Obama's Head Start Changes Not Entirely New, But Still Encouraging To Early Childhood Experts

[Tx4obama]

Obama's Head Start Changes Not Entirely New, But Still Encouraging To Early Childhood Experts

President Obama's high-profile announcement Tuesday that Head Start pre-kindergarten centers can no longer count on the automatic renewal of their funding only highlights the implementation of a law that has been on the books since 2007. But early childhood experts say the move marks a positive step in righting the Head Start program notorious for its inconsistency.

"It introduces in principle a healthy dose of accountability into the Head Start system," William Gormley, co-director of Georgetown University's Center for Research on Children in the United States, said of the changes. "Head Start has the potential to move disadvantaged children in a positive direction. It can't inoculate them from challenges they face in the inner city and elsewhere, but it can point them in the right direction. Our public schools build on the success of the Head Start program."

As Obama announced at a Yeadon Regional Head Start center in Pennsylvania Tuesday morning, instead of having their funding renewed automatically, "for the first time in history," Head Start centers will have to prove their effectiveness under seven criteria.

"We're not just gonna put money into programs that don't work," Obama said. Centers that rank among the bottom 25 percent in teaching benchmarks defined by the administration will have to compete for their funding with other providers serving the same market.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/obamas-head-start-changes_n_1082742.html