St. Louis Law Enforcement Leaders: Invest in Early Education or Foot Bigger Prison Bill Later
Sep 7th 2009
ST LOUIS, MO (Sept. 9, 2009)-- At a news conference today, St. Louis Police Chief Daniel Isom and St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch joined Fight Crime: Invest in Kids spokesman Tim Carpenter to release a research brief indicating that high-quality early learning programs for at-risk children ages birth to five can significantly reduce crime and ultimately cut corrections costs by a quarter or more.
To read a copy of the report, click here.
Currently in Missouri, there are nearly 47,000-incarcerated adults in jails and state prisons, with corrections costs exceeding $622 million every year. Research suggests that Missouri would save about $160 million in taxpayer dollars if it cut prison costs by a quarter by investing in early learning. A year of state lock-up cost taxpayers $16,000 in Missouri-just as expensive as a year's tuition, room and board at the University of Missouri.
With kids heading back to school, Fight Crime: Invest In Kids is urging Senators McCaskill and Bond, as well as the rest of the Congressional Delegation, to support new federal legislation to implement the proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which will provide $1 billion per year for states to expand and improve their early childhood development initiatives. Fight Crime: Invest In Kids also urge state legislators to invest in early education and care for Missouri's youngest at-risk children.
"Giving an at-risk kid access to early learning can open doors of opportunity for the rest of their lives," said Isom. "Without early learning, those opportunities are limited and often the only doors they end up walking through have bars on them."
A long-term study of the high-quality Perry Preschool in Michigan found that by age 40, the kids left out of the program were 85 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison. Another study detailed in the report showed that at-risk kids who did not attend Chicago's Child-Parent Centers were 24 percent more likely to be incarcerated than similar kids who did attend.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney McCulloch emphasized the cost-saving benefits of investing in high-quality early childhood education and care, especially for at-risk young children. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that the Perry Preschool program had an annual rate of return on investment of 16 percent. The majority of the cost savings in the Perry study came from reductions in crime and incarceration.
"One way or another, these kids are going to get an education," said McCulloch. "I'd rather it be at a quality early learning center than behind razor wire and thick concrete walls."
The new Early Learning Challenge Fund will support early education programs, such as Head Start, Early Head Start, pre-kindergarten or quality child care, which offer constructive environments for the healthy growth and development of young children in the first five years of life. The education committee in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July that includes support for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.
Fight Crime: Invest In Kids believes that more support is needed at the state and federal level to ensure that quality early childhood programs are available and affordable to more families. Costs for enrolling young children in early learning programs can run as high as $7,300 a year, which many families are unable to afford.
The need to increase access to high-quality early learning opportunities is great. For example, the federally-funded Head Start program for children in poverty serves only half of eligible children nationwide due to inadequate funding. And the youngest children, from birth to age 3, are even more dramatically underserved. In fact, Early Head Start serves only about three percent of eligible infants and toddlers nationally.
The research shows that quality is essential to getting the crime and incarceration reduction benefits of early learning. The Early Learning Challenge Fund legislation will enable states to adopt best practices, including higher qualifications for teachers and caregivers. In addition, it encourages smaller class sizes, and early screening and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral problems, as well as parent coaching, which teaches at-risk families ways to promote their children's development.
Isom and McCulloch are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime organization led by 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors nationwide, including 70 in Missouri.
###
