Magnuson Katherine, Duncan Greg J
Professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine.
RSF. 2016 May;2(2):123-141. doi: 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.2.05. Epub 2016 May 16.
This paper considers whether expanding access to center-based early childhood education (ECE) will reduce economic inequality later in life. A strong evidence base indicates that ECE is effective at improving young children's academic skills and human capital development. We review evidence that children from low-income families have lower rates of preschool enrollment than their more affluent peers. Our analysis indicates that increasing enrollments for preschoolers in the year before school entry is likely to be a worthy investment that will yield economic payoffs in the form of increased adult earnings. The benefits of even a moderately effective ECE program are likely to be sufficient to offset the costs of program expansion, and increased enrollment among low-income children may reduce later economic inequality.
本文探讨扩大基于中心的幼儿教育（ECE）的可及性是否会减少日后生活中的经济不平等。强有力的证据表明，幼儿教育在提高幼儿学术技能和人力资本发展方面是有效的。我们回顾了相关证据，即来自低收入家庭的儿童的学前教育入学率低于家境更为富裕的同龄人。我们的分析表明，增加即将入学前一年的学龄前儿童入学人数很可能是一项值得的投资，这将以成年人收入增加的形式产生经济回报。即使是一个效果一般的幼儿教育项目所带来的益处也可能足以抵消项目扩张的成本，而低收入儿童入学人数的增加可能会减少日后的经济不平等。
