The state Legislature has made some pretty bone-headed decisions in recent days when it comes to Missouri children, but we have to give lawmakers credit where it's due. They decided to boost state funding for early childhood education by $82 million, which is an important shot in the arm for families everywhere as well as for Gov. Mike Parson's ongoing efforts to boost workforce development.

Most people probably don't think of pre-kindergarten kids as part of the workforce — they're not — but in a few years they will be. And the state has been doing a lousy job so far of giving young kids the kinds of early exposure to the educational tools their brains crave.

Specialists say the most crucial learning years for a child are from age 1 to 5. Even before pre-kindergarten education begins, parents could benefit from exposing their children to as much structured, full-sentence vocabulary as possible. It can make a huge difference in a child who enters kindergarten able to read and with a vocabulary of 5,000 words versus one who can't read and only communicates with a 1,000-word vocabulary. According to one study, the average child from a low-income family will have heard 30 million fewer spoken words than one from a wealthier family by age 5. The deficits start to develop long before pre-kindergarten even comes into the picture.

Early childhood education is a crucial way to fill that gap and level the playing field so lower-income children aren't consigned to a lifetime of catching up. When working parents don't have access to early childhood education, many turn to neighborhood daycare, which too often can involve baby talk, a lack of exposure to reading and basic numbers skills, and includes sitting the child in front of a TV as a substitute for interaction.

These factors are what start a child out at a discouraging educational deficit that can endure for the rest of their time in school, if not lifetime. And when Missouri kids turn in a miserable performance on the National Assessment of Educational Performance, the root of the problem likely will be found in a statewide lack of available early childhood education.

According to the budget just approved by the Legislature, more than $55 million will go for public school districts and charter schools to provide early childhood education. Community-based childcare providers will receive about $26 million.

Although these expenditures will give mainly low-income parents increased access to child care when they're at work — which is important all by itself — the goal isn't just to babysit. It's to teach, cultivate young brains and to create the next generation of thinkers and doers.

That should be the kind of workforce development that dominates Parson's agenda, even if the dividends of this investment won't be realized until long after the governor has moved on.

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