4 Reasons to Fund Early Learning with a Tobacco Tax Increase

When President Obama announced his groundbreaking early learning plan, he proposed to fund the expansion of preschool and voluntary home visiting with a tobacco tax increase. Today, with eight other organizations invested in young children and/or public health, we released a report that explains the twofold benefits of this plan. Here are just four of them:

1. In the first year of the program, nearly 335,000 children from low- and moderate-income families will gain access to high-quality preschool. By the 10th year of the program, two million children will have access to these opportunities. TWO MILLION – somebody will need to order a whole lot of those teeny tiny chairs for all these teeny tiny learners!
2. Today 3,500 youth will try their first cigarette, tomorrow another 3,500 will do the same, and the next day, and the day after that. You get the picture. Many of these kids will eventually become addicted. If enacted, this new 94-cent per pack federal tobacco tax will prevent 1.7 million kids from becoming addicted adult smokers over the next 18 years and prompt 1.57 million adult smokers to quit in the first year. 
3. In the first year of the program, up to 1.13 million low-income women who give birth could potentially be supported through the voluntary home visiting program. Parents are children’s first educators and expanding voluntary home visiting means many new moms will get the support and education they need to encourage their children’s learning at home.
4. I think we can all agree that saving money is a good thing. If this federal tobacco tax increase is enacted, fewer people will smoke and we’ll save $63.4 billion in long-term health care costs. The list of great things we could do with that money is pretty long.

More children in Pre-K and fewer people addicted to cigarettes? Yes, please.

For more information about the President’s early learning proposal visit: www.nwlc.org/strongstart