Alaska is competing not just against other states or other parts of North America, but with countries around the world, who are placing more importance on the vital link between early education programs and an educated workforce than does the United States.

I have been heavily involved in North Carolina's successful Smart Start program - a national model for early education.

Alaska's Best Beginnings initiative, an outgrowth of the state's “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Task Force,” is based in part on the North Carolina program. like the North Carolina program, is a statewide public-private partnership. Best Beginnings calls itself “Alaska's Early Childhood Investment,” and the full scope of the potential return on that investment is seldom recognized. While a primary emphasis in programs like Smart Start and Best Beginnings is quite properly on the state's youngest citizens, there is far more at stake than that.

Those kids today are, for better or worse, a substantial part of our workforce 20 years out. They will grow into a world that is more economically complex, challenging and competitive than anything we've ever known. In that respect, Best Beginnings and related efforts are the first stage of an educational trajectory that in a very real way will determine not only children's futures, but the long-range economic vitality of their communities and that of Alaska.

The United States now lags far behind other nations in high school and college graduates. The economic competition is increasingly a knowledge competition, and intellectual capital has become a region's critical business asset, even in Alaska with its rich natural resources.

There are a number of national business organizations that have made the case for the role of quality early education as a competitive American necessity in a global economy. One of those, the Business Roundtable, is comprised of leading U.S. companies making up nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and represents more than 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid. It is committed to advocating public policies that ensure vigorous economic growth, a dynamic global economy, and the well-trained and productive U.S. workforce essential for future competitiveness.

In 2003, the roundtable issued a major position paper, “Early Childhood Education: A Call to Action from the Business Community,” emphatically endorsing state and federal programs that provide quality early education. In so doing, it embraced both the general principles and key operational elements of Smart Start. ImportantlySignificantly, the Business Roundtable positioned the issue as one of major importance to the long-term vitality and security of local and state economies and that of the nation as a whole.

Other business-related organizations with a similar perspective include the Committee for Economic Development, the Federal Reserve Bank, Business Week magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

Abbe Hensley, executive director of Best Beginnings, which organized a recent governor's summit, emphasized the importance of understanding the economic impact of quality early education, saying the issue is certainly about young children. But if we are to effectively address a situation where almost half of Alaska's children start school unprepared to read or learn, we must fully appreciate the economic consequences of that fact not only to them, but to us as a society and as a state.

Find information on Best Beginnings at www.BestBeginningsAlaska.org or contact Abbe Hensley at ahensley@akhf.org.