the more I look at health access, cost, and quality correlations involving
states, counties, and nations
the more I look at the importance of distribution of income and education
the more I look at income and education inequities and our systems that
mean more and more leaders come from higher and higher income and have less
and less awareness of what is going on

1. the role of the family unit, mom and child, before birth and the first
few years is most critical
2. the role of society related to this unit and the early years is critical
in education, income, public health....
3. the role of neighborhoods and schools comes in to play, which again are
related to the family unit status

Extra costs inefficiency and ineffectiveness in all systems and
infrastructure are the result of not investing early and often.
1. health care costs for less outcomes
2. prison costs for less outcomes
3. extra costs of education for poorer outcome
Add in the same for economics and unemployment and public health and public
safety

Add in education heading for the cellar in state budgets or at least now
number 2, replaced by health costs. Also school district officers balance
health care costs of $1100 per child by cutting teachers. The options that
we have are destructive for the future of efficiency, effectiveness,
economic development, and human development.

Add in complications from the myth that government programs do not work,
since the real failure of the programs was much earlier in the
infrastructure that does make things work. We are the government by the
way. This myth is a really good one for those who do not want government to
invest in people, since their lives are fine and they pay for their own
education, public safety, economics, etc. But it is a bad idea for
stability and efficiency.

Add in the myth of welfare fraud, since much of this was due to too many
clients and little increase in funding for decades and too few managers
that are too overwhelmed because the people that they deal with have low
levels of education and overwhelming problems....

Then there is abuse, fraud, violence, and other factors that make life hell
for those living in such situations and for those attempting to deal with
those caught in such situations, with the exits blocked by barriers of
income and education and low levels of development.

This is not socialism. It is people learning that investing in people,
children, and the earliest citizens and residents is best for all citizens.

There are also simple choices. Take the extra $$ that would go to science
and math for grades 7 - 12 and invest it in age 2 - 4. Just so you know
what you would face in opposition, you would be taking the portion that
goes to the 30% at the top of the income ladder and pushing it to the 70%
at the bottom. I suspect that the overall gains for society would far
exceed any science and math programs. There is an added benefit. The better
developed lower and middle income students may actually give the higher
income types a run for their money, forcing them to push themselves, and do
better in areas such as science and math. Funny how competition can work to
do this and how lack of competition can result in lower achievement and
quality for a nation.

Verbal ability at or before kindergarten may well be one of the most
critical benchmarks of the future of a nation.

Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
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