The Green Party wants to see a cost-benefit analysis carried out into the benefits of investment in education at all levels in Ireland as it believes that such an investment would pay for itself socially and economically. It believes that this would convince politicians and sceptical taxpayers of why Education should be prioritised. However there are already several international studies in English-speaking countries that point to the benefits of investing in Education which makes the Government’s foot-dragging seem senseless. These include the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina and the High/Scope Perry Preschool study.


The latter, a landmark, long-term US study of the effects of high quality early care and education on low-income three and four-year-olds shows that adults at age 40 who participated in a preschool programme in their early years have higher earnings, are more likely to hold a job, have committed fewer crimes, and are more likely to have graduated from second level school. Overall, the study documented a return to society of more than a $17 for every dollar invested in the early care and education programme.


The High/Scope Perry Preschool study was conducted over four decades by the late David P Weikart, founder of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation; Larry Schweinhart, High/Scope's current president; and their colleagues. Children in the study were randomly assigned either to receive the High/Scope Perry Preschool programme or to receive no comparable programme and were then tracked throughout their lives to age 40. At earlier stages, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation staff studied these same groups of children every year from age 3 to age 11, and again at ages 14, 15, 19, and 27.

The report shows major benefits from an educational and social point of view for those who received the programme. However equally important are the results from an economic perspective, which ridicule the current Government’s relatively frugal attitude to funding Education at a time of revenue bouyancy.

 

Among the study's major findings in the economic area are:

 

• More of the group who received high-quality early education than the non-programme group were employed at age 40 (76% vs. 62%);
• The group who received high-quality early education had median annual earnings more than $5,000 higher than the non-programme group ($20,800 vs. $15,300);
• More of the group who received high-quality early education owned their own homes; and
• More of the group who received high-quality early education had a savings account than the non-program group (76% vs. 50%).
• The facts speak for themselves,” says Paul Gogarty TD. Investment in education pays. This Government has failed to provide the necessary funding for our education system.”