Early Childhood Education
The first few years in life cement how neurons connect.
It is our undetered responsibility to nurture and educate the next generation.
Let’s start with this: if you want to solve just about anything—inequity, crime, economic mobility, even workforce readiness—it all traces back to how we invest in kids before they hit kindergarten.
Early childhood education (ECE) isn’t just about letters and numbers. It’s brain architecture. It’s social wiring. It’s where curiosity and confidence get built—or where they start to erode. And while the data is solid, what matters more is the ripple effect: when we get early education right, everything else has a better shot at falling into place.
Neural connections form at astonishing rates in the first five years. This is the window. Kids are absorbing language, learning to manage emotions, building working memory and executive function before they can even spell those words.
High-quality ECE programs set the tone: stronger literacy, better math reasoning, more resilient learning habits. These kids don’t just show up to school ready—they stay ready. And the impact is even more dramatic for children from underserved communities, where early gaps in opportunity can widen into long-term divides.
Ask any kindergarten teacher what they wish every child came in with, and they won’t say multiplication tables. They’ll say skills like “waiting your turn,” “listening,” and “managing big feelings.”
Early education gives kids a safe space to practice those skills. They learn how to work in groups, navigate conflict, and ask for help—without shame. Social-emotional learning (SEL) isn't fluff. It’s foundational. And research shows it pays dividends in academic performance and long-term behavior.
James Heckman said it best: the earlier the investment, the higher the return. And he wasn’t speaking metaphorically—he meant real dollars. High-quality preschool programs lead to higher graduation rates, better jobs, fewer interactions with the justice system, and less need for social services later on.
In other words, it costs more not to invest in early education.
Here’s the kicker: despite how essential early education is, access to it still depends way too much on your zip code or income bracket. Families in low-income and rural areas face high costs, long waitlists, or a complete lack of local options.
Policy can—and should—step in. Universal Pre-K. Public funding for quality ECE programs. Support for early educators. These aren’t radical ideas. They’re overdue corrections to a system that too often starts some kids behind and then blames them for it later.
Early education isn’t a charity case. It’s not a side issue. It’s the root system of a healthy, equitable society. And it should be treated with that level of urgency.
If we care about opportunity, innovation, public health, and even democracy, then we have to care about what happens in the preschool years—because by the time we’re measuring “achievement gaps,” the gap already exists.
Let’s stop calling this a nice-to-have. It’s one of the most powerful levers we have to shape the future.