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Preschool Matters (March/April 2006; www.nieer.org) reported on a survey of 205 senior executives of Fortune 1,000 companies where respondents viewed prekindergarten as essential to a better-educated workforce.  Some key findings:

• 63% favored active support for universal preschool programs by the business sector;
• 49% said the level of workers' skills had decreased over the last ten years;
• 54% anticipate difficulty in finding enough educated and skilled workers to fill jobs in the future;
• 38% said American firms already are at a disadvantage when compared to foreign firms based on workers' education;
• 34% said their companies currently are recruiting candidates outside the United States to fill jobs requiring special skills or education;
• 83% rated the importance of a skilled workforce as "very high" if the US is to remain globally competitive;
• 81% said public funding of voluntary prekindergarten for all children would improve America's workforce.

Contributed by Exchange, The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978

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