Publicly funded preschool must be made accessible to all children to strengthen the future of the American workforce, panelists at the Askwith Education Forum at the Graduate School of Education (GSE) said last evening.

“We are really failing to develop our most competitive resources—our people,” said Roy J. Bostock, chair of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), an independent think tank, told an audience of 40.

“Clearly, the U.S. lags behind other countries,” he said. “Our public investment in early childhood education is inadequate.”

From a business perspective, weak early childhood education eventually means fewer people having the necessary skills to succeed in the workforce, said Bostock, a marketing and advertising professional who also works as an educational reformer.

Bostock and fellow panelists discussed a recent CED report, “Preschool for All: Investing in a Productive and Just Society,” which calls for preschool to be available for all children whose parents want them to enroll.

“We thought it was time to address, indeed, to throw down the gauntlet for the need, the imperative for quality early childhood education,” said Bostock, seeing a link between starting school at age 3 and finishing with a diploma.

Early childhood education can lower teen pregnancy and delinquency rates, as well as improve employment prospects, Bostock said.

“We are concerned about the haphazard and piecemeal set of preschool arrangements in this country right now,” he said. “Early education should not be a privilege, but a right.”

The key to change is collaboration between the federal and state governments in funding and monitoring early childhood education programs, Bostock said. States must be given flexibility in designing these programs, which should be available to children age 3 and older, he emphasized.

“These are easy words to say and huge projects to undertake, but we’ve got to get on with them,” even if it means pushing for tax increases to fund the projects, Bostock said.

Child care can be too costly for many families, said panelist Kathleen McCartney, a GSE professor.

Such care costs an average of $1,700 a month in Cambridge, she said, making it an unrealistic option for many parents.

Businesses need to be involved in the push for universal preschool to bring clout to the movement and to advocate for “all the powerless children who can’t vote and can’t write campaign checks,” said panelist Margaret Blood, director of the Massachusetts Early Education for All campaign.

“Powerless children need powerful friends,” she said, emphasizing that educational investments can produce measurable long-term benefits.

“It’s a long-term vision,” Blood said. “It’s not going to happen overnight in Massachusetts.”