Ramsey, Abraham take aim at dropouts

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and District Attorney Lynne Abraham had a joint news conference outside Ben Franklin High School this morning to extol the virtues of a new crime fighting idea: high quality Pre-K programs.

The commish and the DA cited a study done by the statewide crime fighting think tank, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, which argues that better Pre-K care will lead to fewer kids dropping out of high school. And fewer dropouts, dear readers, will mean less crime.

No, really: the study claims high school dropouts are three and a half times more likely than grads to be arrested, and eight times more likely to be incarcerated. Boosting the city's graduation rates by just 10 percent could prevent 75 murder and 2,030 assaults here every year.

For more on the study and the school district's efforts to help dropouts, check out my colleague Mensah Dean's story here.