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| Contributed photo Caribou Chief of Police Michael Gahagan and Auburn Chief of Police Phil Crowell met with U.S. Senator Susan Collins in the U.S. Capitol on June 20 to talk with her about the need to increase federal funding for Head Start and Child Care Development Block Grants. |
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Caribou Chief of Police Michael Gahagan and Auburn Chief of Police Phil Crowell met with U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in the U.S. Capitol on June 20 to ask for help to increase access to early childhood education and extend tax relief to families with young children through the refundable child tax credit.
“Calling for increased public investments in a difficult economic time is not an easy thing to pursue, but we know that early education programs pay off in the long run. Statistics show that kids who receive high-quality early education and care are significantly less likely to commit crimes later in life,” Chief Gahagan said.
The discussion with Sen. Collins centered on her role on the important Senate Appropriations Committee, and her ability to help shape early education policy, specifically increased funding for Head Start, the Child Care Development Block Grants and the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge.
According to the organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a long-term study of Michigan’s High/Scope Perry Preschool found that at-risk children who did not participate in the high-quality program were five times more likely to be chronic offenders by age 27 than children who did attend. Because of their increased involvement in crime, the children who did not attend were 86 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison by the age of 40.
While meeting with Sen. Snowe, the chiefs encouraged an extension of the current structure of the child tax credit, scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The child tax credit provides valuable resources to low-income working parents. If allowed to expire, more than 600,000 children nationally, and 48,000 children in Maine, will see their credit reduced or eliminated and many of those will fall back below the poverty line.
“We see an increase in the number of children in Maine living in poverty and the child tax credit if one safety net to help families, especially our low-income working parents. We are lucky to have in Senator Snowe a leader who understands the needs of Maine people and who will stand up to be our voice in the U.S. Senate,” Chief Crowell said. “There is a clear link to poverty and crime, which makes the extension of the current child tax credit important to not only the families who receive it, but to us in law enforcement as well.”
Chief Crowell shared with Senator Snowe that currently one in five Maine children live in poverty. The highest poverty rates are in Lewiston with 45 percent. In Aroostook County 20 percent of children under 18 live in poverty.
The chiefs are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement leaders and crime survivors nationwide, including more than 120 in Maine.
Additional information about the organization can be obtained by visiting www.fightcrime.org.
