What’s So Great About Head Start? : A lot--and Bush is right to recognize it

President Bush wants to boost the Head Start budget to accommodate 80% of the 4-year-olds who are eligible to participate in the successful preschool program. He wants to invest an additional $600 million to prepare poor children to succeed in school. Every additional dollar will be well spent in an era otherwise marked by steep cuts in social programs and deepening federal deficits.

Head Start gives 3- and 4-year-olds the foundation that some don’t get at home. The classes offer basic instruction and also teach children how to get along with each other. This intervention helps disadvantaged children before they form habits that could permanently handicap them.

Head Start also provides a healthy start. All children are seen by doctors and dentists, and they get nutritious meals every day.

Head Start children have consistently done better than their poor neighbors who did not participate. But a new study from the Loyola University School of Social Work in Chicago questions how long the benefits last.

The Loyola study found progress in reading and math in the early grades but that many of the early gains had been lost by high school. The failure rate was most pronounced for black boys, although those who had been in Head Start generally did better than peers who had not.

The Loyola study raises many questions. Is a year of extra help enough to permanently inoculate a poor child against poverty, drugs or violence in his home or neighborhood? Can Head Start succeed with children who are more likely than the first participants to live with ever-younger single mothers in tough neighborhoods?

The Bush proposal would also provide $12 million to study the long-term effects of Head Start. That research could provide some answers, and buy time until an economic recovery allows for greater funding.

Significant additional funds should be used to expand Head Start so that all poor children ages 3 through 5 could participate. If the usual half-day was expanded to a full day, the children of the working poor too could participate. More funds might also help stem the turnover of Head Start teachers, who typically make half the pay of elementary school teachers.

Head Start has been helping poor children since President Lyndon B. Johnson created the anti-poverty program in 1965. But, despite accolades from both liberals and conservatives, federal funding has allowed only a small fraction of the eligible children to participate. It’s good that President Bush is seeking to double the budget, but an even greater national investment is needed to provide a bigger boost in help that can last a lifetime.