High-Quality Early Learning: Cutting Crime and Saving Washington Up to $240 Million a Year in Education Costs

SUMMARY:

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

Washington spends nearly $1.2 billion a year on special education services, but invested only about $55 million in state-funded half-day pre-k programs in Fiscal Year 2010. The new analysis shows that if and when a combination of funding from federal and state governments, as well as individual families, can fund high-quality pre-k for all Washington families that would want it, at a projected total cost of $600 million, Washington could realize savings of as much as $120 million in special education costs alone. Additionally, because high-quality early learning can also reduce grade retention and improve the learning environment savings to K-12 education could reach $240 million a year.