YOUR LETTERS Contin u ed From Page 6
Build Back Better can reduce crime by supporting preschool
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n my time as an attorney, I’ve seen countless young people make decisions that lead them down destructive paths. Despite the desire that all of us in the justice system have to help these kids, by the time we get to interact with them, it’s often too late. One bad decision made by these young people can negatively impact them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives, perpetuating cycles of crime and violence that can pass onto future generations. It’s been my top priority as District Attorney to promote a safe, healthy, and just community by not only fighting against crime, but also by advocating for evidence-based approaches to reducing crime. And the best way to reduce crime in any community is by working to ensure it never happens in the first place. One of the best tools we’ve found to keep children on the right path and away from crime is high-quality preschool. It’s critical that young people have a strong foundation on which to begin their lives, as numerous studies have shown that high-quality preschool can lead to decreased rates of future incarceration and better academic outcomes, including higher rates of high school graduation. Significant investments in high-quality preschool would be a major boost to longterm public safety. Fortunately, federal lawmakers have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make such an investment. Through the Build Back Better Act (BBB), lawmakers have the opportunity to pass preschool provisions that would allow roughly six million additional children to access high-quality preschool nationwide, including 298,000 in New York alone. This would help thousands of children in our state start on a path towards better academic performance and achievement and a reduced likelihood of being involved in crime later in life. Helping young people have access to that path is one of the reasons I joined the national law enforcement membership group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. It’s an organization that includes over 5,000
ROI benefits, and can’t miss this opportupolice chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors. nity to make a transformative investment For the past 25 years, they’ve consistently in early education. advocated for evidence-based solutions -Matthew Van Houten, District that strengthen long-term public safety by Attorney for Tompkins County and a putting kids on a productive, crime-free member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids path—a mission I’m proud to be a part of. The preschool provisions included in BBB are incredibly important to achieving ’ve never really found myself liking Joni this goal, as research shows that positive Mitchell, no shame on those that do, preschool experiences help children build just not for me. Regardless I feel like she cognitive and social-emotional skills dur- summed up this whole catastrophe in one ing a unique period of brain development great line, and if one were to ever want to that can serve them well for a lifetime. feel how Joni felt, just take a drive down to And, while this alone is reason enough to the Ol’ Haunt and take a look at the parking invest in preschool, a forthcoming Fight lots in its place. Crime: Invest I’m only in Kids research 27 and I’m an brief shows that absolute fool. I such programs don’t remember can provide a the great Octogreat return on pus that has since investment (ROI) been slain at the as well. foot of West Hill. The brief I don’t remember highlights an State St. before independent costthe “original benefit analysis commons” and that showed that the old library preschool prohas always been a grams can return vacant building. an average societal Despite my “profit” (economic terrible memory benefits minus of the past there costs) of more are a few things I than $15,000 for can still seem to every child served. muster up. I can Applying this still remember Matthew Van Houten (Photo: Provided) per-child “profit” the feeling that to the additional nothing was ever children served going to be taller by BBB’s preschool provisions, we see an than the trees that erupted across the overall ROI of $90 billion over the lifetime hillsides seeming to mark the end of my of these kids, including $4.47 billion in known universe. New York alone. I will always remember Ithaca Fest at The factors that contribute to this ROI Stewart Park. Or the way the Commons include increases in adulthood earnings felt like a treehouse was put into the contributed to by higher test scores, as middle of a city. Put there and now I can well as decreases in costs to society, such only assume to shield us from the dangers as added expenses created by children of the outside world. being held back in school or needing Ithaca had always been an escape for special education. me. A place where a Human could be a The Build Back Better Act represents Human and live, work, play, and die all in an opportunity to increase public safety the company of other humans. in a way that also produces a solid return These days, it more or less still is. But on investment through its preschool recently I have to ask myself if things are provisions. Federal policy makers must changing? I’m pretty much a Luddite, I realize the tremendous benefit to our get it. But with that being said I can still communities that this would represent respect some life improving progress now through significant crime prevention and and again.
Progress aside, I have to ask myself what the hell is going on when I drive down 13 and see a steel megalodon rising up in front of the Welcome to Ithaca mural. Or when we decide to keep pushing the jungle further towards the edge of existence. Choosing instead to ignore their needs and replacing the “unusable” land with a solar farm. Or when as a local in this area, I and others are driven out of the places we love because we cannot afford to live there any longer. Because individuals whose checkbooks far exceed ours are now realizing the paradise that lay in these hills and that they would like a slice as well. The Ithaca I knew is far from the Ithaca I know now. Are we selling out? Are we forsaking the generations of individuals who have lived in these hills for a far more affluent population? A population whose means far exceed our own. I believe we are. I believe it can be seen in the way our city treats the destitute and homeless. I believe it can be seen in the way our city favors certain residents who have the means, and de-values the ones that don’t. This question is one we must ask ourselves. As we live our lives and grow as a community, we can hold the keys to our own success. We can be the masters of our own dominion. We can live, work, play, and die for ourselves and our brother’s and sister’s. If we continue to sell our land and ourselves to the highest bidder, we will ultimately reach the same relationship as others in our position have found themselves, as slaves to a master. So, it’s with that said that I ask the residents, employees, local officials and the whole swamp that is Ithaca to seriously consider the direction we as a community and city are headed. We need to as a population understand the unintended consequences of these major property sales and stop looking to the almighty dollar as our ultimate salvation. We need to remember the ideals that set Ithaca apart from the rest. We need to retain the ownership of our land, at the local level, and we need to start thinking of the future. Not in terms of dollars and cents but in terms of the human we now find wandering the hills of this area, destitute, disillusioned and forsaken by a city that has lost sight of what we were. -Dewey Herren, Newfield, NY
“Personally, I find it quite humbling to have been elected to a leadership position by my peers and colleagues,” Dawson said. “We’ve been through an unusually challenging couple of years, and I fervently hope that we will complete our transition into whatever the new normal will look like with endemic, rather than pandemic, COVID. The county has a lot of ‘non-CO-
Newfield, District 8), and Travis Brooks (D-Ithaca District 1). These new legislators will take the spot of their predecessors in the upcoming committee meetings for January. Black said that the “State of the County” address will be delivered at the next meeting. -Jay Br adley
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SHAWNA BLACK Contin u ed From Page 4
head the body. “Both of us have very different interests,” said Black. “Deborah’s focus has been primarily budget and environment and mine has been health and human services and public safety. Together as a team our skills complement each other and we have very well-balanced roles as leaders for the legislature.”
VID’ issues on its plate, and I’d really like to move forward and address them.” The session began with County Clerk Maureen Reynolds swearing in all 14 members for the new year. Five legislators were sworn in for the first time: Veronica Pillar (D-Ithaca, District 2), Greg Mezey (D-Dryden, District 13), Lee Shurtleff (R-Groton, District 9), Randy Brown (RJa n ua ry
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