The smartest investment in state's future is preschool.

I want to offer you an investment. In all my years in business I have seen few opportunities with such certain potential for profit. The returns are tremendous--as high as $7 for every $1 put in. The dividends start rolling in almost immediately, and, like an annuity, the payments continue for a lifetime.

What is this hot investment?

Preschool.

Research shows that children who attend quality preschool, when their 3--and 4-year-old brains are developing rapidly, are better able to learn to read and do their best in kindergarten and the grades beyond. Their scores on standardized tests are higher, and they are better behaved in class. Children who go to preschool are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. And their achievements do not stop there.

Last month, the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation released the latest installment of a study that, in 1962, began tracking children living in poverty outside Detroit. The subjects are now in their mid-40s, and preschool is still paying off for those who attended as 3- and 4-year-olds.

According to the High/Scope Perry Preschool report, participants earn 36 percent more money than their counterparts who started kindergarten without any preschool, and they are more likely to hold a job. They have committed fewer crimes, including drug offenses. For each child, the researchers estimate, investment in two years of preschool has returned to society more than $250,000 in savings on remedial education, welfare, incarceration and other costs.

Imagine how much our state, businesses, schools, neighborhoods and families could benefit if quality preschool programs were made available to more children. With only 47 percent of California's 1.17 million preschool-age children enrolled in preschool--a rate that places us 37th among the 50 states--we are denying our kids the academic boost they need to prepare for the kinds of jobs being generated in our high-tech economy.

We know that at age 4 children are enthusiastic and capable learners. Ninety percent of brain growth occurs before they are even old enough for kindergarten. As the High/Scope research demonstrates, students who miss out on preschool struggle over a lifetime to catch up.

California's existing education system lacks the capacity to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of children who need access to quality preschool. Federal Head Start programs do not begin to serve all eligible children, and in many communities there are waiting lists for state-funded preschools.

Not just any preschool program will deliver the returns documented in the High Scope/Perry study. Researchers attribute the success of the Ypsilanti, Mich., program to its high standards--small class sizes, teachers with college degrees and training in early childhood development, and salaries for teachers that were commensurate with the K-12 system.

While the full cost for preschool in California is not yet known, we do know that it will take significant public investment to create the sort of high-quality program that will reap benefits. Several counties and school districts are devoting tobacco tax money to school readiness, but our state needs to fund a more comprehensive program. Those of us in business make tough spending choices every day. In today's tight fiscal times, we need to contribute our business sense to help design a preschool system for all.

Other business leaders are already on board. The Business Roundtable and Corporate Voices for Working Families recognize that investing smartly in preschool will pay off in a more educated, stable workforce. I serve on the board of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which has made a major commitment toward the goal of achieving voluntary preschool for all in California by 2013.

Indeed, the importance of educating the public about this issue prompted Eli Broad and me to agree to appear on television and in newspaper ads across the state to promote preschool as the single most important step we can take to improve our economy, our school system, and prepare our next generation of workers.

California needs an education system that contributes to our economic competitiveness and is an engine for growth and student achievement. Funding the earliest years of education turns out to be one of the smartest investments we can make in our society, our communities and in our children.

Lewis Platt, former chief executive of Hewlett Packard Co., is chairman of Boeing Co.