" The skills children develop in high-quality early learning programs — vocabulary, persistence, phonics, social skills and early math skills — are necessary prerequisites for all the learning they need to be doing in the rest of their lives," the writers say. (iStock)

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We have served as CEOs of prominent Minnesota companies during challenging times. We have faced economic downturns and the need to cut our budgets in truly painful ways. Therefore, we can empathize with the position Gov. Tim Walz and leaders of the Minnesota Legislature find themselves in as they craft the state budget with deficits and much economic uncertainty on the horizon.

As we reflect on the budgetary challenges we have faced as business leaders, we offer this advice to our partners in state government: In the rush to triage crises, don’t lose focus on the long term. Cut what you can do without, but keep expanding investment in the things that are most needed for a bright future.

What does Minnesota most need for a prosperous future? What can’t we do without? Minnesota needs all children in low-income families accessing high-quality early education programs. That is a must-have.

Here’s why: Research shows that when families cannot afford high-quality early learning programs for their young children, those children are much more likely to arrive in kindergarten unprepared, to not catch up in subsequent grades and to not graduate from high school.

The path for success, or failure, is to a significant extent set when children are babies, toddlers and preschoolers, ages at which their brains are growing at extraordinary rates. The skills children develop in high-quality early learning programs — vocabulary, persistence, phonics, social skills and early math skills — are necessary prerequisites for all the learning they need to be doing in the rest of their lives.

We should care about giving children an equal opportunity to succeed on a humanitarian level. But we should also care about it on a fiscal level. The reality is that children who fall behind and don’t catch up disproportionately require daunting taxpayer expenditures later in life related to things such as special education, unemployment, social services, health care and law enforcement.

It’s true that state leaders must pay bills for those programs today. We get that. But they must also invest in ways that reduce those bills for the future. That’s what visionary leaders do.

The best way we know to do that is to invest in expanding access to early learning for children in low-income families. Research conducted by economists Rob Grunewald and Art Rolnick at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that every dollar invested helping children in low-income families access the kind of high-quality early learning programs that get them prepared for kindergarten and all that follows yields up to $16 in societal benefits. That’s because future taxpayer expenses are dramatically reduced when children get help early and consequently are successful in school and life.

Currently, we are looking at a future in which Minnesota leaves behind 15,000 babies, toddlers and preschoolers in low-income families, not giving them the opportunity for high-quality early learning. Legislators and the governor can choose that path and save a relatively small sum on spreadsheets in the upcoming biennium. But leaving those kids behind will cost future Minnesota taxpayers a fortune.

By the way, the cost of serving those left-behind children is relatively modest. Providing life-altering help to those 15,000 children costs only about 0.7% of the entire state biennial general-fund budget. It is doable. And again, making that investment prevents huge taxpayer bills, and legislator challenges, in the future.

We know the choices faced by state leaders are truly gut-wrenching. We also realize that other state programs have tremendous merits in their own right. But we aren’t aware of any public investments that yield as strong a return on investment as expanding early learning access for our most at-risk children. That’s why those investments have such strong bipartisan support.

Based on our experience, our advice to our friends in state government is to keep investing in what is needed for a bright future. For Minnesota to thrive in the coming years, we simply must have children prepared to learn, compete in a knowledge-based economy and thrive in our communities. We must give all of Minnesota’s youngest and most vulnerable children access to high-quality early learning programs.

Doug Baker is the former CEO of Ecolab. Allison Gettings is the current CEO of Red Wing Shoes. Ken Powell is the former CEO of General Mills. They are involved in the Minnesota Business for Early Learning initiative (MNBEL), which is coordinated by the nonprofit organization Think Small.