--- title: Five Best Ideas: Preschool Is A Great Investment description: Early childhood education is a great investment, “Hidden Figures” should open the door to more stories about the wonder of science and more canonical: https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-25T17:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:08.642Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Early Childhood Education Is a Great Investment og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Early Childhood Education Is a Great Investment twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Early Childhood Education Is a Great Investment by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 25, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 25, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Early childhood education is a great investment. And the earlier we start, the better.**](https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/12/12/investment-early-childhood-programs-yields-robust-returns) By Mark Peters at the _University of Chicago_ **2\.** [**“Hidden Figures” should open the door to more stories about the wonder of science.**](https://filmschoolrejects.com/hidden-figures-and-the-hope-for-more-real-science-stories-e0e7c5ce612#.hp7s2xm48) By Ciara Wardlow in _Film School Rejects_ **3\.** [**What happens if government information — from crime statistics to job numbers — becomes unreliable?**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/23/we-rely-on-the-government-for-lots-of-data-what-happens-to-that-in-the-era-of-alternative-facts/) By Mark Berman in the Washington _Post_ **4\.** [**Where patients live might determine if cancer kills them.**](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/48a190a6965e4400b0eb5fe2f84f9605/dying-cancer-could-your-location-determine-your-fate) By Lindsey Tanner at the _AP_ **5\.** [**This is how President Obama’s so-called ‘Asia Pivot’ went wrong.**](http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-pivot-to-asia-was-obamas-biggest-mistake/) By John Ford in _The_ _Diplomat_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/"},"headline":"Early Childhood Education Is a Great Investment","datePublished":"2017-01-25T17:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:08.642Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/","keywords":["Innovation","Education","Cancer","Asia","Science topic","statistics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4648574/early-childhood-education-is-a-great-investment/","name":"Early Childhood Education Is a Great Investment"}}]}] ```