Getting a jump on life, one Utah preschoole..

Preschools • County officials get a look at how their investment may pay future dividends.

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Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and councilmen Sam Granato and Richard Snelgrove received first-hand evidence Thursday of the benefits stemming from a $350,000 county investment in a private/public partnership to boost preschool education.

At McAdams' behest, the county council allocated the money to enable an additional 600 disadvantaged children to get into previously full Granite District preschools this fall. The county money is a triggering mechanism that will help the United Way to use $1 million in private funds from Goldman Sachs and the J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation to expand preschools.

McAdams believes giving more children a better early start on life will help them become meaningful community contributors, decreasing future expenses for the county's criminal justice and behavioral health systems.

Getting a jump on life, one Utah preschooler at a time