Montgomery County Prosecutor Says Early Childhood Programs Pay Off

DAYTON, Ohio (May 25, 2011) – Noting that Ohio taxpayers are spending $1.72 billion a year on corrections, Montgomery Prosecutor Matt Heck called on state and federal lawmakers to support high-quality early education as a critical strategy to reduce crime, lower prison costs and save taxpayers money.

Heck signaled his support for early learning during a news conference at Mini University, a Dayton early education center, where he read to children in the early learning program and discussed the value of such programs. The national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids sponsored the event as part of a law enforcement campaign to promote support for high-quality early childhood education. Cyndy Rees, Ohio State Director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, also spoke at the event.

Citing a new research brief called “Pay Now or Pay Much More Later,” the prosecutor said that investing in high-quality early care and education can help at-risk children in Ohio succeed, significantly reduce the likelihood that they will commit crimes and save taxpayer dollars from reduced prison costs.

“There’s a saying that if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. From all the criminal investigations I’ve handled over the years, I’ve learned that many young people who end up in trouble could have had much more productive lives with a quality education,” Heck said. “We need to make sure that more kids start school well-prepared through early learning so they are able become well-adjusted adults.”

While overall crime rates are decreasing in many jurisdictions, Ohio still spent $1.72 billion in 2010 on corrections with over 52,000 adults locked up in either state or federal prisons on the first day of 2010. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Ohio’s corrections quadrupled between 1982 and 2008.

A long-term study of Michigan’s Perry Preschool found that at-risk children who did not participate in the high-quality program were five times more likely to be chronic offenders by age 27 than children who did attend. Because of their increased involvement in crime, the children who did not attend were 86 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison by the age of 40.

Law enforcement leaders also agree that cutting funding for early childhood programs would be shortsighted and risky since quality early care and education programs actually save money in the long run. The Perry Preschool Program cut crime, welfare and other costs so much that it saved taxpayers an average of $180,000 for every child served, with the vast majority of the public savings coming from reduced crime costs alone.

Heck called on Ohio’s Congressional delegation to maintain funding for federal early care and education programs and strengthen them through legislative action, and to support a shift from the current “K-12″ system to a model that focuses on early education to high school graduation.

Ohio’s Early Childhood Education Program invested $22 million to serve 5,700 children in the 2009-10 school year. The federal Head Start program serves over 37,000 children in Ohio, at a cost of $255 million. In addition, the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant serves 51,700 children at a cost of $348 million.

Prosecutor Heck is a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, attorneys general and violence survivors, with 269 members in Ohio and over 5,000 members nationwide.