High-Quality Early Care and Education: Cutting Crime and Saving Mississippi Up to $60 Million a Year in Education Costs

SUMMARY
Law enforcement leaders have supported high-quality early care and education as one of the most cost-effective ways to cut crime and reduce state costs for correctional and other social services over the long term. The research is clear that at- risk children who attend high-quality early education are less likely to commit crimes as adults and more likely to complete high school and become competent adults who can support themselves and their families. Researchers have found that, in the long run, quality early education saves as much as $16 for every dollar invested.

A new analysis by Fight Crime: invest in Kids shows that quality early education investments, including pre-k, can also produce significant short-term savings for Mississippi’s education budget, by reducing special education costs by ten percent.

Mississippi spends more than $300 million a year on special education services, but has not yet invested in state-funded pre-k programs for Mississippi’s children. The new analysis shows that if and when a combination of funding from the federal government, the state government and individual families can fund high-quality pre-k for all Mississippi families that would want it, at a projected total cost of approximately $260 million, Mississippi could realize savings of as much as $30 million in special education costs alone. Because high- quality pre-k can reduce grade retention and improve the learning environment, the total K-12 education savings could reach $60 million a year.