Oregon Public Broadcasting

Money spent on childcare now, reduces crime down the road.  That’s the argument of a group calling for more funds for programs like Head Start.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

Head Start primarily serves children of low income parents.  It’s sort of a combination of child care and early learning.   Here at a Head Start center in Salem, kids work on an art project.

Children work on a puzzle at a Head Start center in Salem

Teacher Becky Roth has 19 three and four year-olds in her class.  When art time is over, Roth says they’ll gather round in a circle for some more lessons.

Becky Roth:  “We read stories and do different things like sink or float.  We take different objects to see if they’ll sink or float, and the kids guess.  Things like that.”

This Head Start center is new.  It recently opened in a former fabric store, thanks to expanded funding from the Oregon Legislature.

In fact, the Oregon Legislature coughed up $39 million to put 3000 more kids in Head Start.  But a group called Fight Crime:  Invest in Kids says more could be done.

Director Martha Brooks says the new money isn’t enough.

Martha Brooks:  “That only covers about 70 percent of the Head Start kids.  So there are about another four or five thousand out there who are eligible who need these services and we still need to fill that gap.”

And advocates say there’s a reason to fill that gap.  They say without programs like Head Start, kids are more likely to turn to crime later in life.

Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau explains the logic behind the argument.

Walt Beglau:  “Kids that don’t have the skills to interact with one another and in their community are going to do something different.  And that different path is a life of crime.  Because they’re unwanted, they don’t know how to adapt, and so they start acting out.”

That same case has been made in Washington State, where lawmakers have also directed more money to early-learning programs for low-income kids.

But most of the Head Start money comes from Washington D.C. Negotiations are underway in Congress to renew the program for another five years.