Minnesota's One-Child School Readiness Dividend: School Readiness in Minnesota Is Worth about $43,000 per Low-Income Child Using Targeted Early Education Investments and Nearly $13,000 per Child in Universal Pre-K

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; Health Services; 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; Child Health

Numerous research studies have demonstrated the economic value of investing in effective early education 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, health care, and criminal justice systems. Fewer studies have calculated the benefits associated with investing in universal preschool programs that serve all children. To calculate the present value of lifetime benefits, the researchers used effect sizes of early education programs in published studies, Minnesota Census data and incidence rates (e.g. high school graduation rates, crime rates), and actual expenditure data from state agencies on special education, health care, crime, and other areas and gains due to employment and tax returns. This brief describes the lifetime economic benefit to the state of Minnesota per child of both targeted early learning investments and universal Pre-K. This is a 2016 update of a 2012 brief. [For the 2012 brief, "Minnesota's One-Child School Readiness Dividend: School Readiness in Minnesota Is Worth $56,000 per Low-Income Child," see ED615588.]

ERIC

2021

ED615590