John Bryson, who lives in San Marino, is retired chairman and chief executive officer of Edison International. Currently, he is senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
INFRASTRUCTURE investment is a key element of our nation's economic recovery plan, and in my work as a senior advisor to a private equity firm, I focus on how we can meet global infrastructure demands. But when I was chairman and CEO at Edison International overseeing 17,000 employees, I saw how another type of infrastructure can also fuel a strong and vibrant economy - human infrastructure.
At Edison, I saw the critical role our educated, technically skilled workforce plays in driving innovations in areas such as renewable and clean energy. In a competitive global economy, we must do a better job of educating children, and that starts in their earliest years.
Two new reports tell us just how much it costs our nation when that doesn't happen, and what steps we must take to change things. A RAND Corp. study finds that low-income children are less likely to be in preschool, and more likely to start kindergarten without the basic early reading and social skills that prepare them to learn and succeed.
It finds that children who start out behind tend to stay behind. By third grade, almost two-thirds of students are not proficient in English-language arts, and 42 percent are not proficient in math. Low-income, Latino, African-American and English learner children are even less likely to reach proficiency.
The persistence of these achievement gaps "imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession," according to a new McKinsey & Company study on the economic impact of the achievement gap in America's schools. If the gap between low-income students and others had been closed a decade ago, the gross domestic product in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher, it estimates.
The RAND report finds that high-quality preschool can help close this achievement gap, and previous economic research shows the earlier we invest, the greater our returns will be. Longitudinal studies have found early childhood education provides a return of $7 to $17 in the form of reduced government spending on K-12 education, public assistance and the criminal justice system, and increased tax revenues as a result of higher earnings.
The need to enhance our talent pipeline is urgent due to increased competition for quality talent, an aging workforce that is retiring and the rising cost of living in Southern California. We can't build a skilled, technically competent workforce overnight.
We must start now. Brain development research shows that early experiences - particularly from the time children are born to the first day of kindergarten - lay the foundation for the learning, health and behavior that follow. In preschool, for example, children begin to develop social skills that will help them succeed in school: self-confidence, motivation, goal orientation, a love of learning. They learn to measure sand in the sandbox, test to see if objects float or sink in water and draw the all-important connection between cause and effect - concepts that will help them make sense of natural phenomena in their future study of science.
Congress and President Obama recognize the value of early childhood education and that's why they included more than $5 billion for it in the federal economic stimulus package, $500 million of which could come to California.
The good news is that California is already on the right track. In the short term, we are following RAND's recommendation to allocate existing resources more efficiently by consolidating preschool programs and reducing bureaucracy. California has long led the nation in generating innovative ideas. We must seize this opportunity to become a national leader in early childhood education by maximizing new federal funds and ensuring they are well spent on a high-quality early learning system. In doing so, we can usher in a new era of support for our next generation and future workforce.
