CONTROVERSIAL HOUSE HEAD
START BILL "ABANDONS" 750,000 HISPANIC CHILDREN
IN SOUTHWEST, REST OF U.S.
Lack of Funding for Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworker, Other Hispanic Children is Major Flaw; National,
Texas, California and Arizona Advocates Urge Lawmakers to
Yank or Rewrite Bill.
WASHINGTON, D.C.///July 2, 2003/// Nearly three-quarters of a million
at-risk Hispanic children in California, Texas, Arizona and the rest of the
United States would be left unserved by the successful Head Start program under
a controversial U.S. House bill that may come to a vote shortly after the July
4th holiday weekend, according to national and state-level Head Start advocates..
"This is nothing short of a national scandal: 77 percent of Hispanic
infants and toddlers go unserved by Head Start today," said Manda Lopez,
executive director of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. "The
story is even worse when you consider the fact that only 19 percent of eligible
migrant and seasonal children in our country are being served by Head Start.
These are the children who most need the services provided by Head Start. It
is astonishing to me that the House bill that may be voted on next week does
little to address the most important issues of Hispanic Americans and ultimately
leaves children behind."
According
to National Head Start Association (NHSA) data, 1,010,601 children were enrolled
in Head Start during the 2001-2002 program year. Of that total, about one-third
-- 303,613 children -- were Hispanic, including 73,224 in California, 47,288
in Texas and 10,018 in Arizona. However, the national Hispanic enrollment level
in Head Start reflects only about 23 percent of all program-eligible Hispanic
children living in poverty, according to the NHSA analysis.
Lucia Palacios, treasurer, California Head Start Association, and executive
director, of the USC School for Early Childhood Education in Los Angeles, said: "We
have to face the facts: This is a unique population of children who don't get
to start out in school in the same place as middle-class white children from
suburbia. The Hispanic children served in California leave our programs with
literacy skills in both English and Spanish. The 176 local Head Start programs
in California work closely with the parents of each child so that they are
better able to support their children's educational goals. Through a total
of 137,721 parent/volunteers statewide, we prepare parents not only to support
their children in being more successful in school, but to do a better job in
general as parents. And that effort pays major dividends for the futures of
the 98,687 Hispanic and non-Hispanic children enrolled in Head Start in California."
In addition to the underfunding issues, which are of greatest concern in the
context of Hispanic children, Head Start advocates fear that the controversial
House bill would dismantle the entire Head Start program. Under the measure,
eight 'pilot" states (including, possibly, Texas, Arizona and California)
would not have to maintain Head Start's tough performance standards and the
full range of comprehensive services that have been proven vital to making
sure that at-risk children are ready to learn when they get to school. The
proposal to dismantle the 38-year-old Head Start program has been criticized
by leading education experts, organizations and programs, in the United States,
including: Edward Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology at Yale University
Emeritus and the "father" of Head Start during the Nixon Administration;
Purdue University Professor James Elicker; the United Way "Success by
Six" program; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; the National Head Start Association;
and 100 other organizations.
Lusila Ortega, a Head Start program assistant director in San Benito, Texas,
said: "This is a double-decker problem for Texas. First, we have
the fact that the House bill doesn't come close to serving the large and growing
number
of Hispanic children in the state. We are talking here about many thousands
of Texas Hispanic kids who need this program if they are going to have a chance
to survive in school. They are left out in the cold by the House. And then
there is the threat that Texas could be one of the first eight states to see
the current Head Start program - which serves 67,664 total kids in 142 programs
using 92,340 parent/volunteers - wiped and replaced by some kind of untested,
unproven and less comprehensive state-level program. So, the bill fails to
meet the needs of Hispanic children in Texas since it doesn't fund the slots
needed to get the job done. And then the same bill threatens to wipe out a
proven and tested program that works in our state in exchange for something
that would be a distinctly inferior substitute."
Allison McKinnon, a Head Start teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, said: "If
you turn the money over to the states and they offer nothing more than glorified
day care -- which is not what Head Start is about - Hispanic and other kids
in Arizona lose. If you turn Head Start money over to the states and they leave
out key nutritional and health services, our kids lose ... For any Arizona
member of Congress who would kill Head Start in this state, I ask them to first
visit my classroom and see how the program really works ... We are talking
about the lives and futures of 13,297 Arizona children and their families now
served in 28 local programs. Please do not act in haste or without all the
facts."
To learn more about the dangers posed by the attack on Head Start to a total
of 1,000,000 at-risk children in the United States, please go to http://www.SaveHeadStart.org/understand.html.
No federal tax dollars or resources were used to produce or distribute this
news release, which was made possible by the National Head Start Association.
NHSA is a private not-for-profit membership organization dedicated exclusively
to meeting the needs of Head Start children and their families. The Association
provides support for the entire Head Start family by advocating for policies
that provide high-quality services to children and their families; by providing
extensive training and professional development services to all Head Start
staff; and by developing and disseminating research, information, and resources
that impact Head Start program delivery. NHSA represents more than 900,000
children and their families, 200,000 staff, 1,900 Head Start programs, and
600 Early Head Start programs in America. NHSA provides a national forum for
the delivery and enhancement of Head Start services for at-risk children and
their families.
CONTACT: Christine Kraly or Scott Stapf, for NHSA, (703) 276-3258 or ckraly@hastingsgroup.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: By 4 p.m. EDT on April 16, 2003, a streaming audio replay of the NHSA news conference will be available on the Web at www.SaveHeadStart.org.
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