Early years produces the largest measured returns of any stage of education.
The finding is old, and still not reflected in most national budgets.
Part of the reason is that the return arrives twenty years after the spending.
Another is that the effect is produced by quality rather than by attendance.
A room with thirty and one adult produces no gain whatever the sign on the door says.
, staff qualification and stability of the adult are the three variables that carry the effect.
Stability is the one most often missed and the cheapest to protect.
A child who has four different key workers in a year forms no working relationship with any of them.
Pay explains most of the , since the sector pays close to the minimum wage almost everywhere.
design decides who benefits, and most designs benefit the wrong households.
A payment to providers by hour attended favours parents in stable full-time work.
The families whose children gain most from are the least able to attend regularly.
Funded places that are rather than earned reverse that pattern.
The countries with the best outcomes treat early as a service rather than a benefit.
The difference is administrative and it decides who walks through the door.