Occupy the crib

Enlarge Image

Mark Holloway is the executive director of Social Venture Partners Portland.

In a recent New York Times article, Op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof suggests we "Occupy the Classroom " instead of creating all the hullabaloo on Wall Street with no clear change in view. In fact, its more like he's saying we should occupy the crib. Social Venture Partners agrees.

If we in Portland want to talk about sustainability, livability and equity in our community, we should be starting with baby steps -- literally. As Kristof points out, there are several studies that show investing in the first years of a child's life have the greatest payoff for the community, not even to mention for the child. Social costs are reduced because we are paying for fewer learning disabilities after they have set in, because our prison populations get lower (ask the local Shadow Project about the connection between those) and we get tax revenues from prosperous workers, not aimless survivors. Our business environment also wins big through workers and entrepreneurs that have learned perseverance, patience and literacy -- three things that start inside our brains as babies and are lost if not nurtured at that time.

If you haven't hired workers lately, ask your neighbors who have and you'll learn how we are losing ground on these skills because we wait for kids to show up in kindergarten before investing in their learning. It's like waiting for the CO2 to show up in the atmosphere before we decide to do anything about it.

We're investing in the early years because of startling statistics and simple economics. We learned that one in three children (and perhaps even more) are unprepared for kindergarten in the Portland area That means that an adult didn't curl up at night to read a book with them, so they don't know how books work. It means they don't even know that letters have sounds and numbers have functions. And worse, many of these children don't have emotional support so they can't regulate their frustration and excitement in the classroom or get along with peers on the playground.

The problem is, that kids who start behind, stay behind. A 2008 study by the local Black Parent Initiative revealed that the gaps in readiness that show up at kindergarten never close during the school years and beyond. Fast-forward 10 or 12 years and these same kids are dropping out of high school, working dead-end jobs that don’t pay the bills or making bad choices that get them into trouble. And the cycle of poverty continues.

Economists and policy makers have been studying various social programs and have shown the economic benefits of investing in young children. University of Chicago's James Heckman found that “if society intervenes early enough, it can raise cognitive and socio-emotional abilities and the health of disadvantaged children. These interventions are estimated to have high benefit-cost ratios and rates of return, in excess of 10 percent per annum compared to a post-war return to equity of 5.8 percent."

Further, an Oregon Employment Department 2010 study stated, “numerous studies from around the country have shown that investing in high-quality early child care and education pays multiple dollars for each dollar invested. Communities save money on remedial education, incarceration and drug and alcohol treatment. Teen pregnancy rates decline. Children who receive high-quality early care do better in school and have higher earningpotential as adults."

Social Venture Partners are investing in strong, sustainable economies from birth to five because we know that's where prosperous "occupations" and strong economies originate. We invite you to join us in that movement.