MANKATO — Art Rolnick’s impact on the landscape of early childhood education can’t be underestimated.

The senior vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, who spoke at the Mankato Golf Club on Tuesday, was the author of a groundbreaking study on the financial return of early childhood investments. In it, Rolnick determined that an investment in early childhood initiatives yields a return of 16 percent through later savings on additional education programs, social welfare costs and criminal court proceedings.

More than five years after that study first appeared in a Federal Reserve newsletter in 2003, its conclusion remains the foundation for the current groundswell in early childhood efforts nationwide.

“(Rolnick’s) work has been critical in communicating the economic return of early childhood to the business community,” said Laura Bowman, director of the Greater Mankato Area United Way. “He’s done a lot to bring credibility to the work we do.”

Peter Olson, director of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota added: “He put early childhood into a language that business could understand.”

Addressing a high-profile crowd of Mankato businesspeople, educators and political officials, Rolnick told the story of his unexpected beginnings as an early childhood advocate.

During a luncheon about eight years ago on READY! for Kindergarten (which is now a full-fledged program in Mankato), Rolnick asked afterward about the economic incentive of investing in such efforts. Having no good answer to give, the speaker commissioned Rolnick to do the study himself.

Over the next several months, Rolnick examined a handful of longitudinal studies on the long-term effects of early childhood programming.

Using the famous Perry Preschool Study as the focal point (in the Perry study, children were followed for decades to see what impact early childhood programs did or did not have on their social, emotional and financial well-being) Rolnick determined that students who received early childhood programming were more likely to be literate by sixth grade, graduate on time, attend college, stay off welfare, stay out of prison and have a healthy personal life.

“We found that early childhood is better than just about any investment,” Rolnick said.

After his paper was published, Rolnick said “the calls started coming in.”

Within six months of its publication, Rolnick was delivering a presentation of his study at the National Governor’s Conference in Orlando. Six months after that, he spoke to a crowd of 1,500 at United Way’s national conference in Dallas.

Then, it was off to Istanbul to talk about his findings with the prime minister of Turkey.

Since then, Rolnick has traveled the globe to discuss his findings. Even now, he said he receives at least one request a week to talk about the study.

Yet, he said, the study is only as important as the public policy it creates.

“If you don’t get parents to the program, you fail,” Rolnick said. “Engagement is critical.”

Several area organizations and programs can trace direct lineage to Rolnick’s study.

Rolnick and Mankato businesswoman Jean Taylor, president of Taylor Corporation, were among the founding members of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, which was created as a way to find cost-efficient means of investing in early childhood education.

One of the Foundation’s flagship programs, Parent Aware, involves preschool scholarships that parents can redeem at any facility that is deemed high-quality after undergoing a rigorous review. Blue Earth and Nicollet Counties were included in the Parent Aware pilot program and have several preschool facilities that have earned high-quality rankings.

Also, the Greater Mankato Early Learning Initiative is a coalition of area businesspeople and community members that support early childhood efforts locally. GMELI is responsible for coordinating the READY! for Kindergarten program, which was adopted in Mankato as a way to prepare children for school.

Taylor, who also spoke at the gathering and has long been a supporter of early childhood programs, said Rolnick’s study has been critical in convincing business leaders that the time to invest is now.

“It’s about talent,” she said. “The people of a business are what make it work. And it’s critical that we ensure we have the talent to compete.”