Chattanooga Area Law Enforcement Brass: Early Childhood Development Programs Pay Off
Hamilton County D.A., Signal Mountain Chief of Police release new report showing early education cuts crime, saves taxpayers dollars
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Mark Rogers, mrogers@fightcrime.org
Cell: 615-415-7504 Desk: 615-415-7504
Chattanooga, Tenn. (September 7th, 2011)Tennessee taxpayers are currently spending more than $644 million a year on corrections Hamilton County District Attorney General Bill Cox and Signal Mountain Chief of Police Boyd Veal noted as they called on state and federal lawmakers to support funding for high-quality early education as a critical strategy to reduce crime, lower prison costs and save taxpayers money.
General Cox and Chief Veal visited The Childrens Home / Chambliss Shelter to read to children in the early learning program and discuss the value of early childhood education. They expressed strong support for the federally funded Head Start program and Tennessees highly regarded Pre-Kindergarten program. The national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is sponsoring the event as part of a law enforcement campaign to promote support for high-quality early childhood education in a time of fiscal turmoil.
Citing a new research brief called Pay Now or Pay Much More Later, Chief Veal noted that by investing in high-quality early care and education, we can reduce crime-related costs. Ensuring that Tennessees at-risk children succeed in school, avoid juvenile crime and get good jobs will save taxpayer dollars.
Despite reductions in some areas of crime, Tennessee still spent $644 million in 2010 on corrections with over 27,000 adults locked up in either state or federal prisons on the first day of 2010. By contrast, Tennessee spends $85 million to provide high quality Pre-K to over 18,000 4 year-olds. According to General Cox, Tennessee spends almost eight times as much on criminals as we do on at-risk children and that is a bad choice of priorities.
Budgets are tight, and state and federal leaders are making painful cuts. But we cant afford to skimp on the education of our youngest children. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to pay now for quality early learning than to pay much more later for a prison sentence, General Cox continued.
We know that painful cuts are coming at the local, state and federal levels stated Chief Veal. But we cannot afford to let thousands of children start behind in their education and social development and struggle to catch up.
A long-term study of Michigans High/Scope Perry early childhood development program 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.
The two law enforcement leaders also observed 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 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.
Tennessee has one of the most highly regarded state-funded pre-kindergarten programs in the nation with classrooms in all 95 counties serving over 18,000 children. The federally funded Head Start program serves another 16,300 children from families under 100% of the poverty level at a cost of $123 million and the Child Care and Development Block Grant serves 45,700 children at a cost of $218 million.
Chief Veal and General Cox thanked Governor Bill Haslam and state legislators for adding another $2.5 million for existing Pre-K classrooms in the next budget. They also called on the Tennessee Congressional delegation, including Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, to maintain federal funding for early care and education programs.
Congress also has the opportunity to improve these programs through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and other education initiatives that will help states to improve and increase access to high-quality early education.
General Cox and Chief Veal are member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, attorneys general and violence survivors, including more than 160 members in Tennessee and over 5,000 members nationwide.
###
