The mayor of Indianapolis hopes putting his signature on a pre-K funding ordinance will both lower crime in the Circle City and send a message to the Statehouse.
Greg Ballard signed off on a more than $20 million funding program to be used for at-risk Marion County students. The funding will stretch over five years and offset the costs of preschool for some 1300 students.
“It’s sending the signal that this is important to the city of Indianapolis. It’s sending a signal to the parents and to the kids, that your education matters to us. Pre-K is a big part of not just the academic part, but of the socialization, the conflict-resolution, persistence, tolerance…” Ballard says.
Ballard says he hopes to see the idea reverberate in the Indiana General Assembly.
“I would really like them to look at this and understand that a lot of the studies have already been done and we’d really like them to look at extending this throughout the state,” Ballard says.
Ballard says early childhood education lowers the chance that young people will enter the criminal justice system later in life. The pre-K funding is a continuation of the anti-crime campaign he launched last year.
