My son test below average in most skills for a 4yr old and we got him into head start! Now at 7 and finishing up first grade he tests above average in math, reading (yep he reads at a 2nd grade level), reading comprehension and in social skills! Early childhood education works!
Cutting there is well, an uneducated move! Cut from the elephant in the room - the highway robbery unfunded teacher pensions (move them to individual retirement plans aka 401k and IRA).
Head Start works! I say expand it. President Obama is right on this one!
actually it doesn't , any net effect is gone by 3-4th grade, Obamas own Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found this to be so, sorry.
DHHS 2011 study
A 2011 report by the Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Impact, examined the cognitive development, social-emotional development, and physical health outcomes of Head Start students as compared to a control group that attended private preschool or stayed home with a caregiver. Head Start students were split into two distinct cohorts 3-year-olds with two years of Head Start before kindergarten, and 4-year-olds with only one year of Head Start before kindergarten. The study found:
Though the program had a positive impact on childrens experiences through the preschool years, 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
After first grade, there were no significant social-emotional impacts for the cohort of 4-year-olds, and mixed results on measures of shyness, social withdrawal and problematic student-teacher interactions. The cohort of 3-year-olds with two years of Head Start attendance, however, manifested less hyperactive behaviors and more positive relationships with parents.
By the end of first grade, only a single cognitive impact was found for each cohort. Compared to students in the control group, the 4-year-old Head Start cohort did significantly better on vocabulary and the 3-year-old cohort tested better in oral comprehension.
The study concludes, "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, a potentially important finding for childrens longer term development.[11]