For those who care about kids and early learning, now is a time to act. Policymakers are closely divided on the extent to which children should be a public priority. Pending state budget negotiations will make for many chewed fingernails over the next several days.

Every vote counts when it comes to our kids. On June 8, the Maine State Senate defeated a bipartisan bill providing $2 million — less than $2 per Maine resident — to support childcare for working families. LD 977, “An Act to Improve Child Care in the State,” failed to pass by the Republican Senate by a single vote.

I had hoped my own Senator, Linda Baker, might cast the decisive vote in favor. As a former teacher like me, surely she would know the critical importance of quality early education. Unfortunately, she voted against it and the bill failed, 18 to 17.

Fortunately, she and others can still support another early learning program: Head Start. Any day now, legislators will vote on LD 1054, a bill providing $2 million a year to Head Start and leveraging additional federal dollars as well. Should that fail, the tentative budget agreement negotiated by Republican Senate and Democratic House leaders includes $575,000 per year for Head Start. This second option is not as good — the money is less and is shifted from other public health programs, which if anything merit greater investment. Still, it will give more Maine kids a strong start, leverage more federal dollars, and help more parents get back to work.

Despite decades of research extolling the value of early investment, Maine and other states still spend several times more on high school and higher education than on the early years. Child care workers earn less than dog groomers or pedicurists. Maternal and paternal leave is minimal and unpaid. Public resources for learning are universal when they matter least, and scarce when they matter most. This needs to change.

During the first three years, a child’s brain is “”wired” by interactions with loving, attentive caregivers. Strong, well-connected neural pathways form the foundation for all future learning and brain development. When the first three years involve stress, neglect, and excessive screen time — experiences most likely when families are caught on the treadmill of low-income jobs and low-quality but affordable child care — the neural foundation for all future learning is weak. When children and their families are supported, when early interaction is frequent and focused and a child’s basic needs are met, he or she becomes a learning powerhouse.

This is why investing early is so powerful. Dr. James Heckman, a Nobel laureate, showed that targeted, quality early learning programs pay back up to $16 tax dollars for every dollar they invest. UMaine’s own Dr. Philip Trostel recently looked at costs and benefits for a universal program in Maine, and conservatively projected a net savings to taxpayers of about $100,000 per child.

How does investing early save taxpayers so much? First, it reduces K- 12 remedial education costs. Second, in adulthood it improves health and workforce productivity, while reducing crime and corrections costs. As Republican legislator Lloyd “Skip” Herrick, former Oxford County Sheriff, said at the hearing on LD 977: “one of the best crime prevention strategies we have is to focus on our youngest children and start them on the right path in life.”

These proven outcomes have led business, military and law enforcement leaders to form groups like America’s Edge, Mission Readiness, and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, all working for robust, universal early investment. They have led fiscally conservative entities like the Maine State Chamber of Commerce to make early investment a top priority, as well as bipartisan entities like the Maine Development Foundation and Maine Economic Growth Council.

Supporting our youngest children and giving them the strongest possible start in life is a win for our economy, a win for working parents, and above all a win for the kids.

Let’s each do our part and contact our legislators today, so the “best strategy we have” doesn’t fail again by a single vote.

To leave a message asking your State Senator to support LD 1054 and to boost Maine’s early investments in children, call 287-1540. For your Representative, call 287-1400.

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Seth Berry is vice president of a Maine business and lives in Bowdoinham. He served previously as House Majority Leader, and was a teacher for two decades prior to his legislative service.