PRESS ROOM

Head Start bill might have unintended results

JO-ANN MORIARTY

WASHINGTON - A federal requirement mandating that Head Start teachers hold a higher education degree within six years would cause a $3.4 billion funding shortfall in the early childhood development programs across the country, a senior policy analyst said yesterday.

Danielle Ewen, a policy analyst at the nonprofit Center for Law and Social Policy, said that while the Senate is poised to require that about 15,000 of the 34,000 Head Start teachers have associate's degrees by 2010 and the other 18,000 teachers have bachelor's degrees by 2011, there are no corresponding federal funds to subsidize local programs to pay their better educated workers higher salaries.

Ewen said those two requirements would create a $3.4 billion gap for Head Start programs.

Judy Battista, the education manager at the Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield Head Start program, said if adopted, the requirement would financially drain the program located in three urban centers.

"This well-intended bill could backfire," Battista said.

Battista, who has been with the program since the mid-70s, along with its director Janis Santos, said that the program pays Head Start teachers about $30,000 annually while the average teacher in the public schools system earn about $40,000 annually.

"It would be a hardship for us in terms of retaining excellent teachers," Battista said.

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is working on bipartisan language that would allow Head Start centers that do not meet the requirement to obtain an annual, renewable waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prevent funding from being withheld.

Battista participated in a Washington, D.C.-based conference call yesterday with Ewen, who released her findings on the funding shortfall, along with Sarah Greene, president and CEO of the National Head Start Association, and Elaine Laird, director of the Absorka Head Start program in Worland, Wyo.

Battista recalled a policy decision her program made in the mid-1970s to require all teachers have a bachelor's degree. The results were counterproductive, she said.

"Many teachers left to go to the public school where they were paid twice as much," Battista said. "Our program became a revolving door."

In that regard, Battista, Ewen, Greene and Laird said that motivating Head Start teachers to earn higher education degrees was a laudable goal.

But without additional federal funds, they said, the requirement will most likely cause financial difficulties at the local level.

"While we did everything possible to make it work, we had to abandon the strident requirement and be more flexible," she said, "it wasn't good for the children."

The tri-city program has 130 teachers and 66 classrooms. Of the 70 lead teachers, 30 of them hold bachelor's degrees. The Senate requirement would mandate that five more teachers hold four-year degrees within six years.

The requirement will be more difficult to meet in Wyoming where Laird said her teachers would face a five-hour drive to the nearest university.

Battista said the Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield program is fortunate in its location within a bounty of colleges and university.

In fact, she said, the local Head Start program receives a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to subsidize students interested in early childhood education with Holyoke Community College. The name of the grant is called the Higher Education Hispanic/Latino Service Institution Partnership.