Human Services News

Brookings Institution:

Based on a review of benefit-cost evidence, this paper identifies four areas of investment that merit expanded federal funding even in a time of fiscal austerity.

America's future economic well-being will benefit from targeted investments to ensure that children have the skills to become tomorrow's adult workers, caregivers, taxpayers, and citizens.

Target areas for a package of proposals totaling about $25 billion annually and $133 billion over a fiveyear period are the following:

- High-quality early childhood education programs for three- and four-year-old children ($94 billion over five years)

- Nurse home-visiting programs to promote sound prenatal care and the healthy development of infants and toddlers ($14 billion over five years)

- School reform with an emphasis on programs in high-poverty elementary schools that improve the acquisition of basic skills for all students ($17 billion over five years)

- Programs that reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy ($8 billion over five years)

Under the "productivity argument" of public investments in children, programs that help children acquire the skills needed for success in the adult workforce are viewed as sound investments because of their positive effects in terms of economic growth, global competitiveness, and reductions in levels of criminal activity and welfare use.

From this viewpoint, the prudence of investment in a particular program depends to a large extent on whether the program has been demonstrated to have positive outcomes that result in long-term economic benefits that are larger than the program's initial costs.