Strong links exist between a strong commitment to early childhood care and education and community development and healthy civic and economic growth. So, enrolling toddlers and preschoolers into quality care and early childhood education programs at Horizon is more than an investment in their mental, social, and intellectual development over the upcoming months. It’s also a long-term investment in making your neighborhood, city, and the region a more vibrant place to live.
Key points on the topic by researchers at Cornell University in their paper, “Child Care and Community Development,” include the following:
- Child care that is accessible, affordable, and of quality benefits children and their parents.
- Child care supports both parents and local employers, thereby contributing to the local economy.
- The availability of child care and the location of its centers can have an impact on other community development, including smart growth initiatives.
- This means that, by addressing child care needs, long-term, the result will be healthier, more family-family neighborhoods.
In a 2014 White House report titled “The Economics of Early Childhood Investments,” authors note how this timeframe is critical for learning how to reason, use language, solve problems, and more. Supporting healthy development in these areas provides significant benefits to children and their parents—as well as society.
More specifically, the report notes how every dollar spent on early learning initiatives provides about $8.60 in benefits to society. About half of this would come from children’s increased earnings when they’ve grown. As high-quality early education also narrows the achievement gap, more youth gain the ability to contribute to their communities in increasingly meaningful ways.
This ready access to quality education reduces the need for remedial education and special placements, lowering the costs of public education—freeing up funds to address other critical needs in schools. This can also result in lower engagement with the criminal justice system, benefiting communities with increased safety along with lower costs.
Meanwhile, the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit organization that conducts in-depth research to improve local, national and international policies, calls high-quality early childhood care and education “the gift that keeps on giving.” They note an economic return on investment ranging from $4 to $13 for every dollar spent when considering the positive results on education, employment, and health and a correlative reduction in truancy and criminality.
They cite studies demonstrating how quality early childhood programs prepare young children for formal schooling while allowing parents to continue to contribute to the workforce—calling this a “win-win-win for society.”
Quality Early Childhood Education at Horizon Education Centers
To provide your children with enriching, developmentally appropriate education that prepares them for kindergarten and beyond—and to contribute to a healthy community—we invite you to enroll them at Horizon. We offer high quality infant, toddler, and preschool programs as well as school aged programs that provide support as they learn in school. Enter your zip code to see which of our thirteen conveniently located centers is right for you!