Early care and education is a fundamental building block for success. Research shows that early childhood education and development programs that support infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers help reduce dropouts, decrease delinquency, improve academic achievement, increase economic productivity, and achieve success in life (Barnett 1993). These student outcomes also have broader social and economic benefits, such as reduced crime, lower utilization of social services and increased tax revenue beyond compensating for the costs of the programs (Committee for Economic Development 2006).