Last week, the heads of five large U.S. corporations appeared before the House of Representatives' Budget Committee. It's not unusual to find businessmen testifying before Congress on business matters, but these men weren't talking about taxes or the recession. They were making a case for the full funding of WIC, a federal supplemental food and nutrition program for pregnant women and children under the age of five. And in doing so, they took the lead in pressing the case made in the Committee for Economic Development's (CED) latest report, The Unfinished Agenda: A New Vision for Child Development and Education.
This is the third report by CED, a policy and advocacy group of 250 business leaders, on the subject of America's children and America's future (and the third for which I have been an adviser). It presents a shocking picture. By all measures, we are failing our children, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable. And we cannot afford what this failure will cost our children-and our economy, as we try to find the qualified workers we'll need to remain competitive in world markets.
As The Unfinished Agenda reminds us, the number of children born into single-parent families -- and thus, typically, poverty -- has grown sharply in the last 20 years: "Between 1970 and 1987, the poverty rate for children increased nearly 33 percent. In 1989, close to 25 percent of children under the age of six lived in poverty." But, according to the report, these figures do not tell anything like the whole story about how many of these children are at risk: "When multiple risk factors, such as poverty, family structure and race are taken into account, as many as 40 percent of all children may be considered disadvantaged." Forty percent!
When children have been undernourished all their lives, received little or no medical care and lived in chaotic families, they come to school with the cards stacked against them. They are unprepared to learn, and they see school as something like a foreign country. Schools spread their resources thin trying to take care of these kids' many needs. And teachers are overwhelmed as they try to respond to those needs and teach, too. So it's small wonder that schools often don't succeed and that many of the kids continue to fall behind until they finally drop out.
While The Unfinished Agenda concentrates on the kind of pre-school and other services needed for these children, it does not let public education off the hook. It calls for restructuring schools and talks about ways in which schools must change if they are to educate all children instead of cultivating some and weeding out the rest. But it tells us that we can't expect the impossible-schools can't assume the entire burden. We can't let children who are in an almost constant state of crisis fend for themselves during the first five years of their lives and assume that some wonderful, caring kindergarten or first- grade teacher will make up for what has been lost. It won't happen-or not often enough. And we can't count on it.
CED's recommendations for what we should be doing are straight-forward and pragmatic. Education must be redefined as a process that begins at birth-not when kids walk into kindergarten or first grade. And society must accept responsibility for this education as well as for relieving problems that put kids at a disadvantage in learning.
The strategy CED calls for includes full funding for Head Start and WIC, the supplemental feeding program, so both are available for all children who need them. These programs have been around a long time, and we know they work; yet they have never been fully funded. In fact, the report says, Head Start hours should be extended so the children of working mothers can stay all day; and Head Start-like programs should be initiated for poor children under three who also need-and are not getting-quality day care.
Preventive medical care for children at risk is another imperative. And so is help for families. The report recognizes that parents are the "first and most important teachers" of their children, and it suggests, for instance, special schools for teenage mothers and fathers who have not finished high school to help them learn to be parents.
Will all this cost a lot of money? Sure, but it will save us more. Preschool education, prenatal care, supplemental nutrition, early immunization are all investments that yield big financial returns. For instance, studies show that, for every $1 spent to put a child in preschool, $3 to $6 will be saved later. More important, kids who get this kind of care are not likely to end up as high school drop outs, hanging around the streets or shut up in jails. They'll grow up to be the citizens and workers our country must have.
The Unfinished Agenda is an example of the great contribution business can make in moving things forward. The business leaders who are responsible for the report take a tough position on a tough issue. They tell us that we cannot afford to trash 25 percent of our youngsters-and they show us what we must do to change things. This is leadership worth following.