Senator Dinniman Backs Law Enforcement Call for Increased Funding for Early Childhood Education

May 1st 2009

EXTON, PENN. -- State Senator Andy Dinniman joined Chester County Sheriff Carolyn Welsh in a pre-kindergarten classroom at Warwick Child Care Center today and pledged to work to increase state funding for quality early childhood education programs proven to cut future crime and violence.

"Pennsylvania is rich in natural resources, but our greatest resources are the young children who will lead us into tomorrow," Senator Dinniman said. "Investing in early childhood education is investing in our future. Quality early learning can ensure that kids stay on the right path in school, in the workforce, and in life."

Sheriff Welsh is a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, an anti-crime organization of more than 200 Pennsylvania police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys, other law enforcement leaders and victims of violence.

These law enforcement leaders are calling on the state government to increase funding for quality early childhood education. Specifically, they are asking the Pennsylvania General Assembly to increase funding for the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts program by the proposed $8.6 million needed to provide critical early education services to an additional 1,000 at-risk kids statewide. They are also asking the legislature to support other quality early childhood initiatives that ensure kids get the right start in life.

The Warwick Child Care Center is serving at risk 3- and 4-year-olds with a grant from the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts Program.

"Pennsylvania cannot afford NOT to increase wise investments like high- quality pre-kindergarten that will increase high school graduation rates, cut future crime and inmate populations, and ultimately alleviate demands on the already strained state budget," said Welsh. "Too much is at stake not the least of which is public safety."

Sheriff Welsh acknowledged that we will never arrest and imprison our way out of the crime problem. Experience and statistics show that there is a connection between a lack of education and increased crime. Nearly 70 percent of the nation's state prison population failed to receive a high school diploma and research shows that high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than graduates to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated.

Evidence from two long-term evaluations of the effects of pre-kindergarten programs show that participating in high-quality pre-kindergarten increases high school graduation rates by as much as 44 percent.

That study of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program, which served 3- and 4-year-olds from low income families, also found that kids not enrolled in the program were five times more likely to have become chronic lawbreakers by age 27 than similar kids who did participate.

Besides the threat to public safety, Pennsylvania's dropouts earn less, pay fewer taxes, and are more likely to collect welfare and other state assistance.

With this knowledge, Welsh said she is concerned about local data showing that because of a lack of funding, only 14 percent of Chester County's at risk children receive quality publicly funded pre-kindergarten services. She cautioned that this unmet need creates a crime prevention gap that puts all county residents at needless risk of becoming a victim of crime later on.

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