Part 3: Scaling the "Minnesota Model" for Maximum ROI Impact

Mike Tikkanen · June 2, 2026 · 1 min read

Market-based scholarship programs like Minnesota’s Early Learning Scholarships (MELS) prove these returns are scalable. MELS provides vouchers to low-income parents, empowering them to choose high-quality programs. Result: an 18% inflation-adjusted public ROI, higher than the S&P 500’s historical average11 12 10. The keys to replicating this success are:

Targeting at-risk children: Returns exceed $17 per dollar in high-poverty neighborhoods7.

Parent empowerment: Scholarships foster competition, driving program quality without bureaucracy12.

Prenatal-to-age-5 focus: Early starts maximize neurodevelopmental benefits12 6.
Universal programs can work, but targeted investments in disadvantaged populations yield the highest fiscal returns, often paying for themselves8 10.

By reducing crime, early childhood programs save taxpayers money on law enforcement, incarceration, and victim costs. The Perry Preschool Project alone found that deterring criminal justice involvement saves $171,473 per child over 40 years3.

Children in these programs have higher graduation rates and better employment outcomes, both of which are linked to lower crime rates5 9.

Market-driven, parent-centered models like MELS achieve unprecedented ROI

by combining choice, quality, and precise targeting.

All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children

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INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society”

(Pliny the Elder, 2000 years ago)

States covered: Minnesota

Republished from the Kids At Risk Action blog as written. No images from the original corpus appear in any form.

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