Bush Seeks Big Changes in Head Start, Drawing
Criticism From Program's Supporters
July 8, 2003
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
LANDOVER, Md., July 7 - President Bush called today for a
major overhaul of Head Start, the popular Lyndon
Johnson-era preschool program for poor children, that would
add an academic focus to its traditional emphasis on health
and nutrition and give some states the right to control its
financing.
Head Start programs, the president said, are "working
O.K.," but "we want better than O.K. in America. We want
excellence."
Mr. Bush spoke in support of a bill in the House that
includes a pilot program that would allow up to eight
states to take over Head Start and combine it with existing
state preschool programs. But more broadly, Mr. Bush is
seeking a fundamental change for a program that has always
been directly financed by the federal government, bypassing
the governors with whom President Johnson was at war over
civil rights when it began as an eight-week summer program
in 1965. Even now Head Start advocates fear governors might
use the money elsewhere, a temptation that grows in times
of budget crisis.
Mr. Bush's words were immediately denounced by the
president and chief executive of the National Head Start
Association, a nonprofit group that promotes Head Start.
The executive, Sarah Greene, has been in an intensifying
battle with the White House over its plans to change the
38-year-old program, which serves one million children.
"We think it would absolutely destroy Head Start," said Ms.
Greene, who said she was not invited to the president's
speech and would not in any case have gone because "I don't
have time for floor shows."
Mr. Bush's speech at a Head Start center at Highland Park
Elementary School in suburban Washington, some seven hours
before his scheduled departure tonight for a five-day trip
to Africa, reflected the White House concern that the
president stay focused on domestic policy in the run-up to
his 2004 re-election campaign. But his words unleashed a
new torrent of criticism from advocates for the poor and
political opponents who said that the administration could
not be trusted on the issue.
"It makes no sense to start down a totally new path with a
program that's been proven effective by three full decades
of research," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of
Massachusetts, the most important member of the Senate on
education issues, said in a statement. "Why would anyone
want to turn Head Start into Slow Start or No Start?"
The White House position is that the bill, and Mr. Bush's
plans for the program, would improve Head Start in two
ways: by merging it with often-overlapping state programs
and then imposing new academic standards on the combined
program, which would still be called Head Start. Mr. Bush's
advisers argue that Head Start, which serves the poorest of
the nation's 3- and 4-year-olds and focuses on meals and
medical care, has not kept up with new research showing how
soon young children can learn.
The bill would require Head Start employees to teach early
reading, writing and math skills, much like many
state-financed and private preschool programs. "We want
Head Start to set higher ambitions for the million children
it serves," Mr. Bush said.
The president also promised that there would be safeguards
to ensure that Head Start money sent directly to a state
would, in fact, be used for Head Start. "What we really
don't want to do is say we're going to focus on Head Start,
the Head Start money goes for, you know, the prison
complex," Mr. Bush said.
Head Start advocates and the president's opponents said
they remained skeptical about the administration's motives
and worried that the eight-state pilot program would be, as
one education expert put it, "the camel's nose." Critics
say that states cannot be counted on to uphold the quality
of Head Start programs and that the centers, which are
often staffed by former Head Start mothers and operate like
neighborhood centers, will lose their character and close
ties to their communities.
Other Head Start advocates said they were worried that the
nurturing approach of Head Start would change if there was
increased emphasis on early literacy skills.
"There's a big tension in the early childhood community
between huggers and teachers," said Amy Wilkins, the
executive director of the Trust for Early Education, a
lobbying and research group. "There's still this fear,
despite all this brain research about how eager children
are to learn, about the hurried child and too much, too
soon."
Some 40 states have state-financed preschool programs that
would be eligible for the pilot program, if they qualify
and chose to participate. The 10 states without such
programs could not qualify, but the bill would still impose
new academic standards on their Head Start services.
The bill also calls for at least half of Head Start
teachers to have four-year college degrees by 2008. In
addition, Mr. Bush called today for an evaluation program
to judge if the proposed new academic standards are met,
although he said it would be "absurd" for a 4-year-old to
take a standardized test like those the administration has
required for older students.
"But we can have children assessed by asking simple
questions," Mr. Bush said. "You know, words go left to
right. Are you able to identify certain sounds?"
New York State's 176 Head Start programs, which serve more
than 49,000 children, received $208.2 million from the
federal government last year. If Mr. Bush's proposed
overhaul becomes law and New York enters the pilot program,
the federal money would go directly to the governor.
The Head Start bill could be voted on as early as this week
in the House, where it has a good chance of passing. But
Congressional aides say that any Senate bill that includes
the pilot program would face a certain and protracted fight
from Mr. Kennedy and other Democrats.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company