Score one for the kids

Let me tell you what Asa Hutchinson, presumptive Republican candidate for governor, says state government cannot afford because of the $37 million cost.

He says we must first meet other unspecified needs, including, presumably, the hundred-million-dollar tax cut he promises if elected.

It seems inherently contradictory for a gubernatorial candidate to say we must cut taxes by a hundred million dollars and then say we don’t have enough money to meet existing needs.

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Actually, I think I’ll let Ben Bernanke tell you what Hutchinson says the state can’t afford.

I quote from a speech that Bernanke, then-chairman of the Federal Reserve, made by video to the Children’s Defense Fund National Conference in July 2012.

Bernanke said: “The benefits of early childhood programs are not just short-term in nature. Careful studies demonstrate that early interventions can have a positive effect on young children from low-income families that lasts well into adulthood. … Economically speaking, early childhood programs are a good investment, with inflation-adjusted annual rates of return on the funds dedicated to these programs estimated to reach 10 percent or higher.”

Bernanke was not a late-comer to the issue.

The Federal Reserve in Minneapolis did a study in 2003 that found that public investment in pre-kindergarten programs returned a better economic investment to communities than sports and entertainment arenas and bidding wars for corporate expansion locations.

In other words: It’s better to begin teaching kids early than to build the Verizon Arena or subsidize a steel mill.

So here is the Arkansas political context: Presumptive Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross went to a preschool center last week and, before reading a book to the kids, announced his plan to provide $37 million a year by 2025 to provide universal access to pre-K programs for the state’s 4-year-olds.

The Koch brothers’ chief agent in Arkansas took to Twitter to chide Ross’ notion to take little kids from their parents earlier.

Then I was on a local political talk show over the weekend with a Republican operative who said Ross’ plan was “hokey” because he was proposing something akin to pie in the sky to take effect only after his governorship.

And Hutchinson said Ross was “over-promising,” invoking an expenditure the state can’t afford.

So I’ll just bring you back to Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve.

They don’t find pre-K programs “hokey.” They don’t adjudge their results as pie in the sky.

They say we should try to find a way to afford them before we build sports arenas or chase industrial relocations-because the demonstrated rate of return in both human and general economic benefit is greater.

Odd is this notion that Ross is to be faulted for setting a goal and acknowledging it will take time to reach it.

How is that an over-promise?What it is, instead, is goal-setting. It’s leadership.

And it’s leadership given to honest and practical considerations about how to achieve the goal.

It’s the same thing Gov. Mike Beebe did on the grocery tax as a first-time gubernatorial candidate in 2006. He set the goal of eliminating the tax altogether, but called for doing so incrementally as the state could afford it after designing annual budgets.

As Beebe’s opponent in ’06, the ever-running Hutchinson called for eliminating the grocery tax all at once. Then Beebe delivered his signature line, which was that he wanted to under-promise and over-deliver, not the other way around like so many politicians.

Beebe is in his last year as governor and the grocery tax still exists, but only at 1.5 percent.

He set his goal. He pursued his goal. He did so responsibly. The goal may not be met until after he is gone. But that doesn’t diminish the savings that Arkansas food shoppers have realized in the steady drawdown.

That’s precisely what Ross outlines on universal access to pre-K programs for 4-year-old children.

He may not achieve his ultimate goal while he is governor. But his incremental pursuit of the goal will help a lot of kids along the way.

As for right-wing criticism about taking kids from parents earlier, it must be said that such intervention is desirable, even vital, in many cases of economic and cultural disadvantage.

Poor kids can get a good meal and see a dentist and an eye doctor and get a jump on socialization and group learning. All of that, according to the Federal Reserve, will likely improve their earnings appreciably by the time they’re 40.

But Ross’ aim is universal access, not universal attendance. Nobody is trying to make pre-K for 4-year-olds mandatory.

Koch brothers’ people may keep their kids at home to watch The Andy Griffith Show and the stock market.

If you’re scoring the governor’s race at home, this pre-K episode is a point for Ross. And the Federal Reserve.

And the little tykes of Arkansas.

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John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.