On April 21, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform held a hearing entitled, “Early Childhood Education: Improvement Through Integration.”
Chair Mike Castle (R-DE) stated, “As Congress prepares to strengthen and reauthorize the Head Start program, one of our chief goals is to remove barriers that may impede the successful integration of Head Start with other programs that serve to prepare disadvantaged children for success.”
Describing Head Start as a way to “bridge the gap” so that “needier children enter kindergarten ready to learn at the same level as my grandchildren,” Ranking Member Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) stressed the importance of maintaining high standards for Head Start and said that she was against block grants, adding, “I do not trust the states.”
Assistant Head Start Director of Big Five Community Services, Inc. Jeff Alexander offered the example of his state as a system that works: “Today, Oklahoma public schools, Head Start and child care programs collaborate to meet the needs of working families. The result is that more children and families are receiving quality, comprehensive services on a full-day, year-round basis. There is a more qualified staff, more licensed facilities, and longer hours and days of service.” Mr. Alexander attributed Oklahoma’s success to “committed and dedicated personnel at each program” and an adherence to “Head Start’s exacting program performance standards.”
Noting that “parents should be able to work to support their children and have the resources they need to be their children’s first teachers,” Director of Leadership and Public Policy at the National Women’s Law Center Helen Blank pointed out that “State prekindergarten dollars are often combined with Head Start funds to provide a longer day or full year for children. In some cases, child care dollars are still necessary to extend the day until 5 or 6 p.m.” Ms. Blank also gave the example of a program in Wisconsin that successfully avoids duplicating services: “In La Crosse, a Collaboration Committee meets once a month with representatives of Head Start, child care and prekindergarten programs. If Head Start has a waiting list, it directs families to the state’s prekindergarten program. Head Start and the public schools also do collective recruitment and give parents information about all available programs.” Citing a lack of stable state funding and comprehensive state standards as obstacles to collaboration, Ms. Blank said that continued national leadership and new investments were the “most essential” elements of success.
Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, noted that “many children still do not attend a preschool program, including more than one half of the 3- and 4-year olds in poverty.” He said that, according to their data for 2002, “twelve states provided no state funding” for pre-kindergarten programs and added that state “early education standards also vary widely.” He proposed giving “states increased authority over Head Start where state pre-K standards are high and coverage [is] extensive,” as well as offering “families credits to be used to purchase equivalent services from providers that meet Head Start standards” in locations where “the Head Start eligible population is too sparse to support a Head Start program.”
