State law enforcement officials want increased funding for an early childhood education program.

Head Start provides preschool education to low-income families. Law enforcement wants more federal money for the federal program because children who attend are less likely to cross their paths later in life.

"At age 27, they are five times more likely to be chronic law breaks," if they were not in Head Start, said Richard Riha, Burleigh County state's attorney. He cited statistics provided by Fighting Crime: Invest in Kids.

The organization Fighting Crime: Invest in Kids is encouraging members of Congress to increase funding for Head Start. The organization is comprised of more than 3,000 law enforcement officials, 20 of whom are in North Dakota.

Head Start is administered through the Department of Health and Human Services' administration for children and family services. Head Start served 3,353 children in 2004-05 in North Dakota.

The anti-crime organization wants an additional $750 million in funding for Head Start. President Bush has budgeted for $6.8 billion in funding for Head Start for 2008.

"There has been an erosion in federal funding," said Amy Dawson, vice president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

This is an erosion because of inflation, Dawson said. The group wants funding restored to 2002 levels. In 2002, Head Start was appropriated $6,537,906,000, according to Library of Congress' legislative search engine. That would be about $7.3 billion, adjusting 2002 dollars to 2007 dollars at a $1.13 to a $1, according to an inflation calculator on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Federal funding is increasing for Head Start. The president's budget is an increase over the 2007 appropriation of $6,788,571,000 and the 2007 appropriation was a $3.7 million increase over the 2006 appropriation, according to the 2007 appropriation bill on the Library of Congress Web site.

If funding is increased, Dawson's group would like an increase in the number of teachers with four-year degrees, an expansion of the coach-parent program, an increase in the interventions to stem student discipline and enhanced curriculum standards.

Bismarck has a Head Start program at BECEP at the former Richholt Elementary School and West River Head Start in Mandan. There are 91 Head Start programs in North Dakota, and 20 are on reservations.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)