Invest in early childhood development: Reduce deficits, strengthen North Carolina’s economy.
Those seeking to reduce deficits and strengthen North Carolina’s economy should make significant investments in early childhood education, according to a new publication by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman.
The Fact Sheet — Invest in early childhood development: Reduce deficits, strengthen North Carolina’s economy — outlines the findings of Professor Heckman’s research and includes data specifically for North Carolina. For example:
Investing in early childhood education to increase high school graduation rates would boost North Carolina’s economy. A 5% increase in male high school graduation rates is estimated to save North Carolina $152 million in annual incarceration costs and crime-related expenditures. If that same 5% not only graduated but went on to college at the same rate as typical male high school graduates, their average earnings would accrue an additional $81 million annually. If just one year’s high school dropouts could be converted to high school graduates, North Carolina would accrue an additional $10.8 billion over the lifetime of the students from the graduating class.
Download the Heckman NC Fact Sheet
