Business Roundtable Proposes Preschool Education Changes

The Business Roundtable is calling on state and federal governments to rethink the way they provide and fund early-childhood education, saying early intervention is the only way to narrow the gap in achievement between students from lower- and higher-income families.

By GREG BLUESTEIN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The group of chief executives called on states to "take the lead in developing and funding a coherent early childhood education system" from today’s patchwork approach. The federal government, it said, "should make high-quality early childhood education a national priority … focusing on the children most in need."

The group, which joined with Corporate Voices for Working Families, a nonprofit advocacy group for working families based in Bethesda, Md., plans to formally announce its position Wednesday. It said that universal education programs for three- and four-year-olds will help lower long-term education costs by reducing the number of children who need special education services while improving high-school performance and graduation rates. Without government commitment to preschool education, it said, schools won’t produce an adequate work force.

"These are guys who care about the bottom line, and this is a smart, bottom-line investment," said Amy Wilkins, president of the Trust for Early Education, a nonprofit education advocacy group in Washington.

The Business Roundtable and Corporate Voices weighed in as Congress gets set to reauthorize Head Start, the decades-old program for low-income preschoolers. The Bush administration seeks to add benchmarks for what it expects Head Start children to learn. The Business Roundtable is also calling for accountability and educational standards.

Head Start programs, which typically operate in churches and community centers, have long resisted changes that would stray from its primary function as a health and nutrition program.

The timing of the announcement, while many states are struggling with growing deficits, strengthens the case for increased preschool funding, Ms. Wilkins said.

"Even in the face of deficits, governors are still moving programs forward," she said. "The issue certainly isn’t bulletproof, but people are getting the idea to invest now or pay later."

Write to Greg Bluestein at [email protected]