skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study: Preschool Kids Less Likely to Grow Up as Criminals

play audio
Play

Friday, June 10, 2011   

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York advocates of early childhood education are hailing a new study showing reduction in felony arrests and jailings among adults who attended a preschool program, when compared with adults who did not.

The study, published in the journal Science, is one of the largest and longest of its kind, tracking youths from age 3 to 28 - about 1,000 who attended a Chicago preschool program and about 500 who did not. Those left out were 27 percent more likely to have been arrested for a felony by age 28 and were 39 percent more likely to have spent time in jail, according to study author Arthur Reynolds.

"So you add up all the evidence from our study and other studies, and you've got really the strongest research science for the benefits of early education."

Experts such as New York's Meredith Wiley, New York state director of the group Fight Crime, Invest in Kids, welcome the new findings but point out that the results are a product of a top-quality pre-kindergarten program - and not all such programs are. Her group is pushing for the implementation of a ratings program statewide.

Wiley believes high-quality early care and education programs can improve public safety and save taxpayers millions of dollars in corrections costs.

"This report is clear evidence of the wisdom of us adopting the QUALITYstarsNY quality-rating system that we've all been working to get implemented, so that we are sure that programs across the state are of high quality."

The study found that those who attended Chicago's Child-Parent Center program were 21 percent more likely to graduate from high school on time, and 31 percent were more likely to have attended a four-year college. Reynolds, co-director of the Human Capital Research Collaborative and a professor of child development, says the length of the study is unprecedented.

"We've never done a study like this before, so this is the first look at age 28."

Wiley welcomes the new research.

"The evidence just keeps mounting that these programs really make a huge, lifelong difference to these kids."

States are spending 10 times as much on corrections costs as on pre-K programs, according to early-education advocates who are urging Congress not to cut these programs and to make sure they are included as a key part of new federal education reform.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021