Officials Say Early Childhood Education is Crime-Fighting Tool (MS)

September 29, 2010

Mississippi could save about $60 million and reduce crime if there was more investment in early childhood education, according to research by a national nonprofit organization.

On Tuesday, state Attorney General Jim Hood, Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin and Hinds County attorney Sherri Flowers-Billups shared the report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, which showed investing in early childhood education would help reduce costs of special education placements and other K-12 education expenses.

In the South, Mississippi alone has no state-sponsored pre-K program, according to Pre-K Now, an advocacy organization.

“Special education is necessary, but expensive,” McMillin said. “By investing in high-quality early education and getting more kids ready to start school, we can reduce the number of children who require extra educational services — and save our school districts money in a tough economy.”

The following are some of the report findings:

• Mississippi could save up to $30 million in K-12 education costs by lowering the number of children requiring special education services resulting from behavioral problems and developmental delays.

• The state could save another $30 million in education costs by reducing the need for children to repeat grades and by helping kids learn more effectively.

• Violent crimes could be reduced and taxp ayers saved millions of dollars by reducing costs for corrections, welfare and other government-funded services.

There is a privately funded pilot program called Mississippi Building Blocks that aims to improve the quality of early education in the state. But only 25 percent of Mississippi 3-year-olds and 38 percent of 4-year-olds attend publicly funded early education programs such as pre-K and Head Start, according to a news release on the report.

The state could see monetary savings from reduced crime and corrections, according to the news release.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, attorneys general and violence survivors. There are 81 members in Mississippi — including Hood, McMillin and Flowers-Billups — and more than 5,000 members in the country.