High-quality early learning programs are good for our youngest children and their families. They also show strong outcomes for community safety.

I believe, as do many in law enforcement, that prevention has got to be one of the weapons we use to fight crime in our cities and neighborhoods. Research shows that high-quality childhood programs, like child care and Head Start, help children get the right start in life and are good investments to reduce the high cost of Maine’s criminal justice system.

My brothers and sisters in blue know from our own professional experiences that a child who is successful in school is more likely to avoid brushes with the law as he or she grows up. Several studies show the connection between high-quality early education programs and long-term crime prevention.

One study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was released just a year ago found that kids who had been through the Boston preschool program were less likely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility during high school, compared to kids in Boston who hadn’t been a part of the program.

In Auburn, we see encouraging results with our preschool programs. Students participating in Auburn’s program achieved higher scores on the kindergarten screening assessment in comparison to students who were not enrolled.

According to Auburn’s spring 2022 kindergarten screening data, the average score for students enrolled in Auburn’s pre-K program was 85%, in comparison to 77% for students not enrolled. In addition, the 2022 Fall Northwest Evaluation Association assessment showed kindergarten students who had previously been enrolled in Auburn’s pre-K program during the 2021-22 school year demonstrated proficiency levels of 99% in literacy and 95% in math.

High-quality child care and Head Start are the educational foundations that happen before public pre-K. To support the quality of programs, we need more high-quality child care and Head Start across Maine, not less.

But less will be the result if Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed biennial budget, which seeks to reduce General Fund spending for child care and Head Start, is passed. Specifically, the governor’s budget proposes to reduce child care educators’ wage stipends by $15 million annually, eliminates the program that helps low-paid child care educators cover the costs of child care for their own children, and cuts state support to Maine’s 11 regional Head Start programs by $3.6 million.

If the proposed wage cut to child care educators is adopted, then that would roll back the current average wage of $16.40 per hour (just over $34,000 annually) to $15.15 per hour (approximately $31,500 annually). Who will work in child care for these low mages when they can earn more money in any retail or fast-food establishment? Such actions could well lead to the collapse of this vital sector of Maine’s economy.

As Auburn’s police chief I can tell you that staff at our department do not have an option of working from home, or bringing their child/children to work with them. The same is true of other first responders, medical professionals and so many other workplaces. Without child care, parents cannot go to work.

With such low wages it is not surprising that Maine’s new program to help child care workers pay for their own child care was so popular. It is one of the few workforce retention tools in child care.  If anything, it should be enhanced, not eliminated.

The proposed Head Start cut of $3.6 million would result in 250 of Maine’s poorest and most at-risk children losing their high-quality early learning programs.

The child care and Head Start educators in Auburn are some of our hardest workers I know, in spite of the fact that they earn incredibly low wages for their efforts.

Anyone in law enforcement will tell you that it’s far better to keep kids away from crime in the first place, rather than to try and reform those kids after they become involved with the criminal justice system. Our state policy leaders need to invest more in high-quality early learning programs, not less, to help ensure safer communities with more children who grow up to have a real opportunity at a violence-free and crime-free life.

Auburn Chief of Police Jason Moen is president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.