Shortchanging Head Start Kids

What are they thinking?! Department

The US Dept of Health and Human Services is telling Head Start to cut wages, cut teacher health care, and ask businesses for extra money because of budget cuts, says the National Head Start Association.

NHSA calls the requirements "unrealistic" and "an insult" ... and only marginally effective at reducing costs because previous budget cuts have left most programs with only the bare necessities.

NHSA President and CEO Greene said: "It is a shame to see that those responsible for educating America's most at-risk children are being asked to make the kind of personal financial sacrifices that would never be asked of a worker for a Defense Department contractor. Many Head Start staff workers are women who are trying to lift themselves up out of poverty and these crippling cuts often make it impossible for them to turn around their lives and those of their families …. "(I)t is naive for ACF to think that one-time donations to individual programs from local business will staunch years of programmatic bleeding or be sufficient to replace the lost operational funds.”

The NHSA also warns that the funding situation will get worse if the proposed 2007 budget for Head Start is passed – which would provide an additional $.06 per child per week.

Get involved on this issue:
Save Head Start
http://www.saveheadstart.org/