George Bush on Head Start

02/06/2003

"When one door of happiness closes another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
–Helen Keller

GEORGE BUSH ON HEAD START

Luis Hernandez sent us this language on the future of Head Start from the president's 2004 budget for Head Start:

"The Administration’s Good Start, Grow Smart initiative has made modest progress in improving Head Start to date, by sharpening the focus on school readiness, improving teacher training and mandating a system to assess the success of Head Start programs in preparing children for school. However, Head Start is only a piece of an uncoordinated and overlapping puzzle of federal, state and local programs that are failing to meet the social and academic needs of pre-school age children, particularly those most disadvantaged economically. To address this problem, the President's plan will provide states with the opportunity to exercise more control over Head Start, so that they can better coordinate with state pre-school and other preparatory programs. In addition, the President plans to move responsibility for managing the Head Start program from HHS to the Department of Education. Under the President’s plan, 2004 would be a transition year during which HHS would continue to manage the program. The Department of Education would assume full responsibility for the Head Start program in 2005.

The proposed changes reflect the problems identified in the Head Start PART. The Good Start, Grow Smart initiative provides a mechanism to assess the performance of Head Start programs and address the lack of coordination among early education and care programs."

You can purchase a copy of the both the May 1999 and the November 1998 back issues of Child Care Information Exchange in the Exchange Bookstore at www.ChildCareExchange.com.

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.