With Our Future on the Line, the Time to Invest in Kids Is Now

Our nation's economic future is uncertain; we face increasingly aggressive global competition; lagging academic achievement is dragging down economic output; and almost two-thirds of Americans think our nation is on the wrong track.
We know the bad news all too well. The good news is that America has been at these kinds of perilous moments in our past and we did what it took to emerge more prosperous and secure than before. Indeed, one of our defining qualities throughout history hasn't been an ability to avoid great national challenges, but to overcome them when they confronted us.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that we're tackling today's economic and global competitive challenges with the same levels of determination and investment.
The State of Preschool 2011: State Preschool Yearbook, a new report from Rutgers University's National Institute for Early Education Research, released this week, reveals that total spending on early childhood education by all 50 states and the District of Columbia decreased nearly $60 million from 2010 to 2011, capping a ten-year decline of 15 percent during the past decade.
This may not be a cause of alarm to Americans whose only eye on the future is through the lens of GDP and unemployment statistics. But, in fact, our investment in early education is perhaps the most important economic indicator of them of all.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kennedy-shriver/with-our-future-on-the-li_b_1417433.html