Marion & Polk County Law Enforcement Leaders:
Invest in Early Education or Foot Bigger Prison Bill Later

D.A., police chief, sheriff support early learning to cut crime, prison expenses.

The Child Development Center at Perry Preschool in Michigan, photographed July 6th. Photos courtesy of Ypsilanti Schools

(SALEM, Ore.) - At a news conference today, Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau, Salem Chief of Police Jerry Moore and Polk County Sheriff Bob Wolfe released a research brief indicating that high-quality early learning programs for at risk young children ages birth to five can significantly reduce crime and ultimately cut corrections costs by a quarter or more. Currently in Oregon, there are nearly 22,000 incarcerated adults in jails and state prisons, with corrections costs exceeding $731 million every year. Beglau, Moore and Wolfe said that Oregon would save $182 million in taxpayer dollars if it cut prison costs by a quarter by investing in early learning. With kids heading back to school, State law enforcement leaders are urging U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley to champion new federal legislation to implement the proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which will provide $1 billion per year for ten years in grants for states to expand and improve their early childhood development initiatives. Sen. Merkley is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is expected to consider the early learning bill soon.

“Public policy is about setting priorities today that affect all of us tomorrow. If we continue to shortchange our youngest kids, we’ll pay for it dearly, not only in increased taxes and prison costs, but also crime, violence and shattered lives,” D.A. Beglau said.

In a long-term study of the high-quality Perry Preschool in Michigan, researchers studied the progress of a group of kids who attended the program and another group who did not. They found that by age 40, the kids left out of the program were 85 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison. In another similar study, at-risk kids who did not attend Chicago’s Child-Parent Centers were 24 percent more likely to be incarcerated than similar kids who did attend.

Moore emphasized the cost-saving benefits of investing in high-quality early childhood education and care, especially for at-risk young children. Researchers at the Federal Reserve found that the Perry Preschool program had a rate of return on investment of 16 percent, with the majority of the cost savings coming from reductions in crime and incarceration.

“It’s easier to nurture a child than fix a broken man. Investing in early education gets kids ready for school and on track for success, so they won’t end up in prison,” Chief Moore said.

The new Early Learning Challenge Fund will support early childhood education and care programs, such as Head Start, Early Head Start, pre-kindergarten or quality child care, which offer constructive environments for the healthy growth and development of young children in the first five years of life. The education committee in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July that includes support for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.

The Marion and Polk county law enforcement leaders said that more support is needed at the state and federal level to ensure that quality early childhood programs are available and affordable to more families. Costs for enrolling young children in early learning programs can run as high as $7,300 a year, which many families are unable to afford.

The need for high-quality early learning opportunities is great. For example the Head Start program for three- and four-year old children in poverty still has over 5,500 kids, approximately 32 percent, who are eligible yet denied access due to inadequate funding. And the youngest children, from birth to age 3, are even more dramatically underserved. In fact, Early Head Start serves about three percent of eligible infants and toddlers nationally. Oregon serves only 1,018 Early Head Start kids, leaving over 28,000 eligible kids, almost 97 percent, out of the program.

The research shows that quality is essential to getting the crime and incarceration reduction benefits of early learning. The Early Learning Challenge Fund legislation will enable states to adopt best practices, including higher qualifications for teachers and caregivers, smaller class sizes, and early screening and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral problems. The new fund will also allow more states to incorporate parent coaching, which helps at-risk families learn about early child development.

“Compared to prison, the cost of preschool is a bargain. The bottom line is that investing in early learning cuts crime and saves money,” Sheriff Wolfe said.

Beglau, Moore and Wolfe are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon, an anti-crime organization led by more than 170 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors in Oregon and over 5,000 nationwide. Visit fightcrime.org/or to learn more about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids and download the brief, “Invest in Early Learning Now, Spend Less on Prison Later.”