3-163 - Dollars and Sense: Trends, Tools, and Studies of Early Childhood Program Costs and Quality to Guide Policy and Decision Making

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

For too long, policy makers and program managers have been making decisions without enough information about early childhood program costs and without tools to compare costs across program options. Relatively few studies have estimated costs of early childhood programs even though arguments for investing rest on long-term benefits, including cost savings. This session will take stock of the progress the field has made in conducting cost studies and developing the types of cost measurement tools and data decision makers need to understand the true costs of programs and ultimately inform how to spend early care and education resources. The moderator will lead a lively conversation about the importance of economic analysis to policy and program decision making and the different kinds of cost studies and tools that have been used. The group will discuss how a new wave of tools and studies developed by multi-disciplinary teams is poised to make a difference for policy, practice, and research. The proposed panel members include two economists who have studied the costs of prek and other birth through age 5 programs, an education researcher who has conducted cost studies in the United States and Uganda, and a former federal early education policy maker who also led home visiting and prek campaigns for a foundation.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Moderator

• Kimberly Boller, Mathematica Policy Research

Panelists

• Lynn Karoly, RAND

• Steven W Barnett, Rutgers University

• Sarah Kabay, New York University

• Libby Doggett, U.S. Department of Education