Having introduced sweeping legislation to revamp the Head Start program on May 23 (the School Readiness Act of 2003), House Republicans have spent the past three weeks slowly rolling back its most important reforms. [For more information on this bill, go to http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=23#91.] Since its introduction, debate over the new bill has been furious. Head Start champions insist, inter alia, that the proposal to devolve control from Washington to the states will lead to an overall reduction in federal funding and will place an increasing financial burden on the states. (In fact, the GOP proposal would not reduce the amount of federal funding. Rather, it would distribute this money to states as block grants.) Despite attempts by the Bush Administration to support this reform effort - including a new report showing that the current program does not successfully bridge the gap between Head Start's low-income participants and their middle-class - defenders of the status quo have caused House Republicans to ease the most controversial portion of their bill. Instead of affording all states the opportunity to assume control over Head Start, the School Readiness Act allows no more than eight states to do so, and then only as a demonstration project. The full House is expected to vote soon on this new version of the bill.
"House Republicans rewrite Head Start provision," by Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times, June 11, 2003
"Strengthening Head Start: What the evidence shows," Department of Health and Human Services, June 2003