Felix A. DeLuca – 6/18/06

This page was last updated on June 26, 2006.

Fight crime; fund pre-schools; Sheriff Felix A. DeLuca and Bruce R. Clash; Beaver County Times; June 18, 2006.

An editor’s note alleges, “Bruce R. Clash is state director of Fight Crime: Invest In Kids Pennsylvania, a bipartisan, nonprofit, anti-crime organization led by more than 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys, victims of violence and affiliated law enforcement officials, more than 200 of whom are in Pennsylvania. Its mission is to help policymakers and the public understand and act on the knowledge that among our most powerful weapons against crime and violence are programs shown to keep kids from becoming criminals.”

In addition to this critique, shown below is a published letter I wrote to the Times.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In the fight against crime, there is no substitute for tough law enforcement; however, those on the front lines know that we will never completely arrest and imprison our way out of the crime problem.

“Any comprehensive solution to reducing crime and violence in the long term must include a broader commitment to preventing crime and criminals in the first place.

“The research is clear. Quality pre-kindergarten programs like Head Start for at-risk children are shown to be among our most effective tools in reducing future crime and violence and saving taxpayer dollars.”

[RWC] The research is anything but clear. Regarding Head Start specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services concluded, “In the long run, cognitive and socioemotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start.”

Researchers at Georgia State University (GSU) found Georgia’s universal preschool provided no measurable benefit. GSU concluded, “The study sample does not differ from the entire kindergarten population in GKAP (Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program) capability scores.”

“For instance, a long-term study of Chicago’s Parent Child Centers, a large-scale quality pre-kindergarten program similar to Head Start, found that kids left out of the program were 70 percent more likely to have been arrested for a violent crime by age 18 than those who participated. The study also found that taxpayers and crime victims saved almost $4 for every $1 invested.”

[RWC] The CPC program bears almost no resemblance to the typical preschool program. Without getting into all of the details, the CPC program is more like intervention for children and their parents. Children are in the program for six years vs. one year in the typical pre-k program and also receive extra tutoring. Perhaps most importantly, parents must agree to participate regularly in classroom activities, field trips, et cetera, and themselves receive assistance in graduating high school.

Let’s look at that 70% claim. According to the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), the violent crime arrest rate was 9% for program participants and 15.3% for those who did not. Rather than being the result of program participation, how much more likely is it the lower arrest rate is the result of having of parents who are willing to take an active part in their child’s education?

“The General Assembly and the governor’s office are negotiating a proposed funding increase in the 2006-07 state budget for quality pre-kindergarten programs, including Head Start.

“The Legislature must understand that increasing state funding for Head Start and for quality pre-kindergarten through the Accountability Block Grant Program would not only allow thousands more at-risk children to be served, but would also be a far-reaching investment in protecting all Pennsylvanians from future crime and violence.”

[RWC] I have no problem with preschool. If a parent believes preschool would benefit their child, the kid should attend. I believe, however, the parents should pay, not taxpayers.

My letter below was entitled “Preschool efficacy isn’t clear” by the Times and was published on June 26, 2006. My title was “Preschool efficacy clear?”

We recently read letters from Sheriff Felix DeLuca & Bruce Clash (June 18th) and Darcy Stiteler (June 20th) extolling the alleged virtues of “quality pre-kindergarten programs.”

About the efficacy of preschool, the DeLuca/Clash letter asserted, “The research is clear.”

Not exactly.

Two of the programs cited, Chicago Child-Parent Centers and Perry Preschool, are more accurately described as intensive child and parent intervention than as “quality pre-kindergarten.”

For example, CPC kids are in the program from preschool through third grade (ages three through nine), receive extra tutoring, and parents must regularly participate in classroom activities, field trips, school events, et cetera. CPC staff members regularly visit student homes and parents receive assistance to earn a high school diploma.

Even so, by the time these kids reached age 21, the high school graduation rate was still below 50%.

Regarding Perry, the IQs of the children were in the “borderline intellectual functioning” classification. As the CPC program, Perry Preschool required home visits and extensive parent participation.

CPC and Perry study participants didn’t come close to representing the general population, yet we didn’t hear about that in the letters.

About Head Start, the U.S. Department of Health and Human services concluded, “In the long run, cognitive and socioemotional test scores of former Head Start students do not remain superior to those of disadvantaged children who did not attend Head Start.”

Researchers at Georgia State University who studied Georgia’s universal preschool program concluded, “The study sample does not differ from the entire kindergarten population in GKAP (Georgia Kindergarten Assessment Program) capability scores.” In other words, children who attended preschool scored the same as children who did not.

When people want us to part with more taxpayer dollars for their pet projects, it would be nice if they told us the whole story.