What's New?
Photo contributed by the Wisconsin Head Start Association
The 2008 Wisconsin Summit for Community Teams was held on April 28, 2008 in Madison. Conference footage is now available on the Committee for Economic Development website. Conference presentations are also available.
- Partnership for Wisconsin's Economic Success
announced to galvanize Wisconsin business, philanthropic and community
leaders around a statewide effort to build support for quality early
childhood development programs.
- A
Regional Economic Development Summit
was held in Green Bay on November 30, 2007 that featured David Lawrence (see
full text of David Lawrence remarks) former publisher of the
Miami Herald. Over 300 participants
including more than 60 business leaders, elected officials, philanthropists,
educators and community leaders gathered to hear the compelling evidence
that early investment in quality experiences for children is imperative for
our children today to ensure a healthy economic future.
A summary of the conference and
video footage of the
conference are now available on the website for the Committee for
Economic Development, a key co-sponsor of the event.
- The Telluride Foundation and the Partnership for America's Success
hosted a "Davos" forum on early childhood with elected officials and
business leaders from around the country. Participants learned about "new
evidence of proven investments in young children and proposed principles to
guide the process of improving American youth human capital development."
Highlights of
the Davos Forum are now on-line.
- ZERO TO THREE Policy Center recently released
"Babies Can't Wait!" - a presidential agenda to support families with
vulnerable infants and toddlers.
- At the Wisconsin summit in April, Mark Scally of MNBEL offered a summary of "What Business People Can Do to Help with Early Learning"
- The Economic Policy Institute issued a
report authored by Robert Lynch featured in the Journal Sentinel which finds that "investments in high-quality voluntary preschool for at-risk children, by 2050 Wisconsin could reap benefits of $13.60 for every dollar it puts into early learning". Read more on the EPI website "Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation"
- Pre(k) now also did a recent analysis of high quality pre-k programs and finds that "The research indicates substantial returns on pre-k investments in the form of measurable productivity gains both for program participants and their parents and significant job and earnings growth." Read the full report
pre[K]now - Dollars and Sense: A Review of Economic Analyses of Pre-K
- "For fiscal year 2008, 29 governors recommended more than $800 million in new investments, better than three times the increases proposed just one year ago." For more information see the
Ed Week Report – Leadership Matters: Governors Pre-K Proposals.
- On May 22, 2007, Speaker Nancy Pelosi co-sponsored a bi-partisan summit on America's children featuring national experts, including Nobel Laureate in Economics, James Heckman from the University of Chicago, and Jack Shonkoff, M.D. from the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child on the importance of early childhood and education and economic development. Dr. Shonkoff highlighted the importance of early high quality social and emotional development for young children. Read about the National Summit on America's Children.
Coming Soon – Spotlight on Communities – we will regularly feature updates on community action around economic development and early childhood; if you would like to be highlighted, contact us via email at info@wisbiz4kids.com.