Suburban chiefs: Early intervention prevents crime

Four police chiefs and a politician enter a preschool with one mission — fighting crime.

Though it may sound like the beginning of a joke, the message delivered by four Northwest suburban police chiefs and a state Senator Tuesday at a state-funded preschool in Elk Grove Village was serious.

Everything a child needs to know to keep from falling into a life of crime is learned in preschool, said the area law enforcement officials who support early childhood education as a proven crime fighting strategy.

Intervention and investment at an early age can stop criminal behavior and help taxpayers avoid the costs of institutionalizing people later on in life, said Schaumburg Police Chief Brian Howerton.

“We either pay now or pay later,” he said.

Howerton was joined by Des Plaines Police Chief James Prandini, Elk Grove Village Police Chief Steve Schmidt, Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski and state Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge. The officials read to a class of preschoolers at the Ridge Family Center for Learning in Elk Grove Village.

Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 has more than 300 students enrolled in its state-funded preschool program, and there's a waiting list of parents trying to get their child screened for the at-risk program at Ridge.

“We would love more funding,” said Principal Barbara Zabroske. “We could provide more opportunities for more kids and families.”

Tim Carpenter, state director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois, said while state funding for preschool programs was cut by 10 percent in Fiscal Year 2010, “we are hoping to at least hold our own in this year's budget.”

Roughly 13,000 three- and four-year-olds were enrolled in an Illinois State Board of Education-funded preschool program in 2010. However, there are 29,570 preschool-age children in suburban Cook County alone from families that cannot afford to pay, Carpenter said.

Carpenter said a study of a Michigan preschool determined that at-risk children who did not participate in a quality early childhood education program were five times more likely to become chronic offenders by age 27 and 86 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison by the age of 40. The group is working on getting similar data for Illinois preschools.

Kaminski said when children get a good foundation, everyone is better off in the long run.

“Preschool is a smart investment and can save taxpayers the burdensome cost of crime and corrections,” the Park Ridge chief said. “It's a whole lot cheaper to give children a real chance at success through early learning than to pay for the cost of their failure.”