PRESS ROOM

NHSA URGES SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE TO APPROVE HEAD START BUDGET THAT WOULD AVOID MAJOR CUTS IN SERVICES

House Appropriations Subcommittee Version of Budget Would Fail to Keep Pace with Inflation, Force Axing the Equivalent of 7,300 Head Start and Early Head Start Child Slots.

WASHINGTON, D.C./June 18, 2007//The National Head Start Association (NHSA), the national voice of Head Start grantees, is urging that, when the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies meets Tuesday, it exceed the $75 million increase for Head Start approved on June 7, 2007 by the relevant House Appropriations Subcommittee. Since the adjustment approved by the House subcommittee would fail to keep pace with inflation, the resulting cuts would equal closing enrollment to 7,282 Head Start and Early Head Start slots in FY 2008, according to NHSA calculations.

NHSA President Sarah Greene said: “Even though the full House Appropriations Committee has not yet voted on the budget, we are very concerned that the U.S. House may be moving to reauthorize Head Start without providing the necessary funds to enact needed improvements, including more degreed teachers. What we are telling Senators is that we need an increase of $131 million in FY 2008 in order for funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs to keep pace with inflation and other FY 2008 mandates.”

Greene added: “Head Start actually requires at least a $750 million increase in FY 2008 to restore funding for Head Start and Early Head Start to the level that it was at in FY 2002.”

If enacted into law, the House subcommittee’s meager $75 million increase would see Head Start and Early Head Start funding in FY 2008 fail to keep pace with inflation. Overall, Head Start and Early Head Start programs would be experiencing an inflation-adjusted cut of 9 percent since FY 2002.

Last month, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 1429, The Improving Head Start Act of 2007, by a vote of 365 to 48. This bill authorized a $461 million funding increase for Head Start and Early Head Start in FY 2008 to pay for many outstanding initiatives and quality improvements. These initiatives and improvements include: increasing the quality set-aside; expanding access to Early Head Start program; paying for much of the cost of requiring 50 percent of Head Start teachers nationwide to have a baccalaureate degree; increasing the number of Seasonal/Migrant and American Indian/Alaskan Native children and families served by Head Start; and creating state Early Learning Councils.

Greene said: “We have to face facts. A radical scaling back from $461 million in new funds to just $75 million will not pay for all of these quality improvements and initiatives under H.R. 1429. In recent years, Head Start and Early programs have had to make budget cuts to operate within their shrinking grants. As NHSA documented in a February 2007 report, Head Start grantees have exhausted every means of making cuts, making it impossible for the programs to adhere to the high quality Head Start Program Performance Standards and also forcing enrollment reductions.”

Zero to Three Director of Public Policy Erica Lurie-Hurvitz said; “In addition to Head Start programs, Early Head Start programs have also faced across-the-board funding cuts as a result of budgetary restrictions over the past few years. As a result, the ability of programs to provide the comprehensive services required by the Head Start Performance Standards has been threatened. Research has shown that programs serving family and community needs through full-day, full-year services show more sustainable gains in children’s success in school, family self-sufficiency, and parental support of child development than less-intensive programs. The quality associated with these programs cannot be maintained when limited resources are stretched even further and programs are forced to cut hours as well as such critical components as maternal depression and mental health services. Early Head Start is a high-quality proven program, but without appropriate funding, programs struggle to ensure that children and their families receive the high-quality supports and services they need at a time when it is most critical to the healthy development of infants and toddlers.”

National Indian Head Start Directors Association President Theo Bayou said: “Although the 1.1% increase of $75 million is a welcome change in direction from the flat funding of recent years, for Indian Head Start, the proposed increase would still fall far short of the inflation rate, which is especially high on many Indian reservations due in part to the higher energy costs associated with remote locations.  Under this budget proposal, Indian Head Start programs would likely have to reduce funds for transportation (which would have an immediate impact on enrollment and attendance, especially on the larger reservations); reduce class room hours; combine managerial positions leading to reduced social services and health services; and reduce the modest fringe benefits that are currently provided to staff.  All of these actions, regrettably, would adversely influence whether families will keep their children in the program.”

In FY 2002, Head Start and Early Head Start funding was $6,536,570,000. FY 2002 was the last year that Head Start and Early Head Start funding exceeded inflation. Since then Head Start and Early Head Start funding has not kept pace with inflation. To maintain Head Start and Early Head Start funding at the same level that it was in FY 2002, Head Start and Early Head Start funding would need to be at $7,638,610,095 in FY 2008. Instead, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies approved $6,963,571,000 for FY 2008 which is $675,039,095 short of $7,638,610,095. This means that Head Start and Early Head Start programs will have experienced a real cut of 9 percent between FY 2002 and FY 2008 if the $75 million increase is enacted into law.

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. You also can find more information at http://www.SaveHeadStart.org.

CONTACT:  Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265 or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com.