NHSA LAUDS HOUSE HEAD START REAUTHORIZATION BILL AS “MAJOR POSITIVE STEP FORWARD”
Association Opposed Amendments for Block-Grant Attack on Head Start Programs and Religious Discrimination; Positive Elements of House Bill Cited.
WASHINGTON,
D.C./March 15, 2007// The Head Start reauthorization bill (HR 1429) approved Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee on a strong bipartisan basis is a “major positive step forward” for Head Start in the United States, according to the National Head Start Association (NHSA), the national voice of Head Start grantees.
In particular, NHSA applauded the following aspects of the House reauthorization bill:
- Defeat of an amendment to approve block-granting of Head Start programs in eight states with no quality standards;
- Defeat of an amendment to permit hiring discrimination on religious grounds;
- Maintaining a strong role of shared governance for Head Start parents on policy councils;
- Increasing income eligibility to 130 percent under certain circumstances;
- Terminating the controversial and non-scientific National Reporting System (NRS) testing system of toddlers;
- Increasing the set-aside for Early Head Start, Migrant and Indian Head Start programs; and
- A more common-sense approach to Head Start grantee re-competition.
NHSA President and CEO Sarah Greene said: “The House’s approach to reauthorization of Head Start gets almost everything right and we are very pleased to see this important piece of legislation move forward. We still need to make sure that there is adequate money to pay teachers a fair wage and that voter registration efforts for Head Start parents are not curbed, but these are the kind of details that we can continue to work on. It is our hope that several of the key provisions of the House reauthorization bill be looked at closely by the Senate as it continues to consider its version of the Head Start reauthorization bill (S. 556), which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Feb. 14.”
Greene said that a House floor vote could come up as early as next week. NHSA will be working to further improve the bill before that vote takes place. The Association also made clear that it will oppose any version of the reauthorization of the bill that includes either block granting of Head Start or religious discrimination in Head Start hiring.
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.
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