Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson visited a preschool class in Springfield today to call for expanding the availability of quality preschool. He read a story to the preschoolers who attend the Early Learning Center, a preschool that is part of the Springfield School District.
Sheriff Williamson called on the General Assembly and Governor Quinn to restore the funding needed to assure the quality of Illinois’ preschool program. He pointed to evidence that high quality preschool cuts future violent crime and saves money.
He also expressed concern over the ten percent budget cut imposed on all Illinois preschool programs by the state’s leaders in July. Failure to restore this cut in the coming fiscal year will impact the ability of providers to offer high quality programming.
“In law enforcement we see the results of our failure to invest in kids early in life,” said Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson. “Once a young person comes to our attention it is often too late. I would like to see us invest in kids early in life by providing them with high quality preschool, which we know prevents crime later in life.”
Over the past seven years, Illinois has made great strides in expanding preschool opportunities for families. With recent expansion of the Preschool for All Program, preschool providers in Sangamon County have added over 400 slots for 3-and 4-year olds, increasing the number of children enrolled in state-funded preschool to 1,637 since 2001.
Still, there are far too many families unable to access high quality programs because of cost. In Sangamon County there remain nearly 1,464 3- and 4-year-olds in families who cannot afford to pay for quality preschool on their own.
Law enforcement’s experience and rigorous research supports the value of preschool. A study of the Perry Preschool in Michigan tracked at-risk children who attended the program and similar children who did not attend. At age 27, those who did not attend as children were five times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies and twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes.
Another study of the publicly funded Child-Parent Centers in Chicago, which have provided early care and education to more than 100,000 children since 1967, found that kids left out of the program were 70 percent more likely to have been arrested by age 18 than those who participated.
ABOUT FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS ILLINOIS
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois is the state office of a national, non-profit bipartisan, anti-crime organization of more than 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, leaders of law enforcement organizations, and victims of violence.
It has over 300 members in Illinois.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Matt Lambert, 202-776-0027, Ext. 127
mlambert@fightcrime.org