Powell Chief of Police Vest and Ohio State Rep. Peterson show support for quality pre-kindergarten programs that reduce crime.
Oct 5th 2006
Powell Chief of Police Gary L. Vest and State Representative Jon Peterson (R-Delaware) visited the Liberty Child Care pre-kindergarten class, read to the kids and said that pre-kindergarten prepares kids to succeed in school and is one of the most effective ways of cutting later crime. It was the second event in a statewide tour of Ohio Early Care and Education awareness campaign by law enforcement leaders.
Chief Vest is a member of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS OHIO, a bipartisan anti-crime organization of more than 240 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors. It is part of a national organization of more than 3,000 law enforcement members. Chief Vest represented Fight Crime: Invest in Kids recently at Governor Taft's request on the School Readiness Solutions group which made their early education policy recommendations to the State Board of Education. Representative Peterson serves on the House Education Committee and is a leader in early development health issues as well as education funding. Cyndy Rees, state director of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS OHIO, joined Vest and Peterson in the visit.
"By providing all of Ohio's children with access to quality pre-kindergarten programs we are preparing them to succeed in school and life, while greatly reducing the chances they become involved later in crime." said Vest.
Over 39,000 violent crimes are committed and more than 48,000 kids are arrested each year in Ohio. Research analyzed by FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS OHIO shows that at-risk kids who attend early childhood education or other quality pre-kindergarten programs are dramatically less likely to commit future crime. Landmark studies of two programs in Ohio's neighboring states provide the crime prevention evidence.
Michigan's High/Scope Perry Preschool program randomly assigned at-risk kids to attend a high-quality preschool program. By the age of 40, the grown-up children who did not attend the preschool were four times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies and nearly twice as likely to have been arrested for multiple violent crimes. Chicago's publicly-funded Child-Parent Centers found that at-risk kids left out of the program were 70 percent more likely to have been arrested for a violent crime before their 18th birthday compared to similar kids who participated in the program. This program will have prevented 33,000 crimes by the time all the participants reach adulthood.
Research has also found children who attend high-quality pre-kindergarten are less likely to be held back in school or need special education and more likely to graduate from high school and get better jobs. Compared to children who did not attend the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program, 50 percent more children who attended the program graduated from high school and earned 50 percent more in their later jobs.
Yet, the benefits of pre-kindergarten do not reach all Ohio children. Nationally, one-third of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds are unable to access pre-kindergarten due to a lack of funding. Early Childhood Education and Head Start programs serve only 112,000 of Ohio's 450,000 3-to-5 year olds. Early Childhood Education and the Early Learning Initiative combined only serve 3 percent of Ohio's 3-to-5 year olds.
"Education is key to moving Ohio forward. By age four, 85 percent of a child's brain is developed," said Peterson. "This explains why the vocabulary of a child who has had early education is almost three-times larger than a child who has not."
The School Readiness and Solutions Group have officially launched the Groundwork campaign, which made the following recommendations to the State School Board and the Ohio Department of Education.
The Groundwork campaign is a legion of teachers, university faculty, health care professional's, child care providers and parents from around the state that have joined together to help give all children and better start in education and in life.
The Groundwork platform advocates for Ohio's children and their families. The platform calls on the state's next governor and legislature to:
• Expand behavioral health care access, treatment and support;
• Increase access to and utilization of physical health care for all children;
• Provide availability to all-day kindergarten state-wide; and
• Grow the number of quality providers and appropriate spaces for quality learning programs for infants, toddlers and pre-kindergartners.
"Supporting parents by giving them the option of a quality pre-kindergarten program for their child will allow all of Ohio's kids to have a fair chance at success," said Rees. "Ohio's law enforcement leaders urge our state law makers to increase funding for Ohio Pre-kindergarten to reach all eligible kids in the Buckeye state."
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