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by Cheryl
Wetzstein, The Washington Times, May 8, 2003
The Head Start reauthorization bill upcoming in the House will probably
contain key Bush administration reforms, though not exactly what the White
House has proposed, a House Republican said yesterday.
"There's still
room for improvement" in the $6.6 billion federal Head Start program, said
Rep. Michael N. Castle, Delaware Republican and chairman of the House
Education and the Workforce subcommittee on education reform, which is
writing the legislation. Ticking off several Bush administration
proposals, Mr. Castle yesterday told a Head Start seminar hosted by the
Brookings Institution that improving Head Start's educational quality
"will be a major focus" of the reform. Gains are needed in Head Start
students' vocabulary, writing and math.
Head Start's renowned social, health and nutrition services to low-income
3- and 4-year-olds must also be maintained, and Congress should set higher
professional standards for Head Start staff, Mr. Castle said. But he
hedged on the Bush administration's most-debated proposal — allowing
governors to redesign Head Start programs when doing the same to their own
early-childhood-education programs. Under current law, Head Start
programs, which involve nearly 1 million children, operate outside state
control. Congress should be able to create a mechanism that would allow
for "collaboration" with state programs, Mr. Castle said.
The question, he
said, is, "How do we do it? Perhaps we do it differently than what the
White House is proposing," but "to not have that coordination is a
disaster for kids." "But what are we coordinating with?" Rep. George
Miller, California Democrat and ranking member of the House education
panel, asked at the Brookings forum.
Many states
don't have stellar track records organizing their own preschool programs,
he said. "Why are we taking the best program we have in the nation, with
the best outcomes we have, and why are we deciding we're going to turn it
over to the poorest programs?" Coordination is fine — several states are
already collaborating with Head Start under current law, said Mr.
Miller. But given all the "dysfunctional" childhood programs out there, he
said, "Maybe they should be coordinating with Head Start" instead of the
other way around.
Bush
administration domestic-policy aide Margaret Spellings said the
collaboration plan is aimed only at governors who want to tackle it. The
problem, she said, is that "there is no requirement for Head Start
to coordinate" with a state's school system or other child care programs.
As a result, when state officials ask Head Start programs to meet
statewide measures or work with a program, Head Start leaders say they
only have to meet federal standards.
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