Analysis: The Push For Early Childhood Education

By Special Contributor Larry Kane

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Throughout the nation, parents and educators are pushing hard for more support for early childhood education.

Now, there are links between a lack of education in the first five years of life and the potential for failure and even a life of crime later on. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is joining with educators to make the public aware that children are at risk without that early attention.

"High School dropouts are eight times more likely to go to state prison than a high school graduate. We also know that for every dollar invested in early childhood education we save 7 dollars on the back end for the cost of state prisons."

Meet Sharon Easterling, Eeecutive director of the Delaware Valley Association for the education of young children. She says that our nation is behind others in providing the critical education needs for children in their pre school years.

"The brain is developing more in the first five years than at any other time. So we have this very interesting problem in the US. By the way we're the only industrialized country that doesn't support high quality education beginning in the younger years. (Is it mandated in other countries?) It is publicly supported in every other industrialized country".

Listen to interview: