President Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal includes an expansion of the Head Start program that aims to provide early childhood education for low-income families.
“The Budget expands access to high-quality care for tens of thousands of additional infants and toddlers through Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, and provides over $1 billion in additional funding for Head Start to make sure children are served in full-day, full-year programs that research shows lead to better outcomes for children,” according to a White House fact sheet of the budget.
However, a 2012 study by the Department of Health and Human Services does not support the administration’s claim that Head Start helps children. There were some initial benefits for participating children, but their gains were erased by the time the children reached third grade. Developmental domains, elementary school experiences, health and language development all failed to see widespread gains by the third grade.
“In summary, there were initial positive impacts from having access to Head Start, but by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts found for either cohort in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices,” the study said. “The few impacts that were found did not show a clear pattern of favorable or unfavorable impacts for children.”
The program cost $8.6 billion in 2014. Obama’s budget would hike tobacco taxes to provide $1.5 billion more per year.
A 2010 HHS study found Head Start’s positive impacts may even dissipate by first grade. “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,” the study said.
A 2010 study by the Government Accountability Office found the program vulnerable to fraud and abuse. “Posing as fictitious parents and relative providers, GAO successfully billed for $11,702 in child care assistance for fictitious children and parents,” the study said. “In most cases, states approved GAO’s fictitious parents who used Social Security numbers of deceased individuals and claimed to work at nonexistent companies.”
The program is clearly not effective and susceptible to fraud. Rather than seeking to expand the Head Start program without improving accountability, Obama should admit the program fails to make a long-lasting impact, as HHS studies have shown. Head Start needs sensible reform, not expansion.
