Grant County Sheriff Jones: Early learning would help reduce crime

The legislative session is approaching the half-way mark, and there are many important issues being discussed and debated.

There is an issue of high importance to law enforcement that we want to bring to the attention of our communities. That's early learning. We are talking about voluntary programs for children under age five that help them be ready for success in school and in life.

People are often surprised to learn that we are strong advocates for early learning. They are even more surprised when they hear that we are joined in this effort by hundreds of sheriffs, police chiefs and prosecuting attorneys throughout Washington.

Early learning is a proven way to prevent future crime.

According to reports from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, long-term studies of high quality preschools in Chicago and Michigan followed two groups of children for decades. The children came from the same socio-economic backgrounds and half were assigned to attend a high-quality preschool while the others were left out.

At-risk kids left out of the Chicago preschool were 70 percent more likely to have been arrested for a violent crime by age 18 than those who attended the preschool. And by age 26, those who did not participate in the program were 27 percent more likely to have been arrested for a felony and 39 percent more likely to have spent time in jail or prison.

High-quality early learning programs provide enormous returns on investment: $22,000 for every child served, according the to Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Much of these savings are the result of lower criminal justice costs, including incarceration.

But to get these savings, the programs must be of high-quality.

There is an important early learning and crime prevention bill making its way through the legislature this session. House Bill 1491 aims to improve the quality of early learning programs for many of our most vulnerable children.

Representative Tom Dent serves on the Early Learning and Human Services Committee in which this bill was introduced and we spoke with him about our support of this bill.

We would like to thank Representative Dent for voting yes on HB 1491 and for his support of high quality early learning and law enforcement.