Providing quality early childhood education is expensive, Buffet Early Childhood Fund program director Michael Burke said during a presentation Wednesday morning at the Salina Country Club.
But failing to invest in the crucial early years of a child’s development is far more costly, he said.
“Let’s make no mistake, building a bridge over the first five years is a daunting bridge to build,” Burke told a group of about 50 that gathered for a breakfast program sponsored by the Kansas Health Foundation Salina Team.
“The one objection I hear about our bridge is that it’s too expensive to build the best, the sturdiest, the highest-quality bridge possible; that it’s just too expensive to do what all the great research tells us to do.
“And to that argument I say this: It is expensive, if you do it right, but especially if you do it wrong. And for decades, we’ve done it wrong by investing too little too late too often.”
Burke then read a quote from Susie Buffet, the daughter of mega billionaire Warren Buffet and creator of the Buffet Early Childhood Fund: “People say early child care is expensive. Well, what else is expensive? Teen pregnancies, prisons, foster care. It’s a lot more expensive to fix on the back end, and sometimes you can’t fix it at all.”
©Salina Journal