Building the Business Case for Investing in Young

ChildrenNancy Fishman, Deputy DirectorReadyNationnfishman@readynation.org

StrongNation.org/ReadyNation

Who We Are: ReadyNation

Help members take action onearly childhood as business issue

Partner with otherbusiness organizations

New economicevidence, reports

Business LeaderSummits on ECD

1500+business

members

500media articles

(2013-2015)

500policymaker

communications

helped win

$3 billionin new funds in the U.S.

Who: Examples of business leaders taking action

across the country

Why: What research most resonates with business

leaders?

How: Lessons learned to help you engage business

leaders and how ReadyNation can help you

Points To Cover Today

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Billy Canary,

President and CEO

Business Council of

Alabama

John Pepper,

former CEO,

Procter &

Gamble

George Kaiser,

CEO, GBK

Corporation

Prof. James Heckman,

2000 Nobel Laureate in

Economics

Larry Kellner,

former CEO,

Continental

Airlines

Steve Voigt,

King Arthur Flour

Dave Adkisson, CEO

Kentucky Chamber of

Commerce

Alan Weber,

Founder, Fast

Company

Gary Kai, Executive Director

JD Chesloff,

Executive Director,

Massachusetts

Business

Roundtable

Where are business leaders active?

Gary Toebben,

CEO, Los

Angeles

Chamber of

Commerce

Jim Zimmerman,

Anne Mulcahey,

former CEO, Xerox

James Rohr,

Executive Chairman,

PNC Financial

Services Group

Ben Bernanke,

Chairman, Federal

Reserve

Dick Wilkerson, former

CEO, Michelin North

America

Hugh McDonald,

Former President

and CEO, Entergy

Arkansas

Ken McNeely, President,

AT&T California

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Business groups endorse early childhood in 50 states (and 8 Federal Reserve Systems)

"The first of these

cornerstones of

[economic]

opportunity...is

resources available

to children in their

most formative

Janet Yellen, Chair,

Federal Reserve

System

Source: Championing Success: Business Organizations for Early Childhood Investments. 2013.ReadyNation.

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Business Leaders are Speaking Out About the Evidence

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Examples of Business Leader Actions

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An Example of Company Actions

PNC Grow Up Great® and PNC Crezca con Éxito form a $350 million

things in school and life.

Employees have volunteered more than 485,000 hours.

Have served approximately 2.3 million children throughout 19 states and

the District of Columbia.

Worked with partners like Sesame Workshop to develop educational materials

for children, families and educators.

PNC Regional Presidents and others have worked with ReadyNation to

increase awareness of and support expanded public investments in

high-quality early care and education.

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Business champions active in state victories in 2015

California: $300 million in early

education, $24 million Quality Rating and

Improvement System

Michigan: $57.1 million in early literacy

and child care

New York: $42 million in early education,

quality rating and improvement system,

Nurse-Family Partnership, child care

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State Victories 2015

Ohio: $113 million in ECE, $65 million

increase in home visiting the largest

increase in more than 25 years

Oregon: $107.2 million (2015-2017)

increase in home visiting, Employment-

Related Day Care, pre-k and innovation

Washington: Early Start Act - $159

million (2015-2017) for early education,

home visiting, child care rate increase

U.S.: Renewed Maternal, Infant and Early

Childhood Home Visiting Act

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Business leaders know that the path to productive adulthood starts early

90% of brain growth occurs by age 5. Learning gaps appear as

early as 9 monthsof age. Disadvantaged children can come to

school 18 months behind.

One study showed that if children start school ready to learn, they

aretwice as likely to read at grade level by age 8.

Another study showed that if children read at grade level by age

8, they are4 timesmore likely to graduate from high school.

If children graduate from high school, on average they will earn

$500K more, live 9 years longer, and be 6 times less likely to be

arrested.

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Brain Development Begins Early in Life

Source: Corel, JL. The postnatal development of the human cerebral cortex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1975.

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Barriers to Educational Achievement Emerge at a Very Young Age

16 mos. 24 mos. 36 mos.

Cu

mu

lative

Voca

bu

lary

(W

ord

s)

College Educated Parents

Working Class Parents

Welfare Parents

Child s Age (Months)

200

600

1200

400

800

1000

Source: Hart, B., & Risley, R. T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children.

Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Graph Courtesy: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Cumulative Vocabularies Differ By Household Experience

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Return on Investment for Investments in Human Capital

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Cost/Benefit Analyses Show Positive Returns

$2

$6

$8

$4

$10

$3.23

Abecedarian Project(early care and

education aged 0-5)

$5.70

Nurse Family Partnership

(home visitingprenatal age 2 for

high risk group)

Perry Preschool(early education age 3-4)

Total Return per $1 Invested

Data Sources: Heckman et al. (2009)Karoly et al. (2005)

Break-Even Point

0

$9.20

Graph Courtesy: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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Messages that Business Leaders are

Importance of investing in only evidence-based,

quality programs

Importance of workforce training, credentials, pay

Accountability and continuous quality improvement

Sustainable funding

Supporting whole range of abilities: cognitive,

social/emotional executive functioning

Importance of integrating both early STEM and early

reading skills

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What Business Leaders Can Do?

Speak to key audiences and utilize the media (print,

digital)

Encourage local business organizations (Rotary,

chambers) to develop formal positions on the benefits of

effective early childhood programs

Support policy change at local, national, international levels

Support their own employees, through family friendly

policies, sharing information with employees

Contribute time, resources, volunteers to local

organizations

Educate customers

Business leaders can take a variety of actions to support

early childhood education and care in their communities:

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How businesses can be supportive of Parent Engagement

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Lessons Learned About Working With Business Leaders

Start with a broad EC message

Must have data on the programs you are asking them to support

Start with most business-relevant results: education, employment.

Build a bridge to others: health,child abuse

Know what you want before you engage business

Neither rubber stamp nor War and Peace

Meet them where they live

Good to hear messages from many quarters professional associations and local leaders

mix fundraising with advocacy

No surprises

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Greatest )

Engineering and Math Workforce

Savings Now, Savings Later: Smart Early Childhood Programs Pay Off

-Quality Early Childhood Care and Education is Critical to a Healthy, Productive Workforce

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How Does ReadyNation Help Business Leaders Speak Out?

Business membership organization

advocating for effective investments

in children and youth to improve the

economy and workforce.

One-stop shop website

Draft op-eds, talking points,

support for policymaker meetings

E-newsletter with successes,

research, media

Materials you can adapt/brand

Ideas for CSR/CR projects