Head Start and the Economic Stimulus Bill

Head Start had requested $4.3 billion in the stimulus package. What' now being discussed in the Senate is $2.1 billion and even that' being challenged.

The National Head Start Association put out a statement this morning:

It' time to set the record straight about Head Start/Early Head Start and the economic stimulus bill now before the U.S. Senate. The truth is that up to 60,000 jobs could be created – and that is not even including related construction positions – with the $2.1 billion has been designated for Head Start and Early Head Start. The arguments that some are making today that more spending on Head Start is ‘non stimulative’ as part of the package are simply untrue. Not only would the targeted stimulus funds go directly to the hardest-hit communities where they are needed most, but they could be put to work immediately to hire more teachers, more aides, and other staff, as well as the construction workers needed to fix or replace Head Start' deteriorating schools and other infrastructure.”

And more funding for Head Start would do more than create jobs. At the MLK Day screening that Rachel posted about, MMP showed our video collaboration with the Pennsylvania Head Start Association, and I talked about the importance of Head Start. Here' what I said:

I’m sorry that I am up here today rather than one of the Head Start parents who had planned to be. I am an organizer with the Media Mobilizing Project and I’m also a community representative to the Philadelphia School District Head Start Policy Council, and through that I have really gotten to see how the parents and children in Head Start are the best testimony to how amazing this program is. But Linda got called into work at the last minute and—like everyone who is struggling to put food on the table—she had to go. So, here I am, and I am glad to be here with all of you.

I feel really privileged to have been a part of this collaboration with Head Start. The video we just watched was the trailer for a longer piece that came out of a year' worth of conversations with Head Start families across Pennsylvania. It could have been made in any state in the U.S.—there are Head Start centers in every state and every county—and it has been used around the country in parent trainings and advocacy for Head Start. When Head Start was up for reauthorization in 2007, the Pennsylvania Head Start Association sent this video to every member of Congress, and it played a role in getting Head Start reauthorized to continue its programming.

This video speaks to what one-half of everyone in our city and state is going through every day. The longer version goes into more detail about the incredible role the program has played in the lives of so many families. Here in Philly, there are around 96 Head Start classrooms and over 6000 kids enrolled. Head Start children are less likely to repeat a grade, require special education classes, or be charged or convicted of a crime. And in an age where every human need is being privatized, Head Start is a testament to how well a government program can function, particularly when parents and the wider community are involved. Because Head Start is not just about the kids. Head Start offers parents support with their education and housing and health and work needs. It' also an amazingly strong community of people who are all facing similar struggles and fighting as hard as they can for a good education for their kids.

But Head Start has been underfunded for many years, and more and more it' been hard for Head Start to provide the services it can. Head Start parents and community members are calling for a movement to save and expand the program. Right now, they are working to get funding for Head Start included in the economic recovery plan. To learn more and support this effort, please visit www.saveheadstart.org.

One of the things that spurred Dr. King to call for the Poor People' Campaign was seeing how resources were being diverted from programs like Head Start to the war in Vietnam. And of course, we are facing a very similar situation today; one day of the Iraq war—one day!—could pay for a year of Head Start for 95,000 children. I have seen that parents and children in Head Start today will be leaders in the kind of movement that Dr. King was calling for. And the best way—possibly the only way—that we can fight for Head Start and programs like it is to recognize that this fight is the fight of low-wage workers, and it is the fight of undocumented immigrants, and it is the fight of students in our public schools—to recognize that it is the same fight and for all of us to come together and do this together.

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