CALIFORNIA — Santa Barbara Sheriff and State Senator Visit Quality Preschool, Discuss Crime-Prevention Benefits
Oct 27th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Oct. 27, 2009
Contact: Jennifer Ortega, (916) 837-3904, jortega@calfightcrime.org
Beth Helmsin, (916) 505-9149, bhelmsin@calfightcrime.org
SANTA BARBARA — Senator Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) and Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown today visited students at Kinko’s Early Learning Center, a state-funded preschool, to see first-hand how early education is preparing children for the future.
“We know that kids who receive a high-quality preschool education are more likely to stay in school and away from crime,” said Sheriff Brown, an active member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California – a bipartisan, anti-crime organization led by nearly 400 sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, other police leaders and victims of violence. “From a public safety perspective, giving kids early learning opportunities ultimately saves money and lives.”
Senator Strickland joined Sheriff Brown in reading to the children and touring their classroom. They also met with several preschool experts to discuss the benefits of high-quality preschool programs and the need for continued investments in early education.
Decades of research has shown than an effective preschool experience is one of the best crime-prevention tools around. It is also an effective dropout-prevention tool. Studies show that children who attend a high-quality preschool are 44 percent more likely to graduate from high school.
Preschool helps cultivate a well-educated, skilled workforce by giving young children a solid foundation of social and intellectual growth. In cost-benefit analyses, economists have found high-quality preschool provides an excellent return on investment.
However, access to quality preschool programs remains limited and many of the kids who need it most are not enrolled. According to the RAND Corporation’s California Preschool Study, only about half of low-income children are in preschool, compared to 80 percent of children whose families earn more than $100,000 a year.
Thanks to recent action in Washington, D.C., early childhood education has become a priority for lawmakers across the country. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or stimulus bill, provides more than $5 billion in early care and education funding. Additionally, if legislation introduced by California Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez) passes the Senate and is signed by the President, early childhood education around the nation would be eligible for $8 billion in competitive grants over the next eight years.
Last year, the state made significant progress in the area of early education. AB 2759 (Jones) streamlined several preschool funding sources to assist in quality improvements, reduce administrative burdens and make preschool more accessible.
SB 1629 (Steinberg), also enacted in 2008, established the Early Learning Quality Improvement System advisory committee, which began meeting in March. The committee will lay the framework for quality standards for preschool and child care programs. Development of the quality improvement system will consider research, policies, program information, and best practices at the national, state, and local levels.
On behalf of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Sheriff Brown, along with law enforcement leaders around the state, have called for continued investments in access to quality preschool as a means of protecting public safety.
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Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California is a bipartisan, non-profit, anti-crime organization led by nearly 400 sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, and victims of violence. Its mission is to take a critical look at the research about what really works to keep kids from becoming criminals. Among the strategies proven to be effective are preschool, after-school programs, child abuse and neglect prevention programs, dropout-prevention programs and intensive interventions for juvenile offenders. www.fightcrime.org/ca
