KEEP CONGRESS’ HANDS OFF HEAD START

(Submitted by National Head Start Board Chairman, Ron Herndon, and reprinted by permission of “The Birmingham Times”)

Ask experts on children’s development about Head Start and they will tell you they see only one problem with the program. It only receives enough federal funding to serve about half of the children who are eligible for its services.

Since it was created in 1965, more than 22 million children have attended Head Start. And plenty of research has shown that the early childhood education program has made a huge difference to those children. Serving children from the poorest U.S. families, the program prepares preschoolers for kindergarten. It also offers health and dental care and nutritious meals to children who might otherwise fail to receive such care.

A recent study funded by the Health and Human Services showed that Head Start children performed better on cognitive, language and health measures than did children who had no exposure to Head Start. Other studies have found that Head Start children post higher achievement test scores and that they experience a wide range of positive academic benefits, including a boost in high school graduation rates, a greater likelihood of attending college, reduced grade repetition and less demand for special education services.

Along with a higher rate of graduation from high school, Head Start children are less likely to become delinquent. Costing just $7,296 a year per child, Head Start saves us all a lot of money and grief later down the line by ensuring these children get on the right track.

The program works so well that other countries have studied and copied it.

But now – breaking the old rule that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – lawmakers in Washington are trying to change this winning formula.

The committee working on the bill to reauthorize funding for the program (SB1107) has inserted provisions that would:

l Remove all decision-making power from Head Start parents – limiting them instead to an advisory role,

l Require all Head Start staff to have a bachelor’s degree.

At the moment, Head Start programs are governed jointly by a board of directors and a policy council. Parents must make up more than 50 percent of the membership of the policy councils. Ron Herndon, the longtime education activist from Portland who currently is Chairman of the Board of the National Head Start Association, said including parents in decision-making has been a cornerstone of the program’s success.

Because they are involved in many aspects of the program, parents feel tremendous ownership and commitment to Head Start. In turn, the high rate of parental involvement ensures the programs are culturally and in every other way appropriate to the families they serve. In fact, many corporations and agencies envy the kind of “buying in” Head Start has achieved.

If audits had shown that parent power resulted in improperly run programs or dodgy finances, then change might be justified. But this is not the case. Head Start programs have very low rates of financial problems.

As for the proposal to require all staff to have a bachelor’s degree – this would have a devastating impact on the program. No money or funding is provided to help Head Start staff return to school to earn the qualification, and no increase in wages is offered to staff who earn that bachelor’s degree.

Herndon said this rule, if passed, would result in the dismissal of thousands of excellent early childhood educators who lack bachelor’s degrees, but are well qualified to enrich the educational lives of young children.

Most of them would be minority staff, who have the – undervalued – cultural experience to work with Head Start families. Requiring all staff to have four-year degrees would turn Head Start into a training agency for schools and other organizations with the resources to pay higher wages and offer better benefits.

Ironically, these changes are going through under the eyes of several powerful Democrats who sit on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chris Dodds (sic) and Ted Kennedy. Don’t let this happen to a program that is so vital to the well being of so many children and families. Please call your legislators and tell them “Hands off Head Start.”

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