Early Childhood Education Can Build Nebraska’s Future
Ninety percent.
That’s the giant part of a child’s brain formed by age 6.
Ninety percent. That’s the two-word answer that pops into Sam Meisels’s head when the founding executive director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska is quizzed by a stranger.
Ninety percent is our starting point today, as we consider a key question: Why does quality early childhood education matter, anyway?
In 2020, most Nebraskans say in surveys that they value it. To parents the need for help is obvious: Roughly 75% of young Nebraska children now grow up in homes where all parents work.
But we may lack an understanding of just how crucial high-quality early childhood education is, and why.
If we understand early childhood’s true importance, it’s easier to understand why we need to ensure every young Nebraskan can access it. It’s easier to understand why we need to pay early childhood teachers more and charge middle-class families less for childcare. It’s why we need to end rampant childcare shortages in our state. It’s also why we need to pay attention to the Nebraska Early Childhood Workforce Commission, a group of more than 40 political, education and business leaders whose recent report lays a path forward for early childhood in Nebraska. (Learn more at EarlyYearsMatter.org/workforce.)
Not long ago, we viewed young children as blank slates who didn’t need to learn much before entering kindergarten. Now we can prove that stimulating brain growth long before kindergarten can have a massive impact on a young child’s future education, her future earnings, even her future health.
This shift in thinking began where we started today: 90 percent of a child’s brain is formed by age 6.
We now know that, starting at birth, a million synapses form each second in the brain. This growth of brain connections slows rapidly before puberty. Rewiring existing connections also gets tougher with age. That’s why it’s easier to learn a new language at age 7 than 77.
“It’s more efficient, both biologically and economically, to get things right the first time than to try to fix them later,” Meisels says.
So, how do we get things right the first time?
By delivering high-quality early childhood education to young children being taught in a home, school or center. A mountain of research shows that doing so can change their lives – especially the lives of kids growing up in poverty.
Consider the Perry Preschool Project, a 1960s study that provided free preschool to a group of Michigan 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income homes. Experts then studied those who got early education, and those who didn’t, until those kids were middle aged.
The children who received quality early childhood were far more likely to become good students who graduated high school. They were also more likely to become successful adults.
Four times as many Perry preschoolers as non-preschoolers ended up making a living wage. Twice as many avoided welfare. Fewer ended up in prison.
Researchers have seen similarly eye-popping results elsewhere. A North Carolina study showed that young children who got quality early childhood education actually grew into healthier adults, with less heart disease and diabetes for men, and better mental health for women.
Economists have calculated that putting money into early childhood education is a better investment than the stock market. They say that every dollar we spend on early childhood education returns at least $4 – and as much as $13 in the case of at-risk children.
Why? Because we spend less down the road on social safety net programs, special education, prison cells.
And because a well-educated young child tends to turn into an employed, taxpaying American.
Early childhood education is no magic bullet. But the people working at the cutting edge of brain development tend to view it as the single best way make our future better than our present.
Nebraskans already understand this at a gut level. Polling shows that a strong majority of Nebraskans – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – supports early childhood education. We care about families and kids. We want to help build that better future.
The groundwork is already being laid. Schools, nonprofits and small towns are building up their own early childhood offerings. Businesses are working to solve employee child care shortages. The Workforce Commission is offering a statewide path forward.
Now that you know a bit of science behind early childhood’s value, you can help.
Ninety percent. That’s how much of a child’s brain is formed by age 6. Tell your friends, your neighbors, your elected representatives. Tell anyone who asks why early childhood education matters.
Because it most certainly does.
Matthew Hansen is the managing editor of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska and an award-winning Nebraska reporter and columnist.
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