Issue Position: Head Start

Issue Position

Issue Position: Head Start

Saving & Strengthening Head Start

Since 1965, Head Start has helped over 20 million children build the confidence and skills they need to succeed in school. Head Start is a comprehensive child development program which serves children from birth to age 5, pregnant women, and their families. It is a community-run, child-focused program whose goal is to increase the school readiness of young children in low-income families. This "readiness" not only emphasizes a child's cognitive development, but also his or her social, emotional, and physical well-being and includes a strong parent involvement component as well.

Senator Murray supports strengthening Head Start and increasing resources for pre-literacy and language skills. Murray supports ongoing professional development for Head Start teachers in language and emergent literacy. Literacy training would include specific methods to best address the needs of children whose primary language is not English, have speech and language delays, or other disabilities.

In 2003, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously agreed to a reauthorization proposal that would save Head Start from being dismantled. The Senate bill rejected an irresponsible House-passed proposal to block-grant Head Start funding to the states, where the program's high standards could be degraded.

Under questioning from Sen. Murray as to why block granting would be the best option for Head Start, a Bush Administration witness from the Department of Education told HELP Committee members: "We really do not have rigorous studies that speak either to the impact of Head Start as currently delivered or to the impact of state programs."

"The Senate HELP Committee said no to Head Start block grants and yes to protecting the needs of our most vulnerable children. I am proud of our bipartisan effort to build on Head Start's 38 years of success in early education and to make a good program even better.

The House-passed plan to block grant Head Start would have gutted a successful program - with needy children paying the price. The House's plan would not have helped get any of the thousands of children on waiting lists into Head Start classrooms. And it would not have provided a single additional child with a strong foundation for learning or the health services and parent support to help him or her get ahead.

Underprivileged kids should not be guinea pigs for ideological experiments in block-granting and testing."

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