The Telluride Early Childhood Investment Conference was held this past week. I have had an interest in this annual Economic Summit for the last couple of years. This year was no exception.
Business Week’s Chief Economist, Dr. Michael Mandel, emphasized the need for early childhood education investment when he spoke at this year’s conference. He likened the need for this investment to building a foundation for a house, stating that investment in early childhood education will strengthen the economy. Mandel continued with a warning, “If we don’t do this – if we don’t fix early childhood education – we will end up with a failed economic system.” Dr. Mandel reiterated what we have learned – that research shows that effective early childhood education supports children’s success in school.
Another speaker at Telluride, Paul Major, CEO of the Telluride Foundation, informed the attendees that with every $1 dollar invested in early childhood, there was a savings of up to $16 dollars in social services. Now that is impressive! However, these statistics assume that children received an early childhood education that was based on high-quality foundations. Mr. Major did not detail what those early childhood foundations are.
We have guidance from a number of groups who attempt to answer this same question but the lists of standards to judge the quality of programs never look the same. Hopefully in the very near future we will receive guidance as to what elements are required in order for a program to constitute an “effective early childhood education.”
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