Minnesota's One-Child School Readiness Dividend: School Readiness in Minnesota Is Worth $56,000 per Low-Income Child

Wilder Research. Available from: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. 451 Lexington Parkway North, Saint Paul, MN 55104. Tel: 651-280-2700; Fax: 651-280-3700; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.wilder.org/Wilder-Research

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Preschool Education; Outcomes of Education; Effect Size; High School Graduates; Graduation Rate; Crime; Incidence; Expenditures; Costs; Special Education; Employment; Taxes; Low Income Students; At Risk Students; Economic Impact; Income; Institutionalized Persons; Correctional Institutions; School Readiness; Students with Disabilities; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade Repetition; Welfare Services; Victims of Crime; Substance Abuse

Numerous research studies have demonstrated the economic value of investing in effective early education and intervention programs that cognitively, socially, and emotionally prepare low-income children at risk of school failure for success in school. School readiness prevents or reduces needless public spending, starting with K-12 special education and lasting through adulthood in the social welfare and criminal justice systems. Without early education and support for healthy development, an at-risk child is more likely to start school at a disadvantage and ultimately more likely to drop out of school, earn lower wages, depend on public assistance, or commit crimes. Conversely, those who start school healthy and prepared are more likely, as adults, to be employed, earn higher incomes, and contribute more in taxes. This brief describes the lifetime economic benefit to the state of Minnesota per child of both targeted early learning investments and universal Pre-K.

As Provided

2021

ED615588