News Release 3/13/2008
NHSA WARNS THAT 14,000 HEAD START CHILD SLOT CUT PROPOSED BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS NEW WHITE HOUSE EFFORT TO "DISMANTLE" HEAD START
After Head-On Assault Failed in 2003-2006, White House Shifts to "Slow Motion Erasure" Strategy; Proposed Elimination of 14,000 Children Served Follows FY 2008 Budget Cut Insisted On By White House.
WASHINGTON, D.C.//March 13, 2008//Head Start officials from across the United States warned today that the Bush White House is once again trying to "dismantle" the Head Start program, after it was rebuffed during 2003-2006 in its controversial first attempt to do so.
The early-childhood education experts pointed to a series of recent developments -- including a Fiscal Year 2009 budget from the White House that would cut 14,065 Head Start child slots -- making it the first enrollment reduction for Head Start to be included in the formal budget proposal of a U.S. President since the launch of Head Start in 1965. Other elements of the White House's new "slow motion erasure" of Head Start include the addition of hundreds of new regulatory requirements for Head Start in the 2007 Head Start Reauthorization Act -- and President Bush's subsequent budget veto that forced the U.S. Congress to impose a more than $10 million Fiscal Year 2008 funding cut that now leaves Head Start programs without the money needed to satisfy the thicket of costly new Reauthorization Act rules.
NHSA is calculating that the 10 states that would experience the sharpest reductions under the President's proposed cuts in Head Start enrollment are: California (1,523 fewer slots), Texas (1,047), New York (756), Illinois (614), Ohio (587), Florida (549), Pennsylvania (548), Michigan (543), Mississippi (413), and Georgia (363). In addition, Puerto Rico would lose 570 slots, the Migrant/Seasonal Worker program (556 slots) and the American Indian/Alaskan Native program (358 slots).
On February 4, 2008, NHSA warned that the President's proposed Fiscal Year 2009 budget for Head Start comes in $923 million short of covering the effective cut in the program since Fiscal Year (FY) 2002. NHSA has calculated that, if Head Start is going to be saved, the program needs a ‘catch up' appropriation of at least an extra $472 million now in the FY 2008 supplemental appropriations bill and then an additional $360 million over and above the prior fiscal year's funding level for each fiscal year from 2009 to 2013.
National Head Start Association Board Chairman Ron Herndon, also director of the Albina Head Start program (Portland, OR) said: "Even as the United States slips into a recession that will only worsen the poverty experienced by millions of American children and their families, Head Start is going to be forced to turn away more and more eligible children. What we are looking at here is a deliberate and long-term effort by the Bush Administration to slowly dismantle the Head Start program in nearly the same way they tried to do starting in 2003. This new attack is even more insidious because they are slowly forcing Head Start programs to reduce days of service, hours of operation, teachers, transportation and health insurance. Instead of simply killing Head Start outright, the Administration is slowly bleeding it to death in a long, painful process."
Minnesota Head Start Association Executive Director Gayle Kelly said: "In this heavily rural state, transportation is a major issue of concern with our programs. Providing transportation is really necessary for Head Start programs to properly serve their communities but with the cost of gas steadily increasing, programs are really struggling. Many programs are saying they won't be able to continue to provide transportation next year but decreases in transportation affect enrollment and attendance. It's a vicious cycle. I would like to tell our lawmakers both in the state and on the federal level to ‘fund your priorities'. We have four-year-olds on our waiting list and if they don't get served, they will enter kindergarten next year unprepared. That will mean unhelpful long-term consequences for those children and for the future of our country."
Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield Head Start Executive Director Janis Santos said: "In my 35 years working in the Head Start community, this is one of the direst funding situations I have seen, if not the worst ever. The hardest thing for any program to do is have to request a reduction in enrollment. We are at the breaking point today and have to count every penny and analyze every expense with painstaking detail. The mandates in the reauthorization bill last year look to raise the bar for the program, as most reauthorizations bill have in the past, but failing to fund these mandates has put additional strain on grantees already stretched to the breaking point. We have 500 children on the wait list for our programs. Now, we are being asked under the new bill to serve the extremely needy community of homeless, but we aren't even funded enough to serve the children already looking to our program for their education needs. We want to help all the kids who need it but can't without the necessary funds to do the job."
Hundreds of Head Start programs across the United States had no choice in 2006 and 2007 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. With cash-strapped Head Start programs already having slashed operations to the bone (and beyond in some cases), the FY 2008 funding cut means that Head Start programs will have experienced a real decline in federal support of 11 percent since FY 2002 (inflation-adjusted). If federal support for Head Start had kept pace with inflation over this period, it would have risen from $6.54 billion in FY 2002 to $7.77 billion in FY 2008.
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 1 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 aaaron@hastingsgroup.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of this NHSA news event will be available as of 6 p.m. EDT on March 13, 2008 at http://www.nhsa.org.