Education as way out of poverty getting harder to access
Lewis DiuguidEducation offers many low- and no-income families a way for their children to chisel through the hard wall of generational poverty.
President Lyndon Johnson knew that, which is why his Great Society programs included Head Start, an early childhood education program. But that also is why many presidents since Johnson have tried to eliminate its funding.
But Head Start works. Studies repeatedly have shown that it better prepares low- and no-income children and families for the children to begin school as successful learners. Statewide, funding for Early Head Start programs was cut from $5.67 million to $2.65 million.
In this area the funding will drop from $1.8 million to $865,000, The Kansas City Star reports. That will result in about 120 poor working families with about 120 infants and toddlers in the Kansas City area being jettisoned from the state-funded child care.
It is not right or fair to the families of the children for them to bear the political load of budget cutbacks.
Jon Whitten
11 months, 2 weeks agoLewis, an Obama administration report would disagree with you. From that report,
“In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole. For 3-year-olds, there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships through 1st grade…”
However, the DC Voucher program showed very different results but was defunded in favor of Head Start…Democrats are like that.
Kent Mueller
11 months, 2 weeks agoI have seen that study also, Jon.
Lewis, your comments on that?
The effects of Head Start seem to last only a year or so.