The Partnership for America’s Economic Success (Partnership), with generous support from Scholastic, Inc. and the MacArthur Foundation, has sponsored business leader summits in 20 states.

These summits shared information about the importance of early childhood programs for developing employees who will be competitive in the 21st Century workplace; provided opportunities for business leaders to connect with peers who share their commitment to the future; and engaged business leaders to advocate for additional investments in proven strategies that encourage the successful development of young children.

States Hosting Summits

Selected States: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennyslvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Summit Materials Recommendations

Please see the following resources to use at your summit. These materials are provided either for free, or for a nominal fee. The Partnership has secured the appropriate copyrights for articles posted here for you to disseminate at your summit.

• For a recent spread in the Tennessean on early childhood programs, please click here, or to see Rob Dugger's op-ed click here.
• There is a wonderful new website dedicated to the work of Nobel Laureate James Heckman, The Heckman Equation. It offers a short brochure, videos of Heckman and other tools to help you convey his message. It is funded by the Irving Harris Foundation, The Children's Initiative: A Project of the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, and an anonymous funder. Please check it out!
• Please feel free to use materials produced by the Partnership, including: our new case statement, and our research.
• A U.S. House of Representatives Joint Economic Committee report on the “Economic Benefits of Preschool Education.”
• A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, "The Economics of Early Childhood Development."
• Every Child Matters has created large, beautiful banners and posters about presidential support for young children that are available for the cost of shipping for your event. Please see here to decide whether they would be useful for your event and contact Rebecca Watts at rwatts@everychildmatters.org or 202-223-8177 in order to request them.
• PBS & PBS Kids: Stephanie Aaronson, Senior Director of Communications for PBS and PBS Kids, has offered to help connect all summit organizers with their local PBS station general manager to help promote your summits. You may contact her at saaronson@pbs.org.
• For contact with affiliates of the National Association of Manufacturers located in your state, please e-mail Jacey Wilkins at jwilkins@nam.org.