The following quote is by a man many Iowans are familiar with, Terry Branstad, who served as Iowa’s governor for 16 years, from 1983 to 1999.

 “I guess my feeling [about pre-K] is that it has to be done privately, not by the state. I don’t have any problems providing maybe for some lower-income people some financial incentives or assistance for that. And I do understand the benefit of preschool. But, I don’t know if that’s the responsibility of the tax payers. Providing tax-supported preschool for everybody. I think there are higher priorities in terms of education.”

Since this same man is running for governor of Iowa again I have to ask, “Is Terry Branstad bad for Iowa’s young learners?” It appears the answer is yes. With that in mind, I have a few points I’d like to share regarding Mr. Branstad’s apparent lack of understanding.

Learning does not begin once a child turns 5 years old. In fact, a large body of recent brain research has shown that the human brain grows more between the birth and age 5 than at any other time in our lives. Why wait until the brain is 90 percent grown to fund education that meets specific standards and criteria, or to provide a licensed teacher who has specialized training?

The definition of investment, according to Webster, is “the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns.” In this case the investment is access to quality preschool for all. The returns, according to 123 different studies done over four decades, is that preschool has substantial impacts on cognitive development, on social and emotional development, and on schooling outcomes. An additional return is that enrollment in public preschools increased scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests at both fourth and eighth grade.

The old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is worth serious consideration. When it comes to education, we can spend some money on prevention now by providing access for all to quality preschool, or spend a lot more money on fixing problems down the road — remediation, special education, at-risk programs, alternative schools.

We build houses on a foundation because if you build a good strong foundation to support the house, the house will be able to stand up to adversity. Funding public education starting at age 5 is like building a house without a foundation. A child’s foundation is already in place by age 5 — after that, it’s too late. We then spend the next 13 or more years trying to fix problems that could have been avoided had we provided the proper foundation from the outset.

Leaders of any organization, if they are to be successful and if they are to truly act in the best interest of the people they serve, do not ignore policy recommendations that come out of major institutes of research. Mr. Branstad needs to very carefully read and evaluate the research on early education and then, and only then, determine what he “feels” should be a priority. How can Mr. Branstad say that he understands the value of preschool when, clearly, he does not?

In education, we rely on a practice known as “making data-driven decisions.” This means decisions we make are based on research and not on “gut instinct.” Making data-driven decisions is not unique to the world of education and I’d like to think it is not unique to the world of government. Would it be under the leadership of Mr. Branstad?

Currently, Iowa is leading the way in the field of early education. We are the only state working toward providing sustainable funding for universal preschool for all, regardless of parent income. Prioritizing early education is vital if Iowa is to regain lost momentum when it comes to being the best in the country at educating our children.

At the very least Mr. Branstad needs to become familiar with the research and open his mind to current realities. It’s not 1983 anymore.

Policy recommendations from the National Institute for Early Education Research includes:

• Develop state standards for all preschool programs.

• Raise teacher salaries and benefits to levels similar to those of K-12 counterparts.

• Develop valid measures of early educational quality incorporating recent research on early literacy, mathematical, scientific and social/emotional learning.

• Provide continuous training and quality improvement efforts to all preschool teachers and programs.

• Work together at federal, state and local level to establish a coordinated system of high-quality education and care for all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Erwin Klaas is a professor emeritus of animal ecology at Iowa State University.