Southwest Ohio Law Enforcement Says Quality Early Childhood Programs Pay Off
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Cyndy Rees, crees@fightcrime.org
Cell: 614-264-6662
HAMILTON, Ohio (November 1, 2011) – While acknowledging the many challenges involved in reducing the nation’s deficit, law enforcement leaders urged U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to work towards preventing additional cuts to discretionary spending in order to protect proven crime prevention strategies, including highly effective programs that provide as much as $10 in returns for every dollar spent. Sen. Portman is a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the so-called “Super-Committee”).
Hamilton Chief of Police Neil Ferdelman and Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser singled out high-quality early care and education as being among the nation’s most cost-effective programs. Recent research shows that these programs can reduce crime, lower corrections costs and save taxpayers millions of dollars over the long term.
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They signaled their support for early learning during a visit to the Tiny Times Day Care program, where they read to children in the program and discussed the value of early childhood education. The group called on Sen. Portman to work to reduce the deficit without putting programs at risk that improve outcomes for kids and increasing public safety. The Super-Committee has a number of options as it looks to find an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction savings over 10 years, and the law enforcement leaders asked that they refrain from further cutting discretionary spending, already substantially reduced as part of the budget deal in August.
“Our national debt clearly poses a threat to our prosperity. We must defend smart fiscal choices, and early childhood education is an investment that saves taxpayers far more than it costs,” Prosecutor Gmoser said. “We respectfully ask that Senator Portman and the Super-Committee take that into consideration and ensure that these opportunities are available for the next generation.”
“It’s clear to law enforcement that early education programs play a positive role in steering kids away from crime and reducing our dependence on costly incarceration,” Chief Ferdelman said. “We need to preserve support for these programs. We urge members of the Super-Committee to avoid any additional cuts to discretionary spending and look to other spending and revenue approaches to address the deficit.”
The law enforcement leaders released a new report from the group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids called “Pay Now or Pay Much More Later” showing that at-risk children who attend high-quality early care and education programs are significantly less likely to commit crimes and end up in prison. They also noted that Ohio taxpayers spent more than $1.72 billion on corrections in the 2010 fiscal year, with over 52,000 adults locked up in either state or federal prisons as of the first of the year. According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Census Bureau, Ohio’s corrections spending quadrupled between 1982 and 2008.
New research findings published in the prestigious journal Science this June strengthen the argument that high-quality early education can reduce crime and save substantial taxpayer money. A follow-up at age 28 of over 1,400 low-income children in Chicago found that those who did not attend the Child-Parent Center preschools were 27 percent more likely to have a felony arrest by age 26 and were 39 percent more likely to have spent time in jail or prison than those who had participated.
Unfortunately, funding for early care and education programs is at-risk as the federal government and states face severe budget deficits. Any reduction in federal funding for early care and education programs could compound major cuts at the state level, causing even more children to lose access to these services. More than 650 law enforcement leaders and crime survivors from all 50 states signed a letter this year urging Congress to maintain their support for early care and education programs.
Chief Ferdelman and Prosecutor Gmoser are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors with over 300 members in Ohio and over 5,000 nationwide.
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