Head Start, the federal preschool program created for low-income families, has a major makeover ahead and is at a crossroads. After the spring of 2013, some towns may see different organizations facilitating the government’s early learning program.
Organizations such as school districts, nonprofits, and other childcare providers that have never had the chance to facilitate a Head Start school, now have the chance to receive that baton and compete for the federal funds. The Head Start program is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The competition for funds is seen as a way to focus on accountability and quality.
“This year was the first time ever that Head Start was funded based on rigorous quality measures,” said Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative with the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy institute based in Washington, D.C.
The foundation released a brief titled, “Reforming Head Start: What ‘Re-competition’ Means for the Federal Government’s Pre-K Program,” authored by Maggie Severns.
“Essentially, there are a couple of paths we can go down,” according to Guernsey, “and we hope that we will go down a positive one … by focusing more on these higher standards.”
Guernsey focuses on how to step up high-quality learning environments for young children from birth to 8 years old. She is the author of “Screen Time,” a book about the effects of electronic media on young children.
“[The Head Start program] can have really good outcomes over time,” she said.
The alternative, according to Guernsey, involves fighting over who gets the funding, which would not “be good for the children in the long-run.”
Competing for Funds
While Guernsey said that a lot of Head Start centers in the nation would not need to compete for future grants, there are some centers that will have to compete for the chance to keep the federal dollars.
In fact, over 100 centers in the nation will have to compete against each other. So far, two of the competing grantees both appear ready and optimistic.
