George W. Bush is becoming ever more the schoolyard bully. Now that he's cut education spending for college students, he's ready to take on the younger kids with a new bill to gut Head Start.
During the course of its 38 years, the Head Start program has prepared 20 million children of low-income families for school. In addition to providing early childhood education, Head Start offers services such as immunizations and nutritious meals in a comprehensive package. A 2000 federal review awarded 85 percent of its affiliates quality marks, and a 2001 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) study showed that 96 percent of parents with children in the program are happy with their kids' readiness for kindergarten. Head Start beat out every other government program (and many private companies, including BMW and Mercedes-Benz) in a 1999 Presidential Management Council customer satisfaction report.
With numbers like these, it's fair to wonder why the Bush administration is calling for the program's total overhaul rather than targeted improvements. Nevertheless, on June 19, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed the new Republican-sponsored Head Start bill along party lines. The Bush administration claims that Head Start will become more effective if states are able to coordinate it with their elementary schools. Bush's plan mandates a focus on teaching (and then testing) reading skills, as well as block grants that offer control of the federal program to the states.
But according to the National Head Start Association (NHSA) and a host of child-care advocates, the bill is more about cutting costs and removing accountability than anything else. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) -- who has called Head Start the "most successful early childhood education program for low-income children our country has ever had" -- likened the proposed legislation to The Matrix, issuing a statement saying, "It deserves an 'A' for special effects and illusions but an 'F' for its connection to reality."
In particular, the plan provides for only a marginal increase in funding -- hardly more than what would cover inflation -- despite the fact that the program serves three of five children living below the poverty line. This increase is not enough to hire the college-educated teachers that both Bush and the NHSA desire. The NHSA also worries that without additional funding, the emphasis on literacy skills will crowd out health-care and social-development initiatives that get kids ready to learn.
Even more worrisome is the state block-grant option. The NHSA fears that the states, which are already facing severe deficits in their budgets, will abandon Head Start for inferior and untested pre-kindergarten programs. Furthermore, if states use federal dollars to finance their programs while cutting their own spending, there will be fewer total dollars available for low-income preschoolers across the country.
The NHSA's concerns seem justified given the administration's track record. Medicaid also provides waivers to exempt states from federal regulations, and on July 6, congressional investigators reported that HHS had failed to monitor the progress of the states that opted in. The result of such negligence was shoddy health care for those who need it most in 11 of the 15 states reviewed. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The New York Times that "the waivers should be put on hold until the department gets a handle on the quality of care going to older and disabled Americans. . . . Right now there's no accountability, and that's wrong."
Of course, the Bush administration is well aware that its proposal is highly unpopular in the Head Start community. After all, dismantling a high-performing program that provides both education and child care to the poor hardly comes across as "compassionate." That's why the administration is doing its best to keep you from hearing about it. On May 8, HHS sent out a letter warning the program's teachers and parent volunteers that those who choose to speak out against the Bush administration's Head Start bill do so at their peril. While the letter did not issue an outright injunction, it did remind would-be dissenters that much of their time and resources are government-owned and, thus, not to be used subversively. Anyone caught protesting, the letter warned, would be required to "prove that Federal funds -- or resources purchased with those funds, such as Head Start staff time and facilities -- were not used" for lobbying.
The NHSA, instead of backing down, responded with a lawsuit. The organization charged that the letter was an unpleasant and unlawful scare tactic that infringed upon its members' First Amendment rights. Edward Waters, outside counsel for the NHSA, said in a statement that the letter "exceeds the boundaries of any conceivably applicable statute or regulation as to the action it prevents and the sanction it threatens. In so doing, it unlawfully chills the free expression of political speech by a grantee or parent or staff with its/their own money or on its/their own time."
Upon announcing the lawsuit, NHSA President Sarah Greene articulated the frustration and anger of thousands of Head Start parents and teachers. The gag order was, in effect, the last straw. As Greene put it in a statement: "I am saddened that we have to take this legal action today, but the reality is that the White House does not want to hear from the Head Start community. It did not consult us when it crafted the plan to dismantle Head Start. It failed to meet with us when its proposal was translated into legislation on Capitol Hill. The Bush administration's callous attempt to terrify Head Start staff and volunteers into silence with the prospect of possible jail time as it seeks to ram its controversial proposal through Congress is mind-boggling."
HHS declined to comment on the lawsuit, which it effectively lost when a federal judge offered the Bush administration the alternatives of writing a new letter or receiving a ruling from the bench. The NHSA's small but significant victory was further sweetened by the July 2 announcement that HHS would withdraw the offending letter. Head Start hasn't been saved, but Bush's bullying may only increase support for his already popular target.
Miriam Markowitz is a TAP Online intern and a rising senior at Brown University.
