Pittsburgh Law Enforcement Leaders Hail State’s Pre-Kindergarten Initiative as a Crime-Prevention Tool
Jun 7th 2007
Pittsburgh, June 7th-Pittsburgh law enforcement leaders released a report and a poll today that shows high quality Pre-Kindergarten not only prepares children to succeed in school, but also prevents crime.
The report Preventing Crime in Pittsburgh: Investing in Quality Pre-Kindergarten, shows that thousands of Pittsburgh children are at greater risk of becoming criminals due to inadequate funding for pre-k.
Pittsburgh Deputy Police Chief Paul Donaldson, Allegheny County Sheriff William P. Mullen, and Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Laura Ditka released the report and poll, and urged the state Legislature to support the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts initiative as budget negotiations continue for the 2007-2008 state budget.
The initiative, part of Governor Edward Rendell's proposed budget, is a $75 million investment to increase access to quality pre-kindergarten services for 11,000 3- and 4-year-olds in at-risk communities across the Commonwealth. If approved, Pittsburgh's school district, along with community partners, could receive up to $2.4 million in new state funds to provide quality pre-k for 300 additional at-risk children. The money would be allocated on a competitive grant basis to school districts, Head Start, child care centers and nursery schools that meet quality standards.
"Making sure at-risk children have access to quality pre-kindergarten programs is one of the most important steps we can take to cut future crime by keeping kids from becoming criminals," Donaldson said.
He cited a study of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program in Michigan which found that at-risk kids excluded from the program were five times more likely to grow up to become chronic lawbreakers than those who attended the program.
By age 40, those left out of the Perry Preschool Program were twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes, four times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies, and seven times more likely to have been arrested for possession of drugs than those who attended the program.
Citing Pittsburgh's increase in crime in recent years, Ditka said a significant drop in crime will not occur unless measures are taken before--not only after--crimes occur.
"We understand our lawmakers have a lot of funding priorities in the state budget, but there are few investments that are more thoroughly researched and proven to yield such a wide array of future benefits including crime prevention and taxpayer savings as quality pre-kindergarten," Ditka said. She continued, "We hope that the General Assembly will fund this Pre-K Counts initiative as part of a comprehensive anti-crime plan for the City of Pittsburgh and for the Commonwealth as a whole."
In Pittsburgh, roughly 2,200 mostly low-income 3- and 4-year-olds are currently receiving quality early childhood services. But at least 4,200 low-income 3- and 4-year-olds are living in Pittsburgh, leaving a minimum of 2,000 low-income preschool age children with no access to quality pre-k.
Sheriff Mullen said, "To help reduce crime in Allegheny County and across Pennsylvania, we need to be as willing to guarantee every child access to quality pre-kindergarten programs as we are to guarantee a criminal room and board in a jail cell."
At the news conference held at Small World Early Learning and Development Center II in downtown Pittsburgh, Donaldson, Mullen, Ditka and Bruce Clash, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, also released results of a poll showing that majority (58 percent) of voting-age Allegheny County residents support the proposed Pre-Kindergarten Counts initiative in next year's budget. The independent poll was conducted April 29-May 3, 2007, by Harrisburg-based Susquehanna Polling and Research.
"A majority of Allegheny County respondents said they supported spending $75 million in additional funding for the Pre-K Counts budget proposal," Clash said. "Pennsylvania law enforcement leaders say this additional money will not only educate children, it will help give them the right start in life and turn them away from a life of crime."
Donaldson, Mullen and Ditka are among the 230 members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania. The organization is part of the national organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, which has more than 3,000 law enforcement leaders as members, comprising police chiefs, district attorneys, sheriffs and violent crime survivors.
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