Bangor - State investments in early care and education can actually boost the economy.

That's what some local business leaders want you to know.

America's Edge is a national organization made up of business leaders who speak out about the importance of high quality, early education.

They just released a report with their findings.

"There are really two economic bounces to high quality, early education. One is the immediate bounce. What happens to the local economy today when you invest and as our speakers talked about earlier, every dollar invested in the early ed, there is 78 more cents that's returned to the local economy."

The other bounce - the number of kids that start school on levels they should be at.

About eighty business leaders in Maine are part of America's Edge, including several in the Bangor area.

"When they talk, I think public policy makers in Augusta and Washington tend to listen because they're people who have credibility in their communities."

Vice President of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Jerry Whalen, belongs to the organization.

"Education of our youth is probably the most important long term decision we can make as a nation, as a state and certainly as a region."

Whalen says there's a direct correlation with early education and health.

"So the better educated the youth is, the more literacy they have, the more understanding of healthcare issues they'll take better care of themselves later in life and have far lower levels of chronic disease. It's a trend that's proven itself over and over again."

THese business leaders are concerned with proposals in Congress to cut more than one billion dollars from early education programs.

They hope the report urges lawmakers to maintain 2011 funding for early education programs.

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