Macon County Law Enforcement Leaders Urge Expansion of Quality Pre-K to Cut Crime

Sep 15th 2009

Decatur, Il - Macon County Sheriff Thomas Schneider visited a preschool class in Decatur today to call for expanding the availability of quality preschool. He read a story to the preschoolers who attend Wee Folk, a center that offers childcare and preschool programming.

The Sheriff called on the General Assembly and Governor Quinn to restore the funding needed to assure the quality of Illinois' preschool program. He pointed to evidence that high quality preschool cuts future violent crime and saves money. He also expressed concern over the ten percent budget cut imposed on all Illinois preschool programs by the state's leaders in July. Failure to restore this cut in the coming fiscal year will impact the ability of providers to offer high quality programming.

"Giving kids access to quality early learning can open doors of opportunity for the rest of their lives," said Macon County Sheriff Thomas Schneider. "Without quality early learning programs, those opportunities are limited and too often the only doors they end up walking through have bars on them."

Over the past seven years, Illinois has made great strides in expanding preschool opportunities for families. With recent expansion of the Preschool for All Program, preschool providers in Macon County have added over 400 slots for 3-and 4-year olds, increasing the number of children enrolled in state-funded preschool to 878 since 2001.

Still, there are far too many families unable to access high quality programs because of cost. In Macon County there remain nearly 1,284 3- and 4-year-olds in families who cannot afford to pay for quality preschool on their own.

Law enforcement's experience and rigorous research supports the value of preschool. A study of the Perry Preschool in Michigan tracked at-risk children who attended the program and similar children who did not attend. At age 27, those who did not attend as children were five times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies and twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes. Another study of the publicly funded Child-Parent Centers in Chicago, which have provided early care and education to more than 100,000 children since 1967, found that kids left out of the program were 70 percent more likely to have been arrested by age 18 than those who participated.
"The research is compelling. Quality preschool can set children up for success throughout their lives. Children who have the benefit of quality preschool are more likely to graduate from high school and avoid crime than children who do not attend preschool," said FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS ILLINOIS Deputy Director Ben Peck.

FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS ILLINOIS is the state office of a national, non-profit bipartisan, anti-crime organization of more than 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, leaders of law enforcement organizations, and victims of violence. It has over 300 members in Illinois.

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