For the past 38 years, the Head Start program has been one of our country’s most successful and popular social programs because it is based upon the principle of equal opportunity, which is at the core of the American character. Americans uniquely believe that each of us has the right to begin at the same starting line and that, if we do, anything is possible for any one of us. Head Start has an admirable goal to help ensure that disadvantaged children successfully arrive at one of the most important of our starting lines, the beginning of school, ready to learn.
As the five-year reauthorization of Head Start approached, President George W. Bush challenged Congress to make a “good Head Start program excellent,” putting Head Start at the forefront of the nation’s agenda as only a President can. He made four suggestions to strengthen the program:
1) Improve school readiness with more attention on specific cognitive development;
2) Increase accountability and seek greater consistency of performance across centers;
3) Improve coordination with other programs that serve young children, including public and private schools;
4) Increase state involvement in strengthening Head Start by transferring federal funding for Head Start to states, with certain criteria and restrictions.
The House has passed the “School Readiness Act,” which makes significant progress toward the President’s first three objectives. For the fourth, the bill creates a pilot program that would allow eight states to take over Head Start as long as they maintain or improve the level of services.
Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, of which I am a member, unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that achieves the President’s goals but in a different way than the House bill.
The Senate bill includes a proposal that I made back in July. It authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a nationwide network of 200 Centers of Excellence in Early Childhood built around exemplary Head Start programs.
The provision involves states to help strengthen and coordinate Head Start but continues to send federal funds directly to the grantees for the 19,000 Head Start centers that serve one million disadvantaged children.
Governors would nominate the centers, and the Secretary of HHS would select 149 Centers of Excellence. The Secretary would name an additional 51 centers, with a goal of having at least one Center of Excellence in each state. The bill authorizes $90 million for the Centers of Excellence.
The Head Start bill also includes three additional provisions that I proposed:
Combat pay for soldiers – I have held a series of hearings on the challenges that face military parents raising children. One of the common problems I heard about was troops losing social service benefits when they receive combat pay. This bill ensures that a military family receiving combat pay would not be ineligible for Head Start because of the income supplement.
More funding for Tennessee – During the program’s long history, a disparity has occurred in allocating money to the states. To address this problem, the bill says that 65 percent of any new money for Head Start will be allocated on a priority basis to those states that are underfunded. Tennessee is one of these states and will receive a larger share of new money.
Accountability for agencies – The bill makes it easier for grantees to fix problems at a Head Start center. Grantees will now have the ability to defund agencies that have serious deficiencies after providing technical assistance to the agency, such as monthly monitoring visits. Funding can be held and granted on a reimbursement basis instead of in advance.
As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, I am pleased to co-sponsor this bi-partisan bill. Now that it has been approved by the HELP Committee, the legislation will go to the Senate floor.
The President challenged Congress to improve Head Start in four major respects – readiness, accountability, coordination, and state involvement. I am proud to report that this bill accomplishes those goals.