Dconrad hit it right on the head with "Why John McCain Is Wrong". I would like to offer an expansion on those comments from the perspective of someone who has worked to improve Head Start for the last eight years.
In Head Start we can identify with Chris Rock’s character in "Everybody Hates Chris". It seems there is a large contingent of people who wish to lay the failures in education in America at the steps of Head Start. During the debate on Wednesday night, John McCain asserted that by third grade there is no difference between children who attended Head Start and those who did not. As dconrad pointed out already, his assertion seems to be based on a thirty year-old study. The latest research shows that there is a nine to one return on investment in Head Start and it certainly makes a difference. This is especially so for well run, high quality programs. I would like for people to ponder these questions: If children leave Head Start having made progress and that progress fades by third grade, whose responsibility is it to ensure that the progress does not fade? Is that a legitimate argument to flat line fund Head Start or is it an argument for intervention at other levels or for an expansion of some of the Head Start concepts beyond preschool?
Often, we notice that there are many children who enter preschool Head Start at age three already far behind their peers. Some arrive at Head Start already knowing their names and some of the alphabet and some arrive and cannot even tell you their name or any letters of the alphabet. This underscores the need for increased funding for Early Head Start so that there is not such a large gap by the time that children are three years old (Early Head Start takes them into centers at six weeks and they stay in until they turn three).
Increased funding is needed to maintain the advances that Head Start has made over the last ten years. We have increased the focus on literacy and early math and greatly increased the number of teachers with degrees in early childhood education. In our program in Hinds County, Mississippi, 100% of the lead teachers have degrees in early childhood education compared to only 22% seven years ago. The problem is that we cannot keep teachers with degrees and certifications if there is insufficient funding to maintain them in the profession they have chosen. Much of the reform that the senator says is needed has already occurred. The ongoing FACES research last reported data as of 2002. Surely, it cannot capture changes in curriculums and staff qualifications that were only beginning in 2002. Our program is one of many around the nation that are part of the ongoing FACES data collection effort by the Administration for Children and Families. We are confident about what we are doing in Head Start in Mississippi. We just need the data and research to catch up to the changes.