Getting behind early education. Business leaders to urge more investment at event

Helen Johnson-Leipold is one of the top business executives in the country who values child development as an investment.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Outdoors Inc., who’s also chairman of Johnson Financial Group and of the Johnson Foundation, is also founder and chairman of Next Generation Now, a nationally accredited, community-based child development center in Racine for children as young as newborns and their low-income families.

Johnson-Leipold subscribes to research indicating that early attention to a child’s first years prevents bushels of troubles later in life, that children who enter kindergarten ready to learn are more apt to complete school and less likely to need special education, welfare, and correctional services.

By JOEL DRESANG
[email protected]

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