Sequester leads to massive cuts for Head Start

[DonViejo]

More than 57,000 low-income children were impacted by service cuts

BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD

Head Start, the pre-K education program for low-income students, was forced to make massive service reductions due to the harsh across-the-board federal budget cuts known as the sequester.

The Washington Post spoke with an unnamed senior administration official, who said that more than 57,000 children were impacted by “reduction plans” submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services by Head Start officials, who were forced to make the cuts based on a 5.27 percent reduction in the program’s $8 billion in federal funding.

The Post reports:

Some Head Start centers focused on cutting administrative and support services, such as transportation. Others chose to shorten the school year or the school day. The latest figures show that 18,000 program hours will be cut next year by centers that will start later in the day or end earlier.

Most programs did completely cut services to some children. The sequester “also impacted how many staff kept their jobs, how many dental screenings and health screenings are available and what happens to those families as we go into a new school year,” the official said.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/19/sequester_leads_to_massive_cuts_for_head_start/

[d_r]

1. the right wing

will smugly say that Head Start is a waste of money, that early education isn't important, that women are supposed to be taking care of children instead of using free government baby sitting. Refusing to admit everything we know from the science of brain development about the importance of early stimulation, and cherry picking studies that show leveling out by third grade while ignoring long term benefits such as increase in high school graduation and decrease in delinquency. We know that there is an achievement gap in this country between rich and poor children - the leveling at grade 3 is more the head start graduates catching down than it is the non-head start children catching up. This only extends that gap. From a strictly dollars and sense perspective, it is a terrible policy because it will cost much more in remedial costs down the road than is "saved" today. From a human perspective it just sucks.

ETA - yep, right on the first page of the comments on the newspaper story "their parents are the moochers, moching childcare and someone else to teach their child their ABC's. If you cant afford to raise small children, DONT HAVE CHILDREN. "

[gopiscrap]

2. This is ridiculous

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Republicans are anti-children

but pro fetuses