NHSA Introduction to Advocacy

House Bill Passes; Senate to Begin Work on Bill End of October; Call Now to Stop Cuts (October 18, 2005)

Take Action on Budget
The Bush administration and Republicans leaders in Congress have announced that in order to pay for the Katrina relief effort, funding for programs that assist children and families need to be cut dramatically to make up for the loss of revenue. This ploy — to rob Peter to pay Paul — will result in up to $50 billion worth of cuts to programs such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and of course, Head Start.

This will result in thousands of slots being cut from Head Start and vital services for children and families being eliminated or drastically curtailed. Not surprisingly, while Republican leaders are asking for deep cuts to social services programs, they continue to push for another round of tax cuts totaling $70 billion — primarily for the most well off Americans.

Folks, let’s not let them get away with this. We should not be punishing vulnerable children and families in this incredible time of need. It is a false choice to think that these cuts are necessary while the richest Americans are scheduled to benefit from another big tax break yet again. So far there is some good news to report! The Senate Agriculture Committee has decided to reject cuts to the Food Stamp program.

But we still have a long way to go! Congress will consider more cuts this week! Here’s what we need you to do. Call toll free 1 (800) 426-8073 and ask to be connected to your senator’s office. Say to the person who answers in the senator’s office:

“My name is ___________ and I live in [your town/city]. I would like Senator [name] to oppose $50 billion in cuts to Medicaid, child care, Head Start and other vital services, and to oppose $70 billion in more tax cuts.”

“The right priorities are protecting people from sickness and hardship, investing in housing, jobs, and other services that families need — not squandering billions on tax cuts for the well-connected.”

Senate Bill Discussions to Begin End of October
Now that the House bill has passed, attention turns to the Senate. We have been told that the Senate will take up Head Start reauthorization at the end of October/beginning of November. Several issues still need to be addressed including:

Teacher Degrees Unlike the House bill, which required half of all Head Start teachers to have a B.A. degree by 2011, the Senate bill is much more stringent. The Senate bill requires half of the teachers in every program to have at least a B.A. degree. More troubling is language requiring Head Start teachers to meet the degree requirements of their state pre-k program if the state requirements are tougher. Right now, the Senate bill includes no additional dollars at all to pay teachers a fair wage when they have obtained their BA, degrees. This will likely result in teachers leaving to work in the public schools where the pay and benefits are often higher. We believe that the teacher degree requirements in the Senate bill should not be triggered unless there are additional dollars to pay teachers who complete their degrees a fair wage. We believe that the state pre-k match language should be removed from the bill. Finally, we believe that a nationwide rather than a program-by-program requirement for the teacher requirements is more workable.

Policy Council The Senate bill leaves sole decision-making authority to the board of directors and significantly diminishes the role of the policy council to nothing more than serve as an advisory group. Negotiations on this issue are likely to continue within the Senate HELP Committee when works resumes at the end of October. NHSA believes that the voices of Head Start parents are critical to the success of Head Start and that parents should be empowered to make decisions that affect their children. We believe that the full authority of the policy council should be restored.

NRS The National Reporting System (NRS) was halted in the House bill with the help of NHSA and the Head Start community, but this does not mean that the test is finished just yet. A growing bi-partisan consensus holds that the time to halt the test is now. We continue to urge the Senate to follow the lead of the House and halt the NRS until the National Academy of Sciences develops an assessment that is both reliable and valid.

Discrimination The House-passed bill includes language that allows faith-based providers of Head Start programs to discriminate in their hiring practices based on a prospective employee’s religion. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has made it clear that when the Senate bill goes to the floor for a vote, an effort will be made to attach an amendment allowing programs to discriminate. NHSA continues to stand opposed to any effort to allow any form of discrimination into Head Start.

We, of course, remain concerned with language to restrict the use of training dollars to travel to national conferences as well restrictions on certain political activity.

What Now?
NHSA will be providing you with additional tools to use to talk about the key issues with your two senators in the coming days. For example, we are working on a succinct talking points paper on the policy council that you can provide to staff on the Hill. But right now, the most important area for you to focus on is to help make the concerns that you have with the Senate bill make sense on an “on the ground level.”

Contact your two senators and talk to them about the following:

How will the teacher degree requirements directly affect your Head Start program if there are no additional dollars available? Have you already had to lay off some teachers because of budget shortfalls? The more specific you can be the better.

How does the policy council work in your program? In what ways does the policy council keep parents involved with their children? How does it empower them to make decisions and to become a lifelong advocate for their kids?

If you are a faith-based provider of Head Start, let your two senators know that your program can easily provide high quality services without discriminating against employees.

If you have a really good example you would like to share with us, please send it to Joel Ryan at jyran@nhsa.org. We will use these examples in our work on the Hill. On the issues remaining, we need to educate senators on how their decisions in D.C. directly affect the day-to-day operations of Head Start and the children and families you serve.

To contact your two senators, dial the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and convey to them your key concerns with the Senate bill.

Have You Been to the www.Saveheadstart.org Web Site in a While?
NHSA’s activist Web site www.saveheadstart.org has been updated and a new Senate letter is available for your use. We also have a new feature that will allow parents and staff to send letters to the editor of their local newspapers. Check it out! So far, 180,000 e-mails have been sent to members of Congress since the Web site first opened in the beginning of this campaign, and more than 1 million people have visited the site.

Media Clips
As you can imagine, there were a number of articles written about the House Head Start bill over the last two weeks. Here is just a sampling:

Leadership Institute Is Huge Success
NHSA’s Fall Leadership Institute took place September 28-30 in Washington D.C. Participants heard from a variety of presenters on topics ranging from fundraising. to current legal issues. to early education advocacy strategies. Of course, it included a comprehensive legislative update. Acting Associate Commissioner Frank Fuentes and Representative Mark Souder (R-Ind.), who has been working with NHSA on restoring the policy council, attended the institute. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.), a former Head Start parent, was our legislative breakfast speaker. Rep. Moore spoke passionately about her advocacy on behalf of children. Participants remarked that this was easily the best institute that they have attended! The next leadership institute takes place in January 25-28, 2006 in Arlington, VA. We hope you can make it!

Please remember that this document is paid for by the Dollar per Child Campaign! To get involved contact Erika Argersinger NHSA’s new Associate Director of Government Affairs at eargersinger@nhsa.org or by phone at (703)299-7509. She will be happy to talk to you about how you can get your campaign off and running