ECE comes in many forms including public pre K, childcare, Headstart in the US, Montessori, or Riggio Emilia. As the great Maria Montessori observed, the greatest brain plasticity a person will ever have, is their mind before age 5. She called it ‘’the Absorbent Mind’’ in 1949, and showed that its analogous to a sponge. The very young mind has neutral pathways for language, executive function, emotional regulation, and numeracy that are incredibly malleable in the early years. We have all marvelled at the speed toddlers learn and grow. Early stimulation has far higher returns than later remediation. The key idea is that early skills tend to compound like the power of compound interest. 

 

Famous American economist James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate, concluded ‘’The highest rate of return in childhood development comes from investing as early as possible.’’

 

ECE leads to long term, positive, educational outcomes. Access to ECE leads to better literacy and numeracy, higher high school graduation rates, higher post secondary attendance rates, and reduced need for special education or grade retention. Even later when scores fade towards the mean, life outcomes do not, but persist, with lower unemployment rates, lower crime rates, and  higher levels of learning, 

 

ECE reduces the gaps before they congeal. Poor children, unfortunately, arrive at the first day of kindergarten, with lower vocabularies and more behavioural issues. ECE tends to narrow those gaps between income groups, races, and language communities. 

 

Social and emotional development is also significantly improved by ECE which builds the soft skills of emotional regulation, cooperation and empathy, conflict resolution, and persistent attention control. This leads to classroom success, workplace performance, and mental health,with an economic ROI, that is very high. In fact, it pays for itself. The Abecedarian project from 1970s North Carolina backs up the Perry Study from Michigan and the evidence from Headstart. For every $1 spent on ECE, the return is $4 - $9. You can't get a return like that in the S&P or the Nasdaq. This means lower crime, less welfare, higher tax revenue, lower healthcare and special education costs. 

 

Universal childcare systems free up parents, usually mothers, to work. A relief for many families but also labour force participation benefiting the whole society including paying taxes which more than covers the childcare subsidies by the state, This drives the GDP. Places like Quebec and the Nordics are the prime beneficiaries. 

 

The benefits of ECE clearly extend to students with special needs. Early detection of speech delays, autism, ADHD, hearing or vision issues, leads to early intervention and more successful outcomes mitigating long term issues. 

 

Identity and inclusion are significantly improved. Programs can be bilingual and can adapt to indiginous learning. 

 

At least at the beginning, let 100 flowers bloom. The variety of models is a strength not a weakness. This report favours an eventual model based on the downward extension of public schools to age 2, the average age of toilet training with both infant care offered from birth to age 2 and before and after school childcare until much later in elementary school. High quality ECE can reduce anxiety and oppositional disorders including aggressive behavior. ECE ages 2-5 should not be compulsory but it should be completely free, using fully trained, unionized, teachers in the main, augmented by ECE trained support staff.

 

Naturally, there is the antithesis. There are those, often conservatives, who reject this pro ECE direction. Here are some of their main objections and the rebuttal .

 

First, they insist that parents should raise their own children. To be frank, we agree. We are just debating the date that organized education should begin. Should it remain age 5 or should it be something like age 2? Parents still have their kids evenings, weekends, holidays, ECE is really a support to parents, not a competitor. 

 

Probably second, is costs.How can we possibly afford to add 3 years to the school system at this time? The reality is that, as Quebec or the Nordics have shown, ECE more than pays for itself, first by releasing a stay at home parents to work and pay taxes, and secondly by reducing the expensive need for later remediation, the cost of the criminal justice system, productivity gains, welfare reductions, and similar savings. 

 

Third, education results sometimes fade to the mean in later grades. This sometimes happens but, as above, the life outcomes do not fade, less crime, less unemployment, more home ownership.

 

Some critics say quality varies. This can be true but quality also varies within public education and between public and some forms of private education. 

 

In drawing conclusions, it would be difficult to find experts outside of a strong consensus in favour of Earlier Childhood Education. In Canada, as elsewhere, inequality begins well before kindergarten. As previously mentioned, gaps in both vocabulary and behaviour begin before age 3. First Nations, immigrants, and low income kids will benefit greatly. Remediation, often needed by grade 3, is much more expensive. Simply put, if we wait until kindergarten to address inequality, we have waited too long. Quebec is our proof of concept.