To Save Disadvantaged Kids, Kidnap Them

To Improve Educational Outcomes, Start Very Early

The current effort to improve the quality of K-12 education is worthwhile, but if we want an affordable program to improve learning, we must intervene at a much earlier age, according to Nobel laureate and University of Chicago economist James J. Heckman. In a concise review of research in economics, neuroscience, and developmental psychology in the 30 June 2006 issue of Science magazine, Heckman finds that the most cost-effective interventions occur when young children are building the foundation of neural pathways that will be essential in acquiring cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional competence.

Efforts to help older children catch up with their peers have achieved little success. Good schools can help children with a strong foundation to thrive, but they cannot make up for severe early childhood deficiencies. Heckman concludes that public investment in disadvantaged children when they are very young is “a rare public policy initiative that promotes fairness and social justice and at the same time promotes productivity in the economy and in society at large.” He maintains that the United States is overinvesting in remedial programs for older children and underinvesting in developmental programs for the very young.

Heckman’s neutral language does not convey what this means on the ground. He is essentially saying that a large number of incompetent parents are effectively crippling their children for life and that the only way to save these children is for government to take over their parenting. It is a version of the common off-handed comment that the solution to educational underperformance is more Korean mothers. One could argue that we could educate the parents, but they are the very people who suffer from the lack of a development foundation that makes learning possible. The most efficient approach is to work directly with the kids. This might be the ultimate maternalistic policy, but Heckman provides compelling evidence that nothing else will achieve the results we want.