I had cataract surgery two years ago. My vision immediately improved. New glasses and “new eyes” gave me a new perspective on life. This week I returned for laser surgery on my eyes because “film” had grown over the lens and was obscuring my vision. The funny thing was I did not know it. On a routine eye examination, my ophthalmologist asked if I had noticed fuzziness or a lack of clarity in my view of the world. I was shocked, especially when he said it was significant and questioned why I had not noticed the slight “curtain” that was minimizing my sight. It must have sneaked up on me when I was not looking (excuse the pun!).
I wonder how many of us have “cloudy vision” and don’t even know it? For example, in Mississippi we are told repeatedly by lawmakers we have no money to spend on education, and yet we moan about the brain drain and lack of employees to fill jobs in manufacturing operations across the state. Helen Keller said, “I’d rather be blind than have sight with no vision.” Our state has a problem with lack of vision that laser surgery and bifocals will not fix. We seem to suffer from selective blindness. Funding education and health services are no brainers, and yet all we seem to read and hear about are budget cuts in order to balance the budget in a state that doesn’t have the workers to take highly skilled jobs that pay a living wage so more individuals can pay taxes, which increases our revenue.
Recently a Nobel Prize winning economist, Dr. James Heckman, visited our state as part of an early childhood speaker series funded by the Graduate Center. He met with numerous decision makers, educators and experts in work force development. His discussions focused on the high rate of return of investment (ROI) has in the short and long term when investments are made in high quality infant and toddler educational programs, including home visiting. Dr. Heckman and his colleagues’ analysis of data finds a 13% ROI for comprehensive, high-quality, birth-to-five early education and comprehensive health services. This new ROI, representing high-quality, comprehensive programs from birth to five, is substantially higher than the 7-10% return previously established for preschool programs serving 3- to 4-year-olds. (https://heckmanequation.org/resource/13-roi-toolbox/ and our web site where his slides are found).
Dr. Heckman has researched the long-term impact on the lives of individuals, analyzing the life trajectory of children who attended the Abecedarian Project begun over 40 years ago by Dr. Craig Ramey (see his presentation here). Dr. Ramey presented the findings at a meeting sponsored by the Graduate Center as part of the speaker series and stressed the research method employed is considered as robust as any conducted. He is in agreement with Dr. Heckman’s assessment of the project which continues to influence the science of early care and education today. The high quality components found in the Abecedarian Project reflect the commitment Dr. Ramey and his colleagues placed on putting the children ahead of politics and funding issues 40 years ago. Those who have done the work and conducted irrefutable examination of the outcomes are acknowledged as leaders in our country and around the world.
What is frightening to me is that after 40 years our collective vision in Mississippi is not only cloudy but blinded by ideology. We need not only surgery to correct the vision problem, but new eyes to focus on the issues before it is too late to recover from the selective blindness plaguing our legislators.
by Dr. Cathy Grace