David Kirp is sold on early childhood education ("Bounds still making a case for pre-kindergarten in Miss.," July 29). Author of The Sandbox Investment and professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, Kirp has been meeting with community and business leaders around the country and talking about how early childhood education must be a priority for America.
He was in Jackson recently at a forum sponsored by the state Department of Education and the Mississippi Economic Council. He told business and education leaders that research shows a 17-to-1 return on the investment for a quality preschool program, with participants more likely to graduate from high school and college, more likely to get and keep a good job, and less likely to go to prison or be on welfare.
Mississippi is the only state in the South without a preschool program; only nine other states nationwide do not invest in early childhood education. Kirp argued that investing in children is smart politically because of wide public support for politicians who do, such as the governors from Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas who have made early childhood education a priority.
Kirp suggested that the answer to state politicians who demur that Mississippi does not have enough money to spend more money on pre-K education is to remind them that the state is losing money every day by not taxing cigarettes at least at the national average.
Quality in early childhood education is tremendously important, according to Kirp. He described a good program as one with trained teachers, small class size, parent involvement, learning goals and a research-supported curriculum resulting in children who are highly engaged in age-appropriate learning.
Kirp urged that Mississippi start small by providing quality pre-K to the children who are most in need and the parents who are the worst off financially. He urged every community to build partnerships to support early childhood education, by building on current programs in churches and other locations and by adding new pre-K classrooms to elementary schools. Kirp also recommended that Mississippi look at other states and learn from them.
Kirp noted that less than half - 47 percent - of Mississippi third-graders are proficient readers and suggesting that our state has no time to waste if we are to have the vital economic future that all our politicians promise.