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June 11, 2007
Head Start
Human investment
IF PRESIDENT Bush has his way with the federal budget, Head Start will have
less purchasing power next year. In West Virginia, that means 257 fewer children
will have an opportunity to participate in this life-changing educational
program, according to the National Head Start Association.
A version of the budget passed by the House of Representatives, in contrast,
would preserve Head Start at its present level. But Bush has threatened to veto
Congress’ spending bills.
Head Start is a 40-year-old program designed to give low-income children the
same educational advantages their wealthier counterparts get from preschool.
Head Start’s effectiveness has been measured and documented.
For many years, data showed that Head Start children gained skills that were
evident all the way through the fourth grade. For a while, people assumed that
the benefits ended there. In 2002, however, the National Institute for Early
Education Research concluded that Head Start produces long-term educational
benefits, but it could do better with more money and higher standards.
These findings echo numerous other studies of other types of preschool
programs. Children who attend good preschools graduate from high school in
greater proportions, get better grades, have better test scores, are more likely
to attend and to finish college, and earn more as adults.
West Virginia educators, child advocates and health policy experts are so
taken with the lifelong payoff of good preschool, they’ve been working together
to offer it to as many children as possible. The state Legislature has decreed
that preschool will be available to all 4-year-olds whose parents want to take
advantage of it by 2012. State officials intend to carry out this mandate with a
combination of Head Start, private educational day care and preschools and
public preschools.
Head Start, one leg of this three-legged stool, has already cut back on the
7,600 students served in the state. Head Start classes rely heavily on
volunteers, and have curtailed transportation, which means cutting children and
their families out of the experience.
Clearly, reducing Head Start in West Virginia is a move backward, not
forward.
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