Sen. Costa visited Arlington Elementary School on May 12th, 2010 to show his support for continued investment in early education. Joined by Nate Harper, Pittsburgh police chief; Bruce Clash, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania; and Laura Ditka, Allegheny County deputy district attorney, Sen. Costa expressed his support for continued funding of the programs. “Early investments in education pay dividends down the road by reducing the state’s need to pay for incarceration later," Costa said. "It’s a matter of prevention that truly works.” A recent report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Pennsylvania showed that early education can provide significant savings for the state, which already spends $1.8 billion per year to operate Pennsylvania's corrections system. (read the report) Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is an anti-crime organization of over 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, and violence survivors. With the state facing a billion-dollar budget deficit, advocates of early childhood education are concerned that state funding for pre-K programs would be reduced or eliminated. In the Pittsburgh Public Schools, approximately 2,500 children are enrolled in some sort of an early childhood development program.