AIM is for Drop-Out Interventions (AND so MUCH MORE!)

LOCAL COMMENT

Preschool prevents dropouts

BY BRIAN MACKIE • July 16, 2008

When high school students do not graduate on schedule, or drop out, they lose, and we all lose. When children get a "Great Start," we all win.

As they reconvene today in Lansing to complete work on budget bills, state legislators can make sure we are all winners by including funds for proven dropout-prevention programs in the school aid bill.

Law enforcement leaders want kids to stay in school, because we know firsthand and through research that high school graduates are less likely to turn to crime. Dropouts are 3 1/2 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested, and more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison.

Across the country, 68% of state prison inmates did not receive a high school diploma. According to researchers, a 10% increase in graduation rates reduces murder and assault rates by about 20%.

High-quality preschool is a proven dropout-prevention program. Evidence from several long-term evaluations of the effects of preschool shows that participating in high-quality preschool increases high school graduation rates by as much as 44%. Yet in Michigan, only two of every three eligible at-risk 4-year-old children have access to publicly funded preschool programs such as Great Start School Readiness and Head Start. The remaining third go unserved and are on long waiting lists due to inadequate funding.

Another proven dropout-prevention program proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in the education budget calls for smaller high schools. Such schools, with programs that work with students and their parents, have been proved in other states to be viable interventions to reduce dropout rates and keep students on track for graduation.

Michigan's dropout crisis not only threatens the public's safety but also damages the state economy. Dropouts earn less, pay fewer taxes, and are more likely to collect welfare and turn to crime. The economic losses over time will further erode our fragile economy.

Increased investments in effective programs such as preschool and smaller high schools are needed now in Michigan to increase graduation rates and to save valuable tax dollars in the long run to reinvest in other priorities. We cannot continue to build more prisons to solve the problem of crime. Getting at the front end of crime by nipping it in the bud with proven interventions that give children a "Great Start" are in everyone's best interest.

We know that preventing dropouts saves money and lives. We pay now or we pay much more later on. Let us take the responsible route today and pay the tab, rather than pass it on to future generations.

BRIAN MACKIE is the Washtenaw County prosecutor and statewide cochairman of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Michigan, www.fightcrime.org, a nonprofit organization led by police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and crime survivors. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.