TENNESSEE–Madison County Sheriff, Jackson Chief Say Early Childhood Development Programs Pay Off

Crime fighters 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: 615-662-4666

JACKSON, TENN. (August 30, 2011) Noting that Tennessee taxpayers are spending more than $644 million a year on corrections, Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork and Jackson Chief of Police Gill Kendrick called on state and federal lawmakers to support high-quality early education as a critical strategy to reduce crime, lower prison costs and save taxpayers money.

Sheriff Woolfork and Chief Kendrick signaled their support for early learning during a visit to Washington Douglass HeadStart to read to children in the early learning program and discuss the value of early childhood education. 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.

Citing a new research brief called “Pay Now or Pay Much More Later,” Sheriff Woolfork noted that investing in high-quality early care and education can reduce crime-related costs by helping Tennessee’s at-risk children succeed in school, avoid juvenile crime, get good jobs and 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 Chief Kendrick, “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 can’t 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,” Chief Kendrick continued.

“We know that painful cuts are coming at the local, state and federal levels” stated Sheriff Woolfork. “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 Michigan’s 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 program 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 percent 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 Kendrick and Sheriff Woolfork 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.

Sheriff Woolfork and Chief Kendrick 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.

 

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