The Committee for Economic Development (CED) has a decades-old commitment to quality early childhood education. CED Trustees have always been in the forefront of the effort to promote early learning and development for all children. Over recent years, the case for investment in the early years of childhood has become stronger and more urgent. Scholars from several disciplines have learned more in fields that range from the first stages of development of the brain to the demonstrable life-long consequences of past high-quality investments in young children. Accordingly, the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education reconvened to accumulate this knowledge, and to explain it to the newest generations of business leaders. CED continues to believe that these human investments are among the most important that the nation can make, and that the business community should take the lead in making this case to both policymakers and the public at large. (Contains 3 figures and 74 endnotes.)