We are offering a new and easy opportunity for you to advance smart policies to strengthen school readiness, educational success, and workforce development. Many business leaders have been active in their home states and communities supporting sound programs for young children and their families. Now we need to show the nation the depth and breadth of this support. We invite you to sign the ReadyNation Pledge and to disseminate to your networks via e-mail and social media.

The neuroscientific research on the early brain is one of the most compelling bodies of evidence for investing in young children. Conveying this message broadly is critical to building support for early childhood policies and programs. Yet it can be difficult to find experts to speak on this topic, or for lay speakers to convey the findings on their own. To address this challenge, ReadyNation, with the help of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, offers a variety of ways for lay speakers to present this data. Click here to view the materials that are available.

On a webinar held April 3, Rob Dugger, ReadyNation Advisory Board Chair, and Bob Litan, Kauffman Foundation, Research and Policy Vice President, presented an operational example of how social impact bonds might be used to pay for early learning to increase school readiness, paid for by lower special education costs. These pay for pre-k to reduce special-ed costs are called PKSE ("peek see") bonds. View the materials and listen to the audio from this meeting here. Our goal is 1,000 business and civic leaders signing on in all 50 states and territories.