Investing in children and families saves money

There’s been a number of new reports and studies proving what advocates for children already know – money invested in programs for children and families can save a lot more money in the long-run than these programs cost to operate. Here’s a sampling of the reports I’ve come across recently, hopefully you’ll find them useful in your advocacy efforts:

Early care and education:
• Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation, from the Economic Policy Institute, finds that California would save $12 dollars for every dollar it invested in a targeted, high quality, publicly funded preschool program -- or $8 dollars for every dollar it invested in a similar universal preschool program. This is because participants would earn more, commit fewer crimes, and not need as many public benefits.


School-age children:
• Returns to the Public from Investing in an Excellent Education, hosted by the Public Education Network, finds that the public would save $2 to $4 for every dollar invested in key high school completion programs for young black males -- because, as adults, they would commit fewer crimes, have lower health costs, and earn more.

• Afterschool Programs: Keeping Kids -- and Communities -- Safe, from the Afterschool Alliance, finds afterschool programs help prevent youth crime.


Health:
• Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger, hosted by the Sodexho Foundation, finds that hunger costs the US $90 billion each year -- but it would only take $10 to $12 billion to end serious hunger with more food stamps and nutrition programs.

• Costs of Care for Medi-Cal Children After a Gap in Coverage, from the California Endowment, studied children who lost Medi-Cal coverage for three months before being able to reenroll. Finds that children's health care costs after they reenrolled were almost twice as much as before the break in coverage.


Child welfare:
• Protecting Kids, Reducing Crime, Saving Money, from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, finds investment in home visiting programs would help prevent nearly half of child abuse and neglect -- and save millions because participants would need fewer social services and commit fewer crimes.


Poverty:
• The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children, by James Heckman and Dimitriy Masterov, argues for more funding for early interventions for disadvantaged children. Benefits include lower crime rates and fewer school dropouts and teenage pregnancies.

• From Poverty to Prosperity, from the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty, finds that child poverty costs the US $500 billion each year in lost productivity, crime, and health care costs -- but cutting total poverty in half over 10 years would cost about $90 billion a year. Recommends tax credits; education; help with housing, child care, and building assets; promotion of unions; and raising the minimum wage.


And Save money: Invest in kids and families is an article we wrote a couple years ago on this, which talks about the more important older studies, such as the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs, if you want to pull data from that.