For over a year, the Committee for Economic Development, a Washington-based business group has been promoting the connection between early childhood education and economic development. Today, they released the latest in a series of reports.

Co-authored by a Nobel prize-winning economist, the paper notes that, "Over 20 percent of US workers are functionally illiterate and innumerate, a much higher percentage than in leading European countries. This is a major drag on U.S. competitiveness and a source of social problems," including the huge cost of crime.

They project that if current trends continue the annual rate of productivity growth attributable to education will decline by half or more in the next two decades.

Read a summary of the report. Or, download the report. For more background on this issue, read the CED's report, Preschool for All.