heckman and Masterov show that if your kid goes to one of these programs, the rest of us get most of the benefit.

Excerpted from a piece by Joel Waldfogel posted on Slate, May 25