The benefits of preschool have been touted for a while now, from the social aspects to the teaching of fundamentals that parents can’t/don’t do. Now there’s another reason to kick their ass over to your local Kindercare in the morning — they won’t hold up the convenience store down the street when they’re older. As reported in the Daily Herald, yesterday a group of law enforcement officers in Kane County, Illinois — citing a study by the Child-Parent Centers in Chicago — stated that children who go to preschool are 70 percent less likely to be arrested before the age of 18 years old. The group is coming out to urge the Illinois legislature to put through a $69 million funding increase for early childhood education.

It all sounds good on paper, but it seems like there’s a causation/correlation issue here. Is it a lack of preschool that’s the problem, or the family situation that causes the kid not to be able to go in the first place? I think it’s safe to say that many of the parents don’t send their kids to preschool due to the simple fact that they can’t afford it. And kids from lower income families to tend commit street crime more often because of influences in their neighborhood or, sadly, because they think it’s their only option. Don’t you think that may be the reason for the increased numbers, not that they haven’t learned their ABCs by age 4?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m most certainly not down on preschool and I personally believe it’s a very good thing for a lot of kids. But what I am down on is pushing a political agenda for universal preschool using junk numbers and rhetoric. In a state that’s losing jobs by the thousands (and is sure to lose more with the Governor’s latest tax initiative), let’s focus on the core issues at hand instead and the rest will take care of itself.

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