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12/04/2007

Invest in Children, Not Ballparks

If we pay attention, nature has the profound power to awaken the place of beauty within us.
Laura Bethmann

National Public Radio recently covered an innovate effort in Minnesota to improve the quality of child care for low-income families (Scholarships for Child Care). Here's Larry Abramson telling the story:

"From his office in the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, economist Art Rolnick will almost be able to see construction of the new baseball stadium which the city has agreed to build. And if the Vikings get their wish, there will also be a football stadium. As for the economic gains the Twin cities will reap from these projects? 'For stadiums, the public return is virtually zero,' Rolnick says.

"As the director of research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Rolnick believes there is a much better way to invest those hundreds of millions of dollars: Give the money to cities' youngest and poorest residents. That way, Rolnick says, they can send their 3- and 4-year-olds to a high-quality early education program in their community.

"The government already invests in early education through Head Start, but according to Rolnick, the Head Start program has brought only a limited return on investment because the quality isn't high enough. Rolnick wants to spend a large amount of money on scholarships — about $10,000 per child. It's not welfare, he says, but rather an economic effort to seed the clouds, to lure the very best daycare — the kind middle-class parents take for granted — to the cities' poorest neighborhoods.

"Rolnick and others convinced local corporations they had a stake in improving outcomes for poor children. The private sector is chipping in $15 million dollars to fund the scholarships."


Curriculum on Sale!

Exchange has bundled some of its most popular curriculum resources into a "Curriculum Kit" and has put a highly discounted price tag on the collection. The Curriculum Kit includes: