EVERETT —Three of Snohomish County’s top law enforcement leaders returned to pre-school last week in hopes of taking a bite out of crime.
At a news conference at Starbright Early Learning Center in south Everett, Everett Police Chief Jim Scharf, Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick and Prosecuting Attorney Janice Ellis read the children a book and urged support for federal legislation aimed at expanding early learning programs.
They argue that a solid start in the classroom will increase the likelihood young people will stay in school and away from crime.
The trio referred to a research brief indicating that the nearly 32,000 prisoners in Washington’s jails and state prisons cost taxpayers $902 million every year.
Public safety demands that violent criminals be put behind bars, but research shows that high- quality early learning programs for at-risk young children can reduce crime, ultimately cutting corrections costs by a quarter or more, they said.
That would save state taxpayers $225 million if it cut prison costs by a quarter, they said.
Afterward, Lovick said early childhood education is an important issue.
“As I see it, we are arresting generation after generation of young people,” said Lovick, a former state lawmaker whose wife is an elementary school teacher. “We need to keep kids in school and out of trouble.”
Scharf, Lovick and Ellis are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington, an anti-crime organization that includes more than 200 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors in Washington state. That group is urging U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to push legislation for a proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would provide $1 billion a year for up to 10 years in grants for states to improve their early learning initiatives.
Murray is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is expected to consider the early learning bill soon.
“A life of crime doesn’t pay for the criminal, but like it or not, society does pick up the tab,” Scharf said. “We know from the research that kids who get early education are less likely to end up behind bars.”
The local law enforcement leaders said that more support is needed to ensure that quality early childhood programs are available and affordable to more families. Costs for enrolling young children in early learning programs can run as high as $7,300 a year, which many low- and moderate-income families cannot afford, they said.
“By focusing on ages zero to 5, we reduce the number of kids who do serious time as adults,” Ellis said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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