**NEWS FROM THE JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES**

For Immediate Release
February 8, 2006

Contact:
Dr. Clive R. Belfield
212-678-3351

Preschool for At-Risk Children a Good Investment, New Research Suggests

Intensive preschool programs for at-risk children are worthwhile public investments, potentially reducing criminal activity while reaping economic and other benefits for both the students and society over the long term, new research published in the Journal of Human Resources suggests. Every $1 invested in preschool yielded $12.90 in benefits to society, the researchers found.

The researchers compared the life outcomes of 40-year-old African Americans who had been enrolled in the intensive, structured High/Scope Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with outcomes of a control group that did not take part in the program. The study subjects, who entered the study at age three or four and were randomly assigned to the preschool program or the control (no-program) group, have been surveyed periodically since they were enrolled in the program in the 1960s.

“This and similar studies have come to very consistent and very striking conclusions—that preschooling offers a large number of benefits for the children and society,” says Clive R. Belfield, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at Queens College, City University of New York. “If you look at outcomes over a person’s life, it appears that the effects of this type of preschooling are dramatic.”

The analysis showed that at age 40:

• The High/Scope Perry Preschool program participants were far less likely than the no-program group to have been involved in criminal activity. For example, 32 percent of the program group, compared with 48 percent of the no-program group, had ever been arrested for violent crime. Six percent of the program group, compared with 17 percent of the no-program group, were incarcerated at the time of the study.
• The program participants, particularly women, had attained higher levels of education than the no-program group. Among females, 12 percent of the program participants and 8 percent of the no-program group, had received an associate, college, or master’s degree. Among males, 6 percent of the program group and 3 percent of the no-program group had received such degrees.
• The preschool program participants had earned more money than the no-program group. Lifetime gross earnings of male preschool enrollees were 11 percent to 34 percent more than the earnings of males in the no-program group. Females had earned between 19 percent and 36 percent more than their no-program counterparts. In addition to higher incomes for individuals, these differences translate into significantly higher tax contributions, the researchers say.
• Welfare reliance was slightly lower for the preschool program participants than for the comparison group. By age 40, 71 percent of the program group, compared with 86 percent of the no-program group, had ever received any social services. Females in the program group had received more welfare support than males in the program group.
• The health status of the program group was better than that of the no-program group. The program group was less likely to have stopped working for health reasons, to have a health problem, to smoke or use drugs, or to need treatment for drug use or drinking.
• The program group had a lower death rate. By age 40, about 3 percent of the program participants, compared with more than 7 percent of the no-program group, were deceased.

The link between preschooling and lower crime is especially notable. Crime imposes high tangible and intangible costs associated with incarceration, probation, criminal justice, lost productivity, and victims’ social costs. For at-risk groups, the economic magnitudes are significant: The researchers estimate that by age 65, males in the program group will impose an economic burden of more than $1 million, compared with $1.8 million for the no-program group.

They also report that the study findings mirror those of a comparable study conducted when the High/Scope program participants were 27 years old, as well as findings of rigorous studies of other preschool programs.

“Together, this evidence offers a compelling motive for investment in educational provision at an early age for at-risk children,” they conclude.

The study was co-authored by Belfield; Milagros Nores, Ph.D., of Columbia University Teachers College; Steve Barnett, Ph.D., of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University; and Lawrence Schweinhart, Ph.D., of the High/Scope Foundation.

The study results can be found in the Winter 2006 issue of the Journal of Human Resources, published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

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Last updated: February 9, 2006