Why we do what we do

Reading a new report from the Partnership for America's Economic Success, Using Tax Credits to Promote High Quality Early Care and Education Services, I was particularly struck by the opening paragraph of the introduction:

America's long-term economic success depends on ensuring that children -- the next generation of citizens -- succeed in school and life (Heckman & Masterov, 2004). Advances in neuroscience underscore that young children learn from the earliest moments of life, and that learning is especially rapid in their first five years. The accumulated evidence from evaluations of high quality early education programs tells us children in those programs advance in intellectual, social and emotional competence in the short term, do better academically (in both reading and math) and socially in school, and generally live more productive lives as adults than children who have no preschool education or who have poor early educational experiences (Shore, 1997; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000; Brown & Scott-Little, 2003; Rolnick & Grunewald, 2003; Lynch, 2004; Gilliam & Zigler, 2004; Barnett & Ackerman, 2006).

The report goes on to explore the possibilities of using tax credits linked to quality standards to promote and finance quality early care and education opportunities. (View full report here.) To me, this introductory paragraph seems a great summary of the different aspects of why we work for quality early learning experiences for children; brain development, social and emotional development, future academic performance, and economic stability (both for the individual and the community). What do you think? How would you state your reasons for working on behalf of early care and education?