As Pennsylvania continues to operate without a final budget, one of many sticking points to be resolved is whether early childhood programs will continue to be a priority in the year ahead. While scaling back Pre-K Counts, Head Start, Nurse-Family Partnership, quality childcare and other early childhood investments may save limited dollars now, these are false savings because these programs are shown to reduce the cost of government in the future.

Early childhood is a narrow window of opportunity when we can make a huge impact on a child's social and emotional development and learning for life. Because the development of new brain circuits is at its most intense in the first five years, the same educational investment later in life will never have as great an impact as it does in early childhood. Any future remediation will be more costly and less successful than providing a strong start now.

For example, across the Commonwealth, almost 2 out of 10 high school students fail to graduate from high school on time. This puts all Pennsylvanians at risk because high school dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, are three-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested, and are more than eight times more likely to be incarcerated than high school graduates. In fact, throughout the country, 68 percent of state prison inmates have not received a high school diploma. Besides the threat to public safety, Pennsylvania's dropouts earn 37 percent less than high school graduates, pay fewer taxes, and are more likely to consume public assistance services.

Evidence from two long-term evaluations of the effects of pre-kindergarten programs show that participating in high-quality pre-kindergarten increases high school graduation rates by as much as 44 percent. According to researchers, a 10 percentage-point increase in graduation rates has historically been shown to reduce murder and assault rates by approximately 20 percent. If Pennsylvania could raise male graduation rates by 10 percent, the Commonwealth would save approximately $576 million dollars every year, including almost $364 million in reduced crime costs alone.

Research also tells us that we can even prevent crime by investing in babies in utero and the young low-income mothers who are carrying them. By the time the children in Nurse-Family Partnership in-home parent coaching program reached age 15, both their mothers and the children had about 60 percent fewer arrests than mothers and children left out of the program.

The program also cut child abuse and neglect among at-risk kids in half. While most victimized children never become violent criminals, they are sharply at risk of being arrested for a crime. The best available research indicates that of the 4,201 Pennsylvania children who were confirmed victims of abuse in 2008, approximately 168 will become violent criminals as adults who would otherwise avoid such crimes if not for the abuse they endured as children.

By not investing more in at-risk young children and families, we ensure continued rising expenditures on the back end. Right now, we are spending just over $1.6 billion per year — about 6 percent of the state budget — on the State Department of Corrections. When our children succeed, we all benefit. Every $1 spent on high quality early education saves $7 in reduced future expenditures for special education, delinquency, criminal justice, welfare, and lost taxes. In fact, the long-term return on investment for quality early education far exceeds historical returns from the stock market, with most benefits accruing to the public at large. We can pay for success now or pay a whole lot more for failure later on, both in dollars and in the agony that crime leaves in its wake. As our state leaders continue negotiating next year's state budget, they should make funding for Pennsylvania's early childhood programs a priority.

Bruce R. Clash is state director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, based in Harrisburg. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania is an anti-crime organization of 200 police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys, other law enforcement leaders. and victims of violence.