The Partnership for America’s Economic Success, a project of the Pew Center on the States, has written a short (8-page) issue brief summarizing my book “Investing in Kids”. This might be useful to those who want a short summary of my book which is deliberately targeted to address business issues.

The policy brief frames early childhood programs as part of a “new model” for economic development that focuses on “attracting, developing and maintaining human capital”.  As the policy brief points out,

“In the short run…, early education and care programs help secure skilled workers and raise their productivity by…attracting highly skilled workers with young children…Over the longer term, effective early childhood programs enable children to become more creative, adaptable, team-ready employees. [Therefore,] a comprehensive economic development strategy must include early learning programs, which [will]…retain high-paying businesses…[and] attract…sophisticated industries. ..{Economic] development authorities should collaborate with policy makers to promote the targeting of public funds toward high-quality, evidence-based early childhood programs, and consider investing economic development funds directly in quality early childhood programs.”