Feds seek to strip Philadelphia Housing Authority of Head Start funds [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

June 5, 2004 6:40 AM



AP Newsbreak: Feds seek to strip Philadelphia Housing Authority of Head Start funds


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is poised to end Head Start funding for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, calling the program poorly run with employees' health and criminal backgrounds routinely unchecked and children allowed to play near dangerous areas.

The housing authority, which is appealing the move, responded with a charge of "institutional prejudices" on the part of a Republican administration seeking to cut federal spending at the expense of poor inner-city minorities.

In a May 28 letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the U.S. Administration for Children and Families said it will terminate the Head Start grant because of the housing authority's yearlong failure to correct major problems in the program. Head Start is an education and developmental preschool program for the poor.

"If the health and safety of children are at risk, we act immediately," Windy Hill, associate commissioner for the federal Head Start bureau, said in an interview. "That's common sense."
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http://www.whptv.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=BE3B6242-B5DE-4C3B-BAD5-FB8B7D35F830