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Head Start Cuts Services For More Than 57,000 Children Due To Sequestration

Wow. Apparently the 47% that Romney referenced includes young children.

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Arbo said:
That would start with getting the federal government out of education, for it has been going downhill ever since they became involved.
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Government has been involved with education for over a hundred years. Might want to try a different talking point considering all the technological advances that we have had in those 100 years.

Arbo said:
How does that differ from current times?
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Study history and you will know.

Arbo said:
I have never fallen for the 'one person' belief. Helps, saves, whatever. It is used all the time. I think it is wrong headed, as most often the cost vs. return is not worth many of the things done.
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And I have never much cared for the "cost vs return" mantra. People need to stop being so materialistic.

Arbo said:
Start forcing people to be responsible, by removing all the handouts, and people will become more responsible. Quit with all the programs to give a hand out, and work on stuff that helps give a hand up.
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Education is not a hand out. Its a hand up. Not only does education help improve peoples lives it also reduces crime. You might have an arguement if you were talking about foodstamps or the like...but for education you have none. Particularly since an education can also teach responsibility.
 
vesper said:
I think taxpayers need to be made aware of some real facts about Head Start.

Head Start was part of LBJ's Great Society. Today it costs the taxpayers $8000.00 per child enrolled each year. Since its enactment 40 some years ago the taxpayers have put out over 180 billion in funding.

At the beginning of the year the HHS released a report on Head Start. Within the report were the results of a study (ordered by Congress) that has been ongoing for a few years following 5000, 3-4 year olds enrolled in Head Start and then following their progress through the third grade. The report reveals that Head Start failed to improve the cognitive abilities of children, their access to health care, and the parenting practices of participants. The federal researchers also discovered worse peer relations and lower teacher-assessed math ability for Head Start children.

These failures are the very things the People were told this program would correct. Now you aren't going to hear about this study in the MSM, but do yourself a favor and take the time to read the pdf. Supporting something that sounds good or makes you feel good is hardly worth 180 billion dollars when the damn thing didn't work.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/hs_impact_study_final.pdf
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You might want to re-read that study. Your first mistake is that it does not go to 3rd grade. It goes to the spring of 1st grade.

Data collection began in fall 2002 and continued through 2006, following children from program application through the spring of their 1st grade year.
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Second mistake is cherry picking, totally ignoring the benefits that was shown.

The key findings are presented below. First, we present findings related to the primary questions about the average effect of Head Start as a whole. Next we present findings about subgroups of children. As described later in this summary, the subgroup findings should be viewed as secondary and exploratory as compared to the main impact findings that are considered primary as well as confirmatory.

Confirmatory Impact Findings
 Providing access to Head Start has a positive impact on children’s preschool experiences. There are statistically significant differences between the Head Start group and the control group on every measure of children’s preschool experiences measured in this study.

Access to Head Start has positive impacts on several aspects of children’s school readiness during their time in the program.

For the 4-year-old group, benefits at the end of the Head Start year were concentrated in language and literacy elements of the cognitive domain, including
impacts on vocabulary (PPVT), letter-word identification, spelling, pre-academic skills, color identification, letter naming, and parent-reported emergent literacy. There was also an impact on access to dental care in the health domain.

For the 3-year-old group, benefits were found in all four domains examined at the end of the Head Start and age 4 years, including impacts on vocabulary (PPVT), letter-word identification, pre-academic skills, letter naming, elision (phonological processing), parent-reported emergent literacy, McCarthy Draw-aDesign (perceptual motor skills and pre-writing), applied problems (math), hyperactive behavior, withdrawn behavior, dental care, health status, parent
spanking, parent reading to child, and family cultural enrichment activities.

However, the advantages children gained during their Head Start and age 4 years yielded only a few statistically significant differences in outcomes at the end of 1st grade for the sample as a whole. Impacts at the end of kindergarten were scattered and are mentioned below only when they appear to be related to the 1st grade impacts.

Cognitive Outcomes. By the end of 1st grade, only a single cognitive impact was found for each cohort. Head Start group children did significantly better on the PPVT (a vocabulary measure) for 4-year-olds and on the Woodcock-Johnson III test of Oral Comprehension for the 3-year-olds.

Social-Emotional Outcomes. By the end of 1st grade, there was some evidence that the 3-year-old cohort had closer and more positive relationships with their parents. These impacts were preceded by other social-emotional impacts (improvements in behavior-hyperactive behavior and total problem behavior, and social skills and positive approaches to learning) in the earlier years. The findings for the 4-year-old cohort are inconsistent with teachers reporting that children in the Head Start group are more shy and socially reticent and have more problems with student and teacher interactions than control group children while their parents are reporting that they are less withdrawn.

Health Outcomes. For the 4-year-old cohort, there was an impact on child health insurance coverage at the end of kindergarten and 1st grade, and an impact on child health status in kindergarten. For the 3-year-olds, there was an impact on child health insurance coverage in kindergarten only. (me: and the following graphs in that study show favorable impacts)

Parenting Outcomes. For the 3-year-old cohort, there were positive favorable impacts on use of time-out and authoritarian parenting at the end of 1st grade and on spanking and time out in kindergarten. These favorable impacts for authoritarian parenting and spanking were also demonstrated in the earlier years.
For the 4-year-old cohort, there were no significant parenting practices impacts in kindergarten or 1st grade.
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There is of course more but I find that this is sufficient amount of pasteing.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Government has been involved with education for over a hundred years.
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And yet they still haven't gotten it right, and it keeps getting worse and worse.

And I have never much cared for the "cost vs return" mantra.
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Those that want to steal from others and use that money for their ideology never do.

You are not talking about education, you are talking about day care. That has been shown to not do what it was promised (like just about every government program out there)....
 
Kal'Stang said:
You might want to re-read that study. Your first mistake is that it does not go to 3rd grade. It goes to the spring of 1st grade.



Second mistake is cherry picking, totally ignoring the benefits that was shown.



There is of course more but I find that this is sufficient amount of pasteing.
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The original study was set up to follow a child through the first grade but it was extended to the third grade. It's in there go read it again I believe the study clearly shows Head Start is not producing adequate results as the people were told it would. And what I find interesting is this study was completed in 2010 but not released to the public till 2013. 2010 was a mid-term election year. This study if released at that time would have been a feather in the cap of any politician demanding fiscal responsibility and cutting government waste.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Government has been involved with education for over a hundred years. Might want to try a different talking point considering all the technological advances that we have had in those 100 years.



Study history and you will know.



And I have never much cared for the "cost vs return" mantra. People need to stop being so materialistic.



Education is not a hand out. Its a hand up. Not only does education help improve peoples lives it also reduces crime. You might have an arguement if you were talking about foodstamps or the like...but for education you have none. Particularly since an education can also teach responsibility.
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if this program was truly about educating our kids, i would be agreeing with you
yes, it is touted as an education program, but in reality, it is not
the data (the study cite was earlier provided) reveals that other than one aspect, head start kids and non-head start kids have the same educational (and behavioral) attainment
the one difference was that head start kids are BEHIND the non-head start kids in mathematics readiness

unfortunately, head start is nothing more than a free child care activity for low income families
 
vesper said:
Doing a little digging on the subject of federally subsidized day care programs. I came across a letter released by the GAO a few years back stating then there were 69 early education and care programs administered by 10 federal agencies for children under the age of five, all paid for by the taxpayers.

According to the Government Accountability Office, there are 69 early education and care programs administered by 10 different federal agencies for children under the age of five.[
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I apologize but that link doesn't seem to be working so I will try again.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05678r.pdf

ahhhh mission complete.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Easy to say from a high horse and a complete lack of understanding of human nature and instinct.
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The human brain gives us the ability to override biological drives. It's too bad so many people don't use their brains.
 
"change is coming to america"
 
Is there some kind of reason that preschool is a necessity? God forbid they just stay at home one more year.
 
Phys251 said:
All these are critiques of the program itself, not preschool in general. This is basically saying, because a particular form of education doesn't work, kids shouldn't go to school.
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Preschool =/= Headstart.

I don't have a problem with preschool, plenty of people learned to read in preschool giving them an advantage, but the particular program of Headstart doesn't work.
 
obvious Child said:
Preschool =/= Headstart.

I don't have a problem with preschool, plenty of people learned to read in preschool giving them an advantage, but the particular program of Headstart doesn't work.
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I'm not gonna take those studies at face value until I consider the counterevidence. But even if they pan out, then we should reform, not abolish, Head Start. This sequestration is, yet again, ineffective and stupid.
 
Phys251 said:
I'm not gonna take those studies at face value until I consider the counterevidence. But even if they pan out, then we should reform, not abolish, Head Start. This sequestration is, yet again, ineffective and stupid.
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I won't disagree with that. And Head Start does need changes.
 
JayDubya said:
Whatever percentage was cut from this program due to sequestration is less than the 100% that should be cut from the program.
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Wrong on as many levels as there are levels.
 
Phys251 said:
I'm not gonna take those studies at face value until I consider the counterevidence. But even if they pan out, then we should reform, not abolish, Head Start. This sequestration is, yet again, ineffective and stupid.
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That was literally the point of the sequester. Congress did it anyway.

****in geniuses.
 
Phys251 said:
Economic Benefits of Quality Preschool Education for America's 3- and 4-Year Olds - The Pew Charitable Trusts
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That's interesting but not very intuitive to me, so I'd like to know what it is about preschool that's so beneficial ($7 per $1 spent). Is it just socializing or gaining familiarity with school environment early, or an escape from crappy home life? What about kids who were never at risk for dropping out or arrest? Mostly i associate preschool with wealthy parents who obsess over their 3-4 year old landing a gig at goldman sachs.
 
chromium said:
That's interesting but not very intuitive to me, so I'd like to know what it is about preschool that's so beneficial ($7 per $1 spent). Is it just socializing or gaining familiarity with school environment early, or an escape from crappy home life? What about kids who were never at risk for dropping out or arrest? Mostly i associate preschool with wealthy parents who obsess over their 3-4 year old landing a gig at goldman sachs.
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Good questions. Without having read that entire study, I wonder if they go into that.
 
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