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Senator Roberts: Congress Should Strengthen and Protect Head Start
March 23, 2006 - WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, a key member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)today said he would work to strengthen and protect Head Start during the debate over the renewal of the comprehensive early childhood education program.
Senator Roberts addressed the National Head Start Associations’ January Leadership Institute and Board Meeting. Mary Baskett, Executive Director of the Kansas Head Start Association and Kay Mitchell, the National Head Start Association Board Member from Kansas were among other Kansans in attendance.
“I share your concerns about efforts to significantly change the structure of this successful federal-to-local program,” Senator Roberts said. “ I am prepared to fight any proposal that may set the stage for all states to takeover a program that has worked well at the federal level since 1965.”
Last year the Senate HELP Committee approved bipartisan legislation to renew the Head Start program. The bill must now be debated in the full Senate.
Senator Roberts compared debate over the proposal in Congress to block grant Head Start funds to the states with a similar proposal for the federal food stamp program. Roberts said, “I strongly fought back that proposal because, in reality, the states didn’t want a food stamp program, they wanted the money. Today, I have many of the same concerns with the Head Start block grant proposal. I fear that cash-strapped states could take Head Start dollars and move these funds out of Head Start and into other programs.”
Roberts also noted that allowing states to take control over Head Start programs would just add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. The current federal-to-local structure allows local Head Start centers to avoid state administrative burdens and costs.
“I do support additional efforts to encourage Head Start programs to further coordinate with other federal, state and local early childhood programs,” Senator Roberts said. “In Kansas, successful efforts such as these have been under way for many years. Through partnerships with the Kansas State Departments of Education, Social and Rehabilitation Services, and Health and Environment, Kansas Head Start programs serve as excellent models of coordinated programs.”
During the reauthorization process, the Senate made efforts to strengthen and improve fiscal and legal governing issues surrounding Head Start due to a handful of programs, including one in Kansas City, Missouri, that discovered fraud and financial mismanagement scandals.
Senator Roberts said, “While I was certainly disappointed in hearing the news reports, I also understood that these scandals were definitely not the norm in the Head Start program. In drafting the new legislation, we were able to identify problems within Head Start programs and the Administration for Children and Families in order to move ahead with solutions to make the program even stronger. We tightened accountability standards, strengthened the academic focus of the program, and enhanced coordination and alignment of Head Start with other early childhood programs.”
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