Tennessee Fact Sheet

Quick two-page fact sheet

Preventing Crime with Pre-Kindergarten: A Critical Investment in Tennessee's Safety

Early Education News

Tennessee's law enforcement leaders work everyday to put dangerous, violent criminals behind bars. From years on the front line fighting crime, police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors know that we can beat back crime with a commitment to investing in pre-kindergarten, Head Start and educational childcare that keep kids from becoming criminals in the first place. The evidence is in. Quality pre-K readies kids to learn, reinforces respect and responsibility for others and reduces behavior problems that can spiral out of control. Research confirms that at-risk children left out of quality pre-kindergarten are five times more likely to grow up to become criminals by age 27 than children in pre-kindergarten. Quality pre-kindergarten also saves $17 for every $1 invested. Yet, due to underfunding, state and federal pre-kindergarten programs in Tennessee serve only 22 percent of the state's 4 year olds.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Tennessee recently released a report illustrating the effectiveness of pre-kindergarten in decreasing teen pregnancy. Studies have shown that high quality pre-kindergarten programs decrease teen pregnancy rates, with one study showing the potential for a staggering decrease of 68 percent. Children born to mothers who begin childbearing in their teenage years are more likely to commit crime than children born to older mothers. If all teen mothers in Tennessee were to postpone their first births until the age of 23, their sons' incarceration risk would fall by 17 percent. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Tennessee supports high quality pre-kindergarten programs to decrease teen pregnancy and cut crime.

Reports

All Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Tennessee reports on Pre-K, early education, child care and Head Start:

"You have to have a community that sees the value in putting money into our kids. We need leaders who can see that the outcome will be to have more productive citizens, which will cost us less in the end. However, most community leaders are unwilling to do this. They are unwilling to put the money up-front to help save these children."

-Richard Paul, Retired Chief, Gillette, Wyoming

Membership Info >

• Head Start narrows the literary skills gap by nearly half between children in poverty and all U.S. children.
• Eight out of 10 kindergarten teachers polled say that poorly prepared kids that didn't attend pre-kindergarten negatively impact well-prepared kids.