Head Start bill a winner

Since becoming sheriff in 2006, I have had the opportunity to visit preschool programs to talk with Spokane County’s future teachers, farmers, doctors and maybe even the future sheriff. At the Hillyard Center Head Start, I saw firsthand the wonderful benefits that this high-quality program provides for young children and their families. I also know the benefits that this program will provide to society in lowering crime and making communities safer.

This is why I support a bill to create Washington Head Start. The bill number is Substitute House Bill 3168. This bill, which is making its way through the Legislature, would raise the standards of the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) to those of the federal Head Start program.

Why does your sheriff care about quality preschool programs? For one thing, as a Head Start graduate myself (Class of ‘68) I know that my positive experiences helped assure that I was ready for kindergarten, which put me on a path to success in school and life.

But the most important reason I care about quality preschool programs is that my experience in law enforcement has shown – and research proves – that high-quality early learning programs cut crime. They do this by helping kids start kindergarten better prepared, so they do better in classes, stay in school and graduate.

A landmark study of the High/Scope Perry preschool in Michigan followed a group of at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds for more than 30 years. The crime findings were striking.

At age 27, the at-risk children who were excluded from the preschool program were five times more likely to grow up to become chronic lawbreakers than those who attended.

By age 40, those left out of the program were twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes, four times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies and seven times more likely to have been arrested for possession of drugs.

Another study compared at-risk children attending the Child-Parent Center in Chicago with peers who did not attend. The children who did not attend the quality preschool were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for violent crime by the age of 18 than those who attended the preschool.

Crime is costly, so preventing crime saves money. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy estimates that quality preschool for low-income 3- and 4-year-olds yields a net savings of more than $12,000 per child in crime-related costs. In Spokane County, one year of Head Start costs $9,000, which is approximately one-third of the cost of one year in the county jail.

I am joining with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington, an organization of more than 170 law enforcement leaders across the state, to urge the Legislature to pass this critical crime prevention bill. We cannot afford not to.