Putting more children in pre-kindergarten classrooms now will prevent having to build more prisons in the future, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The group of police chiefs and prosecutors got behind a $23 million increase in funding over two years for early childhood education programs proposed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
"We don't want America's most vulnerable kids becoming America's most wanted adults," said Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson.
Branson appeared with Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht, Lenexa Police Chief Ellen Hanson and Topeka Police Chief Ron Miller.
The group appeared as part of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national non-profit organization that advocates for increased early childhood programs.
Jeff Kirsch, vice president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, said studies show that low-income children who receive high-quality early childhood education do better in school, are less likely to commit crimes and have a higher standard of living as adults.
"Investments in the earlier years of a child's life is one of the best investments that we could make," said Kirsch as he released a report detailing Kansas early childhood spending and statistics.
Longtime prosecutor Hecht says he sees the results of early childhood neglect everyday in the criminal justice system, noting that he is prosecuting the grandchildren of people he prosecuted in the 1960s.
In Kansas, because of a lack of funding, only 15 percent of the state's eligible children are enrolled in the at-risk 4-year-old preschool program, the report said. And less than 7 percent of Kansas children from birth through 3 are served by Early Head Start.
The group said it supported a proposal by Sebelius for an additional $23 million for early childhood education. But a tight budget has placed that recommendation in jeopardy.
One organization, Americans for Prosperity, Kansas chapter, issued a report that opposed an appropriation to a state pre-kindergarten program.
The group said the pre-kindergarten program was a hidden subsidy for public education and had questionable results. Americans for Prosperity recommended that the money should be given as an income tax credit for stay-at-home moms to acknowledge "a parent is a child's most important educator."
Kirsch said numerous studies showed that the advantages of preschool education were irrefutable
And law officials criticized that Americans for Prosperity position as unrealistic.
"Whoever advocates that position would have loved to live in the 1950s when a majority of mothers did stay at home," Hecht said. Two thirds of Kansas children 6 or younger have both parents or their only parent in the workforce.
Hanson, the Lenexa police chief, said of American for Prosperity's recommendation: "That particular point is kind of like the Dick and Jane reader. Life is good and mom was always at home baking cookies."
But Hanson said that in Lenexa she sees many preschoolers in the care of their 6- and 7-year-old siblings because "mom has to put on her uniform and wait tables at the restaurant. She has no money, she has no child care."
Comments
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RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Ronaldo Ignacio) says…
Start the brainwashing earlier, crush any independent spirit...
WHY (anonymous) says…
I would trade a dozen Lawrence cops jobs for better education for kids. Why do I feel like I will not get fewer cops or smarter kids?
toefungus (anonymous) says…
What a funny statement. Yep, that guy never went to preschool and now he is in prison. We could have saved him if we could have just kept him out of his home.
Godot (anonymous) says…
The educational system in the US is a complete and utter failure. Look at the number of people in prison, the number of people who were unable to comprehend what they were committing to when they signed on to a mortgage they could not ever expect to repay, the number of people who graduate from college and cannot get a job because they cannot write or read......
Forcing parents to subject their children to this failed system at an even earlier age, and at taxpayer expense, is an abomination!
pisafromthewest (anonymous) says…
Okay, I'm all for early childhood education - but I'd like to see some more research to back up the claims of such huge future savings and benefits. And I don't know where all these "numerous studies" Kirsch refers to are ... a visit to their website brings much-repeated mention of a single controlled study involving 123 kids done almost twenty years ago. There are other studies that don't appear to be controlled, just a comparison of kids that have had pre-K to other 'similar' kids that haven't. As can be seen from the studies someone posted above (which appear to suggest that whether or not the per-K program is beneficial, being out of the home at that age may be detrimental), it's not as cut and dried as Mr. Kirsch would have you believe, that for each kid we spend 12 or 15 grand on, we'll save 90K down the road in lower expenditures for special ed, lower costs in crime, etc.
As I've said, I'm all for early childhood education. But do we need to invest in something so expensive (the program that Mr. Kirsch bases his numbers on cost on average over $12,000 per kid, and that was in 1992 dollars!), and have three-year olds going to school for 2-1/2 hours per day, plus home visits? Especially when we're only funding half-day kindergarten?