Head

Start
Early Education
Ashley Galacgac
Economics Project
Purpose
• Discover why early education
is important
• Be a participatory citizen
who knows how the government
Head Start program works at
both national and local levels
• Do direct service to benefit
Head Start
Early Education
-Schooling before kindergarten
-Children range from ages 2-5

Why is it important?
•Make transitioning into formal
schooling easier.
40 percent of children who enter the public school system lack
any early education, causing them to fall behind. Star Bulletin
article by Da Silva.

• Children learn rules.

• Children learn basics such as
coloring,
writing, and using scissors.
Greenspan, M.D., Stanley I., and Berry T. Brazelton, M.
onomic component of my project…
Early Education comes at a price!

Holy Family Catholic Academy Pre-

School
onday through Friday, 8 am to 3 pm.
10 months a year…

$450 + $50 (f00d) =

$500/month or $5,000/year

My cousin RJ →
• Founded in 1965
• Part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty”
• Theoretical basis from three strains of new
psychological research
1) importance of optimal early environmental
experience:
J. McVicker Hunt, 1961
2) half of human intelligence determined by age

Benjamin Bloom, 1964

3) parent involvement was the most important
Beatty, 192-194
factor in young children’s development: Ur
Mission
Head Start is a national program that promotes school
readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive
development of children through the provision of
educational, health, nutritional, social and other
services to enrolled children and families.

Program Description
The Head Start program provides grants to local public
and private non-profit and for-profit agencies to provide
comprehensive child development services to economically
disadvantaged children and families, with a special focus
on helping preschoolers develop the early reading and
math skills Head
they Start
need to be successful
programs promote in school.
school readiness
by enhancing the social and cognitive
development of children through the provision
of educational, health, nutritional, social
and other services to enrolled children and
families. They engage parents in their
children's learning and help them in making
progress toward their educational, literacy
and employment goals. Significant emphasis is
placed on the involvement of parents in the
administration of local Head Start programs.
FY-2006 Program Statistics

ENROLLMENT 909,201
     Ages:  
     Number of 5 year olds
4%
and older
     Number of 4 year olds 51%
     Number of 3 year olds 35%
     Number under 3 years
10%
of age
     Racial/Ethnic
 
Composition
     American Indian/Alaska
4.2%
Native
     Black/African American 30.7%
     White 39.8%
     Asian 1.8%
     Hawaiian/Pacific
.9%
Islander
     Bi-Racial/Multi-Racial 6.4%
     Unspecified/Other 16.2%

From the Administration of Children and

Families website
 Head Start Program Fact Sheet

Fiscal Year 2007

  FY 2006 Actual FY 2007 Appropriation

Local Head Start Projects    

Projects in States and
$6,085,972,000 $6,178,848,000
Territories
American Indian-Alaska
Native, and Migrant and $468,765,000 $475,919,000
Seasonal Programs

Subtotal $6,554,737,000 $6,654,767,000

Support Activities    
Training and Technical
$164,057,000 $175,214,000
Assistance
Research, Demonstration
$19,788,000 $20,000,000
and Evaluation

Monitoring/Program Review $38,202,000 $38,590,000

Subtotal $222,047,000 $233,804,000

                 TOTAL $6,776,784,000 $6,888,571,000

From the Administration of Children and

Families website
From Hoover Institution
website
From Hoover Institution websit
 Facts From the Administration of Children and
Families website

During the 2005-2006 Head Start Program Year:

• 12.1% of the Head Start enrollment consisted of children with

disabilities

• 27% of Head Start program staff members were parents of current or

former Head Start children. Nearly 925,000 parents volunteered in their
local Head Start program.

• 91% of Head Start children had health insurance. 87 % of those with

health insurance were enrolled in the Medicaid/Early and Periodic
Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program or a state sponsored
child health insurance program.

• The 1994 reauthorization of the Head Start Act established the Early
Head Start program for low-income families with infants and toddlers. In
Fiscal Year 2006, $679 million was used to support more than 650 programs
which provided Early Head Start child development and family support
services in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia and Puerto
Rico. These programs served nearly 62,000 children under the age of
three.
006 Head Start Program State Allocations and Enrollment

STATE FUNDING ENROLLMENT

HEAD START ENROLLMENT HISTORY
ALABAMA 105,467,527 16,374 FISCAL YEAR ENROLLMENT APPROPRIATION
1965 (summer
12,336,713 1,580 561,000 $ 96,400,000
ALASKA only)
1970 477,400 325,700,000
ARIZONA 102,373,122 13,175
1975 349,000 403,900,000

ARKANSAS 63,823,662 10,778 1980 376,300 735,000,000

1985 452,080 1,075,059,000

CALIFORNIA 822,593,768 98,395
1990 540,930 1,552,000,000

COLORADO 67,594,321 9,820 1995 750,696 3,534,128,000

1996 752,077 3,569,329,000

CONNECTICUT 51,332,832 7,126

1997 793,809 3,980,546,000

DELAWARE 13,091,612 2,071
1998 822,316 4,347,433,000

District of Columbia 24,834,071 3,403 1999 826,016 4,658,151,448

2000 857,664 5,267,000,000

FLORIDA 260,267,233 35,514
2001 905,235 6,200,000,000
GEORGIA 166,671,579 23,508
2002 912,345 6,536,570,000

HAWAII 22,636,682 3,049 2003 909,608 6,667,533,000

2004 905,851 6,774,848,000

IDAHO 22,565,199 2,951
2005 906,993 6,843,114,000
ILLINOIS 267,812,098 39,640
2006 909,201 6,785,771,000

INDIANA 95,151,487 14,231

The Head Start program has enrolled more than 24 million childre
since it began in 1965.
IOWA 50,987,675 7,710From the Administration of Children and Families
website
KANSAS 50,371,658 8,335
Lokelani

Kayana &
Kelo
From Unicef
website Economic Benefits
Preschool programs are
cost effective, preventing
later school failure and
any other problems from
teenage pregnancy,
dropping out of school, to
crime.
Beatty,
Head Start 199
provides
leadership training and
career development
opportunities for thousands
of Head Start parents,
helping families become
economically self
sufficient.
Zigler and Muenchow, 118
Direct Service
“Bunny Tots”
Age 3-4 on Easter Sunday
(www.NHSA.org)
Plan of Action
-Support leaders who support Head Start’s
cause
like Rep. Maize Hirono who proposed a bill to set
aside $1 billion
each year to back Hawaii’s early education, Star
Bulletin article.
-Encourage leaders to make improvements
-increase Head Start eligibility from 100% to 130%
of
poverty level ($20,000-$26,000)
-Increase salaries and benefits of teachers
-reduce class size to accommodate special needs
children

➜
 Bibliography
• "About the Office of Head Start." Administration for Children
and Families. 14 Nov. 2007. Department of Human Health and
Services. 31 Mar. 2008
<http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/hsb/about/index.html#mission>
.
• Zigler, Edward, and Susan Muenchow. Head Start: the Inside
Story of America's Successful Educational Experiment. New
York: BasicBooks, 1992.
• Greenspan, M.D., Stanley I., and Berry T. Brazelton, M.D. The
Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to
Grow, Learn, and Flourish. Cambridge: Perseus, 2000. 200-201.
• Beatty, Barbara. Preschool Education in America. Binghampton:
Yale UP, 1995.
• "Programmes
• That Work." The
Haskins, Ron.State of World's
"Features: Children.
Competing Unicef.
Visions."
1 Apr. 2008 <www.unicef.org/sowc01/3-2.htm>.
2008. Hoover Institution, Board of Trustees of Leland
• Stanford
“Head Start Works”.Junior University.
National 1 Apr.
Head Start 2008
Association. 02 Mar.
<http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3344831.html
2008 http://www.nhs.org/download/advocacy/fact/hsteacher.pdf.
>.
• Da Silva,•Alexandre.
Kahai,“Plan Would Let
Lokelani. Kids Hit
Telephone Ground Running.”
interview. 22 Feb.
Star Bulletin
2008.24 Feb. 2008. 26 Feb. 2008