Published Thursday, February 27, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
Head Start, the pre-kindergarten program for children of low-income families, is becoming a political hot potato in Washington as Congress considers reauthorization proposals.
The Bush administration is posing revolutionary changes that some critics say will destroy the program.
The federal law that authorizes Head Start ends Sept. 30, sparking the debate.
Head Start funding goes directly from the federal government to local organizations, such as Mercer County Head Start. The Bush administration wants to offer states the opportunity to coordinate Head Start and other preschool programs. States that choose to do that would be awarded block grants to fund Head Start.
In states that choose that option, Head Start will be better coordinated among federal, state and local authorities and with other preschool programs, according to a statement on the White House Web site.
At the federal level, Head Start would be moved from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education.
The changes will make Head Start better educationally, although states still would have to continue to offer social, family and health services, the Bush administration said.
U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, predicted that the noneducational components would fall by the wayside, making Head Start just another literacy program.
"This is an effort to destroy or dilute this program," he said.
Sen. Ted Kennedy argued that Head Start needs to be expanded, not retooled. Forty percent of children eligible for Head Start are not in the program, and 96 percent of children eligible for Early Head Start are unserved.
While the Bush administration said it wants to make Head Start more accountable, Kennedy said it already is. Studies have shown that Head Start students are less likely to drop out of school, repeat grades or be placed in special education classes, he said.
"It is working better than it ever has before," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.
"It is a program that has worked for 20 million children," said Marion Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. "It is not broken, so we don't want to see the Bush administration try to fix it."
The senators and Ms. Edelman spoke with reporters Wednesday in a conference call organized by the Children's Defense Fund.
U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, Bradford Woods, R-4th District, believes Bush's proposal would allow local school districts and Head Start officials to cater to the needs of their children, according to her spokesman, Brendan Benner.
Ms. Hart favors increasing local control, instead of having the federal government dictate rules that local Head Start officials must follow, he said.
"Some schools are thriving at certain aspects of the program, while they're not doing so well in others," Benner said.
U.S. Rep. Phil English, Erie, R-3rd District, said in a statement that he has "not yet committed" to Bush's proposal.
He said he is "concerned about the potential consequences of funding the program at the state level."
English said visits to Head Start programs in his district, which includes most of Mercer County, over the years have left him "convinced of the program's value"
"I would be reluctant to see anything enacted that jeopardizes a program like Head Start, which is one of the most effective programs assisting low-income families," English said.
Democrats said many Republican senators will join them in opposing Bush's proposal.
"They're in for a hell of a fight up there," English said.