CITING STRONG HOUSE SUPPORT, NHSA URGES HOUSE-SENATE CONFEREES TO PRESERVE ROLE OF PARENTS IN HEAD START
WASHINGTON, D.C.///November 7, 2007//National Head Start Association President and CEO Sarah Greene issued the following statement today:
"Head Start encourages and provides the structure and essential incentives for the active participation of the local community in the decision making process. This mechanism is the Parent Policy Council. Today, we are proud to announce the support of 91 members of the House Representatives and more than two-thirds of the House Education and Labor committee who signed a dear colleague letter, instructing House and Senate conferees to support parent involvement and local community control, by assuring that the authority of the Policy Council is retained in the final bill sent to the President for his approval and signature.
In March of this year, the House of Representatives voted 348 to 49 in support of the reauthorization of one of the most important and effective pre- school programs, nationally and internationally, Head Start. A cornerstone of Head Start is parental and community involvement and participation in all aspects of the program.
Today we stand in a bipartisanship manner on the eve of the Head Start reauthorization and investing in our most valued asset, our children, and in our country's future. The message is clear, one in four members of the House of Representatives will not accept anything less than the full involvement of parents and community in the education of their children - through the Policy Council.
Many U.S. House of Representatives members have joined on to the Dear Colleague letter in support of the policy council - 91 total signatures, 58 Democrats, and 33 Republicans, with 37 of the 49 Education and Labor committee members: We gratefully acknowledge Congressman Danny Davis, Congressman Donald Payne, and Mark Souder for their tireless efforts in securing the congressional support needed to assure local parental involvement and participation in their children's education.
The following people and organizations also support the House language concerning the Policy Council: National PTA, the Family Research Council, NIKE, SEIU, Dr. Ed Zigler (one of the founders of Head Start), Dr. Wade Horn (former Assistant Secretary of HHS in the Bush Administration), the National Council of Jewish Women, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Coalition on Human Needs, the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as U.S. Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Gordon Smith (R-OR).
At the same time, the federal poverty guidelines are outdated because they were developed in 1963 to determine who was poor in America. Although these guidelines have been updated using the Consumer Price Index, they are out-of-date because the methodology upon which they are calculated has changed little since 1963. These guidelines fail to keep up with current living standards. The methodology used at the time and still today to determine poverty focused on how much income was needed to ensure that a family had enough food to eat. At that time, food was one of the largest family expenditures, and housing consumed a smaller portion of family expenditures than it does today. Now, housing is one of the largest family expenses, and its cost varies across the United States. Consequently, under the current poverty guidelines, a family of four with an income of $20,650 in high cost housing areas such as California, New York, Connecticut, or Rhode Island would not qualify for Head Start even though the cost of housing is much higher.
For example, the annual cost of rental housing in Stamford, Connecticut is $15,600. Understandably, a family of four would be unable to feed, clothe, educate, and provide health and dental care for their family with the remaining $5,050. In contrast, another family with an income of $19,000 living in Wyoming, Tennessee, South Carolina, or North Dakota with a considerably lower cost of living would qualify for Head Start. The annual cost of rental housing in rural Wyoming, for instance, is $6,132. While, ideally, the measurement for determining the poverty guidelines should be adjusted locally, we believe that a modest increase in the income eligibility guidelines to 130 percent of the poverty level would give programs the flexibility to serve families who make more than the income guidelines, but live in high-cost communities."
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. |
