Invest early to get more kids in college, experts say

Fewer than 2 percent of Minnesota's 4-year-olds were in pre-K programs last year. That number will have to dramatically increase if the state hopes to boost the number of young people attaining a college degree by 2020, said researchers and analysts gathered at a forum Monday.

In addition, experts said, moving to decrease class sizes, increase academic vigor and ease the transition from high school to college would also help more Minnesotans find postsecondary success.

Such was the call for action at "Smart Investments in Minnesota's Students," a forum on the economics of education sponsored by Growth & Justice, a think tank, at the Minnesota History Center.

Growth & Justice's goal is to increase by 50 percent the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who earn a higher-education degree by 2020.

The group's statewide steering committee will take the information presented Monday -- looking at the cost-effectiveness of everything from prenatal care to increasing the number of high school counselors -- and make recommendations for the 2009 Legislature, Growth & Justice President Dane Smith said. Minnesota has fallen in education spending and is in the lower tier of states for early childhood spending.

"Part of investing in people, of course, is investing in education," said Angela Eilers, research and policy director for the think tank. "But where? Not only are we looking for what works, but we're asking, what are the economic challenges of this?"

While formal recommendations are coming, experts gave clear signs about where Minnesota should invest for its educational future.

Early childhood

Minnesota needs to not just substantially increase preschool options for 3- or 4-year-olds, but it must boost prenatal care and mentoring for low-income mothers, said Art Rolnick, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis.

Early childhood programs show "the biggest bang for the buck," Rolnick said. A $20,000 per-child, two-year investment could show a return of up to 20 percent for society each year of the child's adult life -- in the form of higher income, taxes paid, staying off welfare and staying out of jail.

His proposal: A market-based system to fund scholarships for low-income families. They would get scholarships of $10,000 to $13,000 per year per kid to use for high-quality child care.

The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation is raising $30 million to fund a pilot project that has started in St. Paul, Rolnick said. It will work with 1,200 families in the Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul. An eventual endowment of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, he said, would fund the program for nearly all Minnesota families in poverty.

"This one-time investment," Rolnick said, "is roughly the cost of two stadiums."

Arthur Reynolds, an early-childhood researcher at the University of Minnesota, said that building a continuum of intensive interventions for at-risk children, from pre-K through third grade, showed an economic return of up to $10 for every $1 invested. Such efforts include dramatically reducing class sizes and improving teacher pay. Yet, he said, compared with many states, Minnesota lags in providing pre-K access to 4-year-olds -- well behind states such as Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.

Political response

Researchers said Minnesota is also lagging and could get a substantial return on its investment in other areas. Steering more minority children into challenging programs and increasing the money to hire more high school counselors could raise the number of children moving on to college and earning a two-year or four-year degree. The state has the third-lowest ratio of counselors to students in the country.

Monday's forum was notable in that it included legislative leaders from both parties.

Sen. David Senjem, R-Rochester, the Senate minority leader, said answers won't be easy to come by. But cost-benefit data presented Monday can help the Legislature make good choices on education.

"We, as leaders ... need to pick up that torch," he said.

Sen. Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, the Senate majority leader, said the information given Monday proves that Minnesota has been "resting on its laurels." The state needs to find a way -- publicly, privately, maybe even through vouchers -- to boost education.

"Incrementalism is not going to work," he said of the need for big-time investment.

"Our community is at risk," he said. "It will be too late for many kids if we continue to do this incrementally. And it may be too late for Minnesota."

James Walsh • 651-298-1541

James Walsh • jwalsh@startribune.com