UP TO 120,000 NEW JOBS IN WORST-OFF U.S. COMMUNITIES POSSIBLE FROM $4.3 BILLION BOOST FOR HEAD START IN ECONOMIC RECOVERY PACKAGE

 

Listen to the News Event Here

More Full-Time Head Start/Early Head Start Slots Means More Low-Income Parents Can Work;
NHSA Recommends Targeting Some Funds to Boost Teacher, Other Salaries.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///January 8, 2009///Between 62,000 and 120,000 new jobs could be created where they are needed the most in the United States if the Obama economic recovery package now working its way through Congress includes an urgently needed $4.3 billion boost for Head Start and Early Head Start, according to an estimate from the National Head Start Association (NHSA).

Head Start is America's effective and most thoroughly tested early childhood education and health program targeting low-income children.  Depending on how the $4.3 billion is allocated by Congress, NHSA estimates that it would create between 62,000 and 120,000 jobs in Head Start and Early Head Start programs,

National Head Start Association Board Chairperson Ron Herndon, also director of the Albina Head Start program (Portland, OR), said: "This would be one of the strongest possible ‘kick start' investments of funds that the federal government could make to connect directly with the children and families that need help the most during these tough economic times.  $4.3 billion for Head Start will create more and better jobs in America's most recession-stricken neighborhoods and communities. $4.3 billion will help more low-income families get back to work, by ensuring that their children have safe, high-quality programs to attend during the work day."

Lucia Palacios, executive director of the Orange County Head Start, Inc. (Santa Ana, CA), and past president, California Head Start Association, said: "Head Start programs have always been a cornerstone in low-income communities in this country as we have been successful in creating a variety of workforce opportunities for thousands of people.  I am always impressed by the stories I hear from former Head Start parents that now work for a Head Start program, who share that Head Start has allowed them to provide for their families in ways that were unimaginable.  The $4.3 billion investment in Head Start will allow us to continue to be this bastion of opportunity by allowing us to rebuild our workforce through the hiring of new staff, providing livable wages, and restoring staff positions that were once eliminated."

Aaron Lieberman, CEO, Acelero Learning, a for-profit Head Start provider in Nevada and New Jersey, said: "Head Start desperately needs additional funding to help strengthen and expand the program.  This funding will both create new jobs - but also allow more families to participate in Head Start. And we know that when more children participate in Head Start, federal and state governments save money in terms of long-term, costly interventions that will not be needed later on, and most importantly, the children and families go on to have more productive, happy, and healthier lives."

Concerned parents, grandparents and other Americans are being urged by NHSA to go to http://www.SaveHeadStart.org to send a message to their members of Congress in support of the $4.3 billion infusion of economic recovery funds.

Under NHSA's recommendations, the $4.3 billion in economic recovery funds for Head Start and Early Head Start would be directed as follows:

• $3 billion to help cover operating expenses and to provide quality funds to enable Head Start and Early Head Start programs to address needs that have gone unmet in recent years. A major portion of these funds would be used to align the salaries of Head Start teachers and other staff with the rest of the marketplace in order to help reduce the current high level of turnover. 

• $1.3 billion funds would provide an infusion of one-time funding to cover critical items for Head Start and Early Head Start programs, including: deferred maintenance on facilities (such as plumbing repairs, carpeting and fencing); updates to older, inefficient buildings (such as energy efficiencies and weatherization); enhancing Head Start environments (such as playgrounds and classrooms furnishings); upgrading necessary technologies to ensure Head Start stays current; transportation to help children access services (critical for rural programs and programs serving homeless children); converting program models to serve infants and toddlers; making a down payment to help teachers meet the baccalaureate degree requirement and to begin to build an appropriate teacher compensation schedule; and one-time funding for grants to construct new Head Start facilities. Many Head Start facilities, like public schools, are crumbling and are in need replacement. 

Head Start is the cornerstone for early childhood services in this country. Since 1965 for Head Start and 1994 for Early Head Start, these programs have served more than 25 million low-income and at-risk children and families by providing child care, education, health, nutrition, social, family support, and other services. The Head Start model is a comprehensive one, and by empowering families, helping to alleviate poverty, and engaging actively in communities, it goes far beyond solely providing early childhood education. As the safety net for early childhood services, Head Start acts as the only reliable funding stream for these services. This is important because over the last several years during budget crises, many states have cut pre-K funding while others have never provided it at all.

Major studies documenting the benefits of Head Start and Early Head Start for children and families include the following:

• Our society receives nearly $9 in benefits for every $1 dollar invested in Head Start children, according to the preliminary results of a longitudinal study of more than 600 Head Start graduates in San Bernardino County, California (Meier, 2004). These projected benefits include increased earnings, employment, and family stability, and decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education. In addition, Head Start has been shown to benefit participating children and society at large by reducing crime and its costs to crime victims (Fight Crime Invest In Kids, 2004; Garces, Thomas, and Currie, 2002).

• Substantial research demonstrates that Head Start children experience increased achievement test scores and favorable long-term effects in terms of less grade repetition and special education, and higher school graduation rates (Barnett, 2002; Ludwig and Miller, 2007).

• Early Head Start children at age 3 had larger vocabularies and a higher level of social-emotional development than their peers did (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).

• Recent research suggests that Head Start reduced the mortality rates for 5- to 9-year-old children from causes that could have been affected by their participation in Head Start when they were 3- and 4-year-olds (Ludwig and Miller, 2007).

• Children attending Head Start have increased access to dental care and have higher immunizations rates than non-Head Start children do (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005; Currie and Thomas, 1995).

 

Reliable research demonstrates that quality early childhood programs, such as Head Start, are effective as part of a smart workforce development strategy and as anti-poverty tools (Heckman, 2006, Meier, 2003; Oyemade, Washington, and Gullo, 1989):

• Head Start's emphasis on parental involvement contributes to positive growth and the upward mobility of Head Start parents by helping to move them out of poverty (Oyemade, Washington, and Gullo, 1989).
• The national Early Head Start Impact Study found that Early Head Start parents were more likely than control group parents to ever be employed or participate in an education or job training program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004).
• Early Head Start parents were also more likely than control group parents to work more hours each week and participate in any education or training program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004).

 

In March 2008, more than three out of four Head Start programs reported that they were "at or near the breaking point" and unable to absorb a Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 budget cut and hundreds of new unfunded mandates imposed in the 2007 Head Start Reauthorization Act. After years of slashing budgets, employees and benefits to squeeze into an effective 13 percent budget cut from FY 2002-2008, Head Start programs cautioned at that time that there was no room for additional cuts.  Between 2006 and 2008 hundreds of Head Start programs across the United States had no choice but to scale back days and hours of operations, bus service, support staff, and other critical services and manpower. Many Head Start programs have even had to eliminate health insurance coverage for their teachers and staff.

It is estimated that less than 40 percent of those children eligible for Head Start and 2 percent of infants and toddlers eligible for Early Head Start are actually being served by the underfunded programs.

ABOUT NHSA

The National Head Start Association (http://www.nhsa.org) is a private not-for-profit membership organization dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of Head Start children and their families. It represents more than one million children, 200,000 staff and 2,600 Head Start programs in the United States. The Association provides support for the entire Head Start community by advocating for policies that strengthen services to Head Start children and their families; by providing extensive training and professional development to Head Start staff; and by developing and disseminating research, information, and resources that enrich Head Start program delivery.
 
CONTACT:  Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265 or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  A streaming audio replay of today's news event will be available on the Web at http://www.nhsa.org as of 6 p.m. ET on January 8, 2009.