Head Start Offers Hope to Low-income Kids
For Immediate Release - August 15, 2003

For nearly 40 years, the Head Start program has helped countless families achieve the American Dream. At Head Start, children from low-income, often immigrant, families learn reading, writing and language skills. Head Start also provides key services, such as medical and dental care, parent involvement and mental health screenings, proven to increase academic success.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start improves the vocabulary, writing skills and social behavior of disadvantaged children. The program has served more than 20 million children since its inception in 1965 and provides the building blocks that are crucial if these children are to attain their own American Dream.

In the Seattle area, almost 2,000 children attend Head Start programs. Eighty-nine percent of these children are living in families that receive public assistance or have incomes below the federal poverty line.

Yet despite Head Start's well-documented record of improving children's education and health, Republicans in Congress, acting on the wishes of the Bush administration, last week passed a bill that would undermine the program. If the Senate passes a similar plan, Head Start could be the latest casualty in the administration's war against low-income families and the working poor.

While the administration labeled its plan a much-needed improvement for Head Start, in reality it threatens the program's ability to offer extensive services to those most in need. The Republican House bill would turn Head Start into a block grant in certain states while providing less federal support. It opens the way to dismantling tough standards for ensuring that children receive high-quality, comprehensive care. Additionally, the GOP "Chop and Block" plan effectively would repeal civil rights protections for employees of Head Start by enabling faith-based organizations to hire on the basis of religion.

The House Democratic proposal would have expanded the program and boosted funding authorization levels to provide access to all eligible preschoolers. It also aimed to increase access to Early Head Start (infants and toddlers) and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (which targets children of migrant and seasonal farm workers). Finally, the Democratic plan sought to create a salary and scholarship fund to ensure Head Start teachers are adequately compensated and to increase retention to the program.

The administration and the House Republicans seem to have declared open season on the less fortunate. Why else would they propose gutting Head Start? When taken in the context of record unemployment, states in fiscal crisis and tax cuts for the very rich, the Republican plan for Head Start is another blow for our neighbors who need a helping hand.

Even as President Bush promises that no child will be "left behind," his administration is attempting to recreate the barriers to the American Dream for disadvantaged children.

Thanks to a vigorous education campaign by Head Start advocates, the House passed the GOP plan by a narrow margin: 217-216.

The Senate is drafting its version of a plan for Head Start; Democrats are hard at work on a bill that will fight for positive changes for Head Start programs. Will Republicans finally get the message that we cannot afford to dilute or diminish the quality of programs that serve our most vulnerable children and families? Or will the administration succeed in this latest attempt to further handicap the disadvantaged?

Now we must ask senators to protect the hopes of a better life for low-income children.