Our national security depends upon early childhood education

If we care about our national security. Then we should invest in high-quality early childhood education. Our collective future depends on it – here are just a few reasons why.

At the United Way, we always advocated that the most critical foundation for a society is safety. People must feel and be safe at the local, state, and national levels for them to thrive in society. Most Americans, while deeply divided today, strongly agree on key national security issues facing our country, such as the war in Ukraine or the threat of China. We agree as a country that national security is important. And at the core of our national security is the potent combination of both economic and military capabilities. Without a strong economy, our ability to maintain our fighting capability is at risk, and powering both pillars depend upon exceptional human capital.

Under pressure due to lower military recruitment in 2022, military leaders claim that military capability is only as good as our people recruited and that continued challenges with recruitment could precipitate a crisis in national security. Ensuring the US has a pipeline of qualified applicants is critical for the longer-term recruitment of a volunteer fighting force. Part of this recruitment challenge specifically comes from health issues among young people, where a startling number of recruits (44% of those on special waivers) aren’t qualified to serve due to obesity.

A nation that allows more than 13% of its citizens to go hungry cannot achieve its full potential, and we are leaving significant potential off of the playing field as 14.5 million American children live in poverty today. Essential for high-quality early childhood education is access to nutritious food. This helps build good dietary habits that are essential for brain development and cognitive functioning and does two other essential things. First, it strengthens academic and social development, which means these kids have a stronger chance for success in whatever life path they pursue. Secondly, it reduces obesity, which, among many other benefits, directly improves the quality of potential candidates to serve in our military in the future. By infusing nutrition into a high-quality equation, we reduce food deserts, we improve the academic and social development of children, and we reduce obesity. All three will directly contribute to building exceptional American work and fighting forces.

And at the core of a strong military and economy is a smart, adaptive, and resilient workforce. Social development – including how to manage and express emotions, develop relationships, solve problems, and build curiosity and innovation – is a foundational set of skills that lays the ground floor for further development. Within the US military, key values such as respect, selfless service, courage, and duty are all fundamental to military service. These, and many more, can be fostered and cultivated early on through effective social development during the first five years of a child’s life. Building a stronger and smarter workforce frankly starts at birth by instilling values and high expectations.

In addition to our declining military capabilities is concern about plummeting US birth rates. According to a report by the CDC (Martinez and Daniels) “Between 1976 and 2018, the mean number of children ever born per woman declined, from three children to two.” The impact on the economy cannot be understated. While there are near-term cost savings associated with lower birth rates, the long-term impacts on tax revenue and government spending could present significant challenges. National programs such as Social Security and Medicaid are already seeing the impact of fewer younger workers supporting an aging population. This could also drive slower economic expansion which will impact spending on defense and other critical infrastructure.

Some argue that this decline in births can and will be supplemented by immigration. However, according to research conducted by the Brookings Institution, immigration rates over the past decade have decreased to historic lows and policies and support for providing childcare for immigrants is noted as one of the key challenges with immigration today.

We need to look no further than Japan, Spain, or Portugal to understand the economic turmoil created by low birth rates. The United States is headed in a similar direction. If you’re like me, in your fifties, you better be paying attention because our Social Security depends upon a strong pipeline of young workers. Childcare expenses are cited as one of the primary barriers preventing families from having more children. Expanding high-quality early childcare can help alleviate this issue. And addressing the fact that we need immigration to sustain our economy, I would strongly argue that childcare options for immigrants be included in this strategy.

Moreover, a strong and vibrant workforce is also a critical factor for economic security, and we are losing vital workers today – particularly women. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, women are more likely to leave or stay out of the workforce to care for a family’s children. Half of all workers and nearly 60% of parents cite lack of childcare as their reason for leaving the workforce.

As I wrote in a previous piece, subsidizing high-quality childcare for working parents will spur economic engagement. A diverse workforce is a more productive workforce, and specifically helping women of color find stronger footing in the economy is essential for economic growth. This has a multi-billion-dollar impact on the economy. Families across the country struggle not only to pay for high-quality childcare but also to simply find it. We deliberately prevent valuable human capital from participating in the economy, which directly hinders growth and thus impacts our national security.

Finally, national security depends on our local and community safety, where crime rates have climbed. This has a meaningful impact on our economic priorities and investment in education which is a critical component in reducing crime. California alone spends six times more on inmates than on students. ?

There’s a direct correlation between academic success and high school graduation and crime rates; when academic success increases, crime rates drop. According to researchers, “10 percentage-point increases in graduation rates have historically been shown to reduce murder and assault rates by approximately 20 percent. Increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points would prevent over 3,000 murders and nearly 175,000 aggravated assaults in America each year.” Investment in high-quality early childhood education can improve our collective safety while reducing spending on public safety and corrections – allowing for investment reallocation into other local and national priorities.?

While investment in K-12 education is declining, it must become more efficient. One of the best ways to reduce K-12 educational costs is to reduce the need for remediation. By starting age-appropriate skill development sooner (at two months of age), children can be more prepared for Kindergarten and aren’t playing catchup. More importantly, children who receive early childhood education have a 25% higher likelihood of graduation.?Higher high school graduation rates not only improve the quality of our workforce, but they also result in safer communities.

Finally, let’s take a look at spending. The United States provides approximately $8.7 billion for childcare and pre-K programming. Of this amount, $2.8 billion is for preschool and transitional Kindergarten programs, $3.7 billion is for other child development programs, and $2.2 billion is for support programs. Conversely, we spend $1.98 trillion for national defense spending (in other words nearly 228-times the investment in childcare and pre-K programming).

We are simply not sufficiently investing in early childhood education, and our future depends on it. I believe the foundation of a strong and robust national security is directly related to strategic investment in education, primarily early childhood education. And let’s be clear: I am advocating for high-quality early childhood education that demonstrates strong academic and social readiness, holistic supports such as nutrition and wellness, and strong parental engagement. Frankly this type of investment in early childhood education is a long-term strategic pillar for our national security as it builds more capable people, improves the pool of candidates for national service, spurs economic growth, and improves the longer-term economic stability of the country. We take enormous pride in our military capability, and we should. But if we really care about our global standing and our ability to stand up for the American way of life, I believe we must care about and invest in early childhood education. Let’s agree that a safer and more secure America is a shared priority and that we all should be advocating for robust funding for early childhood education due to its strategic contribution to national security.

#NationalSecurity #earlychildhoodeducation #economicdevelopment