Video: Quality childcare shown to reduce crime rate

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SEATTLE - We've often heard how crucial quality, early childcare is for children's academic and social success.

But studies also show quality preschool can dramatically reduce crime rates, and Seattle's chief of police is leading the crusade to promote this belief.

During Ebonee Heller's childhood in Seattle's Central District, poverty, crime and gangs were a way of life.

"I would see a lot of violence, crime, hear a lot of sirens - and it was dangerous," said Heller, of the Youth Violence Prevention Network.

She says thanks to her hard-working, single mom she escaped a life of crime and is now working on her second degree at a community college.

She also helped start the Youth Violence Prevention Network in West Seattle this year to help.

"We can have a family outside your own family," she said. "And we can motivate each other to be strong."

She has a powerful advocate in Seattle's top cop.

"We would truly have a safer city, safer society, if kids got the right start," said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.

Kerlikowske has seen first-hand how youth violence and the lack of early education and child care go hand-in-hand.

"I had an officer shot and killed - shot 13 times - when I was a young police chief in Florida," he said. "And as we investigated the case, we found that the young man who had killed the officer, who is now on death row, his mother had abused alcohol when she was pregnant with him. He suffered from that. He suffered from being in trouble in the neighborhood. And we thought, what a great officer safety concept, to have intervened early rather than too late."

Research shows half of the kids in our state who enter kindergarten are not socially or emotionally ready. Many of them never catch up. And studies show lower pre-school attendance leads to higher crime rates."

"Bottom line, it's about community safety, it's about the safety of our officers and deputies and it's about making those investments in kids so they're not gonna be a problem in society later on," Kerlikowske said.

Kerlikowske says doing two things would help tremendously.

First, make sure all parents get the skills they need through parent coaching and support programs. Second, make sure every low-income child has access to quality preschool - so when they hit kindergarten, they're not already falling behind.

Studies show every one dollar spent on quality pre-school and parent support programs saves more than $10 down the road. And yet studies also show only half of all eligible children in this country get Head Start preschool programs, due to lack of funding.

"You can pay now, or you can pay later," Kerlikowske said.

It's something Heller knows all too well.

"I saw friends and old people I use to know drop out as soon as elementary and middle school," Heller said.

She said many are now either in jail or dead.

In response to the demand for more quality preschool programs, the newly-formed Department of Early Learning just expanded its state-funded preschool program by 1,145 new enrollment slots.

Last year, the governor and state legislators approved the funding to expand the program by 27 percent to better serve low-income families.