NHSA Board Chairman Blasts Bush Head Start Proposal

NHSA's Chairman of the Board Ron Herndon's address, the 29th Annual Training Conference, April 24, 2002, Phoenix, Arizona.

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Sarah, I want to thank you for the gracious introduction and especially Commissioner Hill. We're very, very proud of you and certainly look forward to working with you. And I think it is quite an achievement for the Head Start community to have a person in this position who was a Head Start child.

One of the things that I learned as a little boy…I was raised by my grandparents, and they used to tell me that - they have a fancy way of saying it now - even when there's something unpopular to be said: Always Speak Truth to Power."

What I want to focus on this evening are three areas. One: the administration's plan to move Head Start to the Department of Education. Two: the administration's newly announced literacy initiative, and three: our response to both of these.

Before I go further, there are about five, six people from the Head Start program that I'm privileged to work with in Portland Oregon, Albina Head Start. They are here. We have head of our early Head Start program, Elaine, is here; Bobby is here; Robyn is here; and the policy council representative is here. The two ladies that I want to focus on - they currently are teachers' assistants in our program - they were teachers. And they have been with our program close to 20 years. And I just want to publicly thank you, Velma and Sharon, for all the work and the love that you've given children. Because, were it not for you, I wouldn't be able to stand up here. Thank you very, very much.

What I want to focus on this evening are: one, the administration's plan to move Head Start to the Department of Education; and two, the administration's newly announced literacy initiative; and our response to both of these.

First things first. We had some victories last year. And we need to begin to learn how to celebrate our victories. Those same grandparents used to say, "It's a poor frog that can't brag about his own pond."

Now we'll talk a little bit about money - and we have some disagreements with President Bush. We think that he needs to get some information from different sources about what Head Start is and what Head Start isn't. Last year President Bush recommended…

President Bush recommended that Head Start receive $125 million increase. That would not have kept up with inflation. We went to Congress. Congress gave us a $330 plus, million dollar increase.

We do enjoy bipartisan support. We receive support from Republicans and Democrats. Were that not true, we would not have gotten that increase. We tried to say to the administration last year that that amount of money is not enough to maintain program quality let alone expand Head Start services.

Another victory we received in the National Head Start Association we've been fighting for this over ten years. The senate language says that Head Start programs should be able to serve children birth through three without trying to get some kind of early Head Start special grant to do it. It makes sense. If your needs assessment says that birth through three service is needed in your community, why should you have to go through some grant process to do that? You should be able to convert your Head Start slot in to that service. We won that. That's in the senate language administration, as I understand that's trying to develop language to implement that.

Well over ten years, the National Head Start Association has said why is it that Head Start has to operate with the lowest income guidelines that the federal government uses? Why is this? Why do you and I have to tell women who qualify for WIC they make too much money to get their kids in Head Start?

Why do we have to tell parents who qualify for free and reduced lunches in public schools they make too much money to get their kids in Head Start?

Why do we have to tell parents who qualify for J.P.T.A. Programs they make too much money to get their kids in Head Start?

Folks, every administration has refused to do anything about it. The Clinton administration refused to do anything about it. This is what I think has happened. As Napoleon once said that history is a myth agreed upon.

When you're able to say the Head Start now serves 60 percent of all eligible children, it gives the impression that we are making a dent in poverty in this country with Head Start. That's a myth. We do not want to be party to the myth.

We have fought to raise those guidelines; we have been unsuccessful. One thing we did say - "Well then, increase the percentage of children who can be over income in Head Start so we can get some of these working poor families who have to avail themselves of Head Start services."

That percentage has been raised to 25 percent. The administration is again working on language to address that. So I want to thank all of you for your hard work for staying in touch with your Congress people, letting them know what Head Start is and what Head Start needs. When President Bush was Governor of Texas, and he was deciding to run for president, we heard him say then that he wanted to move Head Start into the Department of Education. We got in touch with him. Staff went down to Austin, and shared with him why we thought that was a mistake. We weren't successful in changing his mind. We look forward to him hopefully changing his mind in the very, very near future. But what we were told was that Head Start was not doing enough in the area of literacy. And that we weren't using research based information to guide us in our work.

I just want to share with you some research about Head Start. You may or may not be familiar with a publication called National Bureau of Economic Research Digest. It's almost a bible for folks who are involved in economics and who are involved in predicting what economic growth is going to be in this country. The person who sent this article to me was a former governor of Oregon. He also sent it to Phil Knight, CEO of Nike. Nike's involved in the project to get computers in Head Start classrooms.

He said, "I want to send this to both of you because you may not have seen what this institution is saying about Head Start." Now these folks are involved in only business-related activity. As we used to say at home, " they don't have a dog in the Head Start fight."

But this is what they had to say in terms of research - when people throw around this research this is what they had to say - "Head Start generates long-term improvements in important outturns such as school entertainment earnings and crime reduction." It also discusses positive impact on siblings who did not attend Head Start. The new FACES data shows Head Start works. If you remember years ago when President Clinton came in, there was also this human cry about does Head Start work? A blue ribbon panel was put together. Representatives from the Republican Party, Democratic Party, and some of the most eminent early childhood people in this [incomprehensible] in this country, excuse me. This is what the report said. Did you get it? - I don't know if y'all remember it - this is it just to let you all know, I ain't making this stuff up.

Page nine, this is what they say, "Head Start has positive impact on school readiness. Studies of Head Start indicate positive effects on children's cognitive skills, self esteem, achievement, motivation, and social behavior." That's research! Research! Head Start received the highest score of any government agency in 1999 in consumer satisfaction in that survey. I'll say it again: "The Highest Score."

Recently - this is occurring right now - 32 Head Start programs have joined together to see what children know. This is occurring right now among our colleagues using the same [incomprehensible] reliable assessment tool tied to federal Head Start outcome indicators. This involves over 3,000 children. As of this very evening, the typical child has alphabet knowledge, book knowledge, early writing print awareness, counting, beginning subtraction, beginning addition, estimation, and comparisons above outcome levels. That's right now.

And I encourage more of us to do our own research. Research should not be given to somebody else that we always think is smarter than us. Hit institutions in our community to do your own research so you won't have somebody coming up with a new PhD, some long pointed-toe shoes, and a briefcase trying to tell you what you're not doing.

That's the face of this. But this move to the Department of Education - obviously we are more than an education program -we are more than that and always have been more than an education program.

But if you accept the premise that we are going to be helped by going to the Department of Education, I ask this question, "Charity starts at home? -show me what the Department of Education is currently doing with low income children!"

Title I, billions of dollars going to the school systems all across this country has done little or nothing to raise the reading and math scores of low-income children across this country.

If in fact Title I works, then why do we still have this disparity in achievement in this country today? Black and Hispanic 12th graders are reading and doing math at the same level as white eighth graders. So you tell me how Title I is helping this country. English as a second language. This is how the Department of Education runs programs.

In my hometown disgracefully. Our public school system has been found by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in violation of civil rights regulations seven years in a row.
They have not taken one dime from them. Not one dime! While I am talking to you tonight, tomorrow there are kids in Portland public schools who do not speak English, who will go into a classroom that does not have one adult in that classroom that speaks their language. That's ESL. That's the Department of Education in the same school system.

You have these emerging programs: the little middle class kids' teachers speak English and the language that they want the kids to acquire. Why is it when it comes to poor kids, we think they can acquire one of the most difficult languages in the world, English, and not have someone in the classroom who speaks their language? That's the Department of Education!

If you think we're going to be helped by moving to the Department of Education, that's [incomprehensible] logic. Most of the money in Head Start is spent on personnel. Maybe somebody assumes we're not doing a good job with personnel. Do you want to put us in the Department of Labor?

We got a lot of busses in Head Start. Maybe somebody thinks that we aren't doing a good job with these busses. Do you want to put us in the Department of Transportation?

We feed a lot of kids in Head Start. Do you think that we are not using healthy nutritious meals? Do we go to the Department of Agriculture? If you think there's something that we're not doing, well, tell us. Let us fix it in Health and Human Services!

3.9 million children enter kindergarten each year; only 500,000 come from Head Start. The rest are from child care or home care. President Bush has proposed no increase in child care for the next five years. If we are serious, let's talk about a comprehensive approach to literacy. A $130 million increase for us next year won't keep us up with inflation. How are we going to be able to address these suggested mandates - and the money is not coming down to do it? We again are going to work with Congress. And say to Congress, "We need more than that….When you [Congress] - in 1990 - said that every eligible child in Head Start would be served by 1994, we paid attention. You have not kept your promise. That promise must be kept, and it will take significantly more than $130 million to do that."

Number two: that's the move to the Department of Education. We are ultimately opposed to that.

Early literacy training.
We agree with President Bush. All of us can do more to help children learn to read. We can do more to help them in areas of literacy. But we disagree with the approach.
Number one: first find out what Head Start programs are doing in literacy now before you make a decision. Before you make a decision we're not doing enough, ask us what we're doing. No one has ever asked before they came up with this program. Two: don't come up with one way to do it, and unilaterally decide who's going to do that. The announcement that has come out, talks about a program out of the University of Texas. I think called CIRCLE in Houston, Texas, who's going to do the training. This training is going to cost at least - from what I understand - about $12 million when you put it all together. If I have to spend $12,000 of my program, I got to at least get three bids before I can do that. There was no bid process for this.

I got to be worried about David's bacon David's sausage David's ham hock and everything else.
I got to keep all kind of notes to do this. Now how are we going to come up with spending $12 million and there's not even a bid process. If that institution is good, and I understand that it is, let it go through a bid process like everybody else, and use that RFP process to decide who's going to do this.

And I must say the Information Memorandum says we're going to send people up to these regional trainings, and after four days they're going to come back as early literacy specialists.

Now, Uncle Sam doesn't even promise that with the Army.

Now, don't get me wrong. If anybody wants to take advantage of the training, go ahead. But this is what we say: "Tell us Head Start is federal/local. We agree to performance standards. We agree to outcomes. Tell us what the outcomes of the performance standards are. Let us decide locally how we are going to meet them. We decide locally what our training is going to look like who's going to train us and when they're going to be trained. Now don't try to do this from Washington, D.C. Let me look at my community assessment. Let me look at my staff. Let me talk to my Board and Policy Council, and we can craft an excellent training program. And we will meet outcomes. We've been meeting outcomes, as I shared with you earlier; we are even exceeding outcomes. Ask us first before you try to put together a program that's going to be run from Washington, D.C. Ask us. Travel around."

Ask and ye shall receive. Ask and we will help shape policy. Ask and we will help you come up with solutions, but Don't come and tell us:
You must. We strongly advise, We strongly urge. We strongly recommend.

Mr. Bush was in error with his announcement when he also said that programs who didn't cut the mustard in terms of academic achievement could be de-funded. Now I understand members of the administration are trying to reverse pivot and backtrack on that and say well that ain't exactly so. Well this is my feeling since it came out of the White House let us get another retraction from the White House that says that ain't exactly so. Let it come from the same source that said it. I read it and I thought that was disgraceful. How are you going to say you're going to one it's illegal but how are you going to say you're going to de-fund a program just because you don't think that a kid reads well enough or does numbers well enough. We're a little bit more than just that. In terms of this and still a lot of folks were saying to me saying look we've got this information memorandum it looks like National Head Start Association is tied up in this through the Heads Up! program. Let me just say something about Heads Up! N.H.S.A. conceived the idea of a national satellite based training program. And the Head Start bureau didn't tell us to do it. No President told us to do it. We knew that our members if they were going to get top notch training it had to be done using modern technologies. We put that together. We did that. And let me tell you what our position is on this. Our Board met yesterday and unanimously, unanimously passed this resolution the Board of Directors on Tuesday April 23rd 2002 unanimously approved the following position; N.H.S.A. supports the President's desire to increase the literacy level of low-income children and families. N.H.S.A. does not support the administration's selecting and financing one early literacy training model circling Heads Up! for all Head Start programs. This election contradicts Head Start policies and the local Head Start programs to design and select training options that comply with federal Head Start performance standards and local community assessment. For over three decades N.H.S.A. and the Head Start community have engaged in strengthening language and literacy training for Head Start children staff and parents. These efforts include a research-based position paper Head Start reading and writing now the creation of a satellite based distance learning system that trained over 12,000 early childhood teachers and an array of national state and local partnerships of literacy focused organizations. We strongly encourage administrations to assess current Head Start literacy training efforts and include members of the Head Start community in the dialogue to determine programs early literacy experiences and needs and design an effective national training effort. We strongly recommend this collaborative approach to use in the development of any future Head Start initiatives. That's what your Board did yesterday. And I'm very, very proud of them.

And I tell you why because it would have been easy enough for them to say O.K. hey, hey, hey let's just say yes because you know what it's $12 million on the table and we going get a cut of that money. My grandparents used to also tell me all money ain't good money.

We will never as long as this Board is here as long as Sarah is here and as long as God keeps breath in my body sell our Head Start standards Head Start decision making for any amount of money.

What do we do? This is the next question I want to spend a little time on this. What do we do? N.H.S.A. has laid this out pretty clearly. One, every program should have your congressional delegation visiting your program. Show them what you're doing not only in literacy but in every other part of your program that you are addressing Head Start performance standards. Show them. Get them to sign on the dotted line. I oppose moving Head Start to the Department of Education. Because a lot of them are running for office there's an election in November get them to sign up now because you know I hear this from some of my colleagues who think that NHSA has not been strategic enough. This is what I feel about strategics the same rascal that said that to show me your congressman coming in to your program you bring me a signed letter and I will say we're not being strategic enough. What are your parents doing? Are your parents involved in getting in touch with Congress? If people think we're not being strategic enough then tell me how did we stumble upon that $300 million increase last year? How did we stumble upon that zero to five service last year? How did we stumble upon that 25 percent over income last year? How did we stumble upon Heads Up!? And as a matter of fact the quality satisfied y'all about to get that money again that was N.H.S.A. that took that to Congress. So talk to me about strategics.

Show what we're doing with literacy. And Head Start directors, we need to do a lot better job of advocacy. We do. I personally think it is unethical for me to stand up and tell parents this is what you need to do to stand up to a school system. This is what you need to do to stand up to a housing authority. This is what you need to do to stand up to city government. But I don't stand up to [incomprehensible] national Head Start bureau policies when I know that they are wrong. It's not enough. It's not enough for you to come here and grumble in the bar or grumble in the closet or get where three or more are gathered and talk about oh lordy ain't it a shame you need to go back home and stand up like a man or woman and say that this is wrong and parents I'm going to show you how to organize to address us.

We can't stand in front of parents and pretend to preach the gospel when we're the biggest sinners in the world. It's one way or the other. If it's good enough for the parents, it's good enough for us. Lastly, do our own research! Get Congress in to our programs, and "Speak Truth to Power." Even when it's unpopular. And I leave you with an old Irish proverb that says, "may the Lord hold you in his hands but not grip his fist too tightly to hurt you. Thank you very, very much.