Headstart

[Salty]

Do you think that Headstart has been a successful program?

Not according to the Reason Inst

Thoughts

 

[Borneol]

I didn't have a chance to watch the showing, but thought John Stossel had a nice take on Head Start from the other day.

"The Government Can't Give Kids a Head Start"

snippet from the article:

Everyone loves the Head Start program. Politicians across the ideological spectrum-from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to President George W. Bush-have praised the program and called it a success.
They should read the government's own research.
The 'Head Start Impact Study' was a report conducted by the federal government. It followed and compared underprivileged kids who went to Head Start, and underprivileged kids who didn't. The study found no difference between the two groups.
Zero.
The kids who went to Head Start did better while they were in Head Start, but one year later the benefits were all gone. Not by 5th grade. Not by 3rd grade. By 1st grade, the benefits were "largely absent".
Since President Obama has pledged over and over to "eliminate programs that don't work", it seems like Head Start would be a natural to get cut.
Nope.
That's not how big government works. Even after the report came out, the Obama administration has continued to massively increase spending on Head Start by more than a billion dollars.
In my Fox News special "No They Can't", I talk to Congressman Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, who in spite of the evidence insists Head Start works. When I confront him on the data, he falls back on a familiar argument: we need to spend more...

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/s...nment-cant-give-kids-head-start#ixzz1ra7F8AND

 

[billwald]

Wonder if the study was controlled for income. When I started school I knew what reading was about and my numbers. I have an almost 2 year old grandkid that knows the numbers and some words. These days there is probably close to zero chance that half the inner city kids learn their alphabet or numbers at home.

Taking a pre-school kid from a small, specialized class to and a standard overcrowded class must be like jumping a junior high kid to a college lecture hall with 1000 kids.

If the Right Wingers can hold legal title to slaves, then they will grow an ignorant slave class.

 

[Gina B]

I would say that this isn't because the Headstart program doesn't work. The studies even show it does give the kids a better START. The problem is with drop off in support of the kids that do benefit.

A lot of the kids in the program come from families that have a hard time or for other reasons aren't providing their kids with what they need to enter into school with the same level of benefits that other kids have.

If those families never do offer that, it stands to reason that when they lack that support at home, they're going to start falling behind again pretty soon. A supplemental program might help with that.

What programs like this do is basically provide kids with the supportive teaching that parents aren't giving them. That's a good thing. It just isn't followed through with parents who never do step up for whatever reason...whether inability or no desire to. That's when many kids start going downhill in their studies unless they have the desire/type of personality that drives them to do it on their own without much outside support.

I can't see doing away with the program. It really does help prepare the kids for the classroom, they enjoy it, it helps the kindergarten teachers be better able to do their job, etc. And in a number of cases, it gives kids a safe place to be and a bit of food in their bellies. It's surprising just how many kids don't get that at home.

 

[targus]

If the Right Wingers can hold legal title to slaves, then they will grow an ignorant slave class.

Naahh... the libs already have a lock on the plantation class.

They keep them there with welfare and call them Democrat voters.