A musician friend´s wife taught in the first Head Start program in Minneapolis. She invited him to visit and play his guitar for the kids.

When he entered the room, the children all began getting ready to leave. It took a while to figure out what was going on. For most of them, the only male they say on a regular basis was the bus driver, so they thought it was time to go home.

This was forty years ago. We´ve solved that problem though. Now we have female bus drivers.

Government funded baby-sitting.

Yep, who´d thunk that LBJ´s "Great Society" would have failed? Head Start is a major player in that idea. It will not work until the parents become engaged in a positive manner. They have not. Billions wasted for the most part. Also LBJ raided Social Security funds for his Great Society memorial to himself.

I wonder how many of those Chicago South Side shooters were Head Start pupils?

The failure of their mothers to civilize and teach toddlers cannot be overcome by Head Start. I knew that when it was first proposed. Fla. had no public kindergartens so I paid to send my kids, who arrived prepared to listen and learn.

I am a volunteer tutor at a low income public school. I had never met kids who didn´t understand numbers (outside of toddlers and infants) until I started tutoring here. I have only tutored four kids and two of them (one a first grader and one a fifth grader) did not have a solid understanding that numbers mean something- that they are an abstract way we order items. I don´t know whether these kids were in Head Start, but I do know that their very early education didn´t happen.

Over the years, the program has lost $180 billion.

There. Fixed it for you, Mary Katharine.

Head Start is to give Gov´t school teachers a break, so children don´t show up without being toilet trained, and know how to hold a fork and a pencil.
Most of the children in Head Start are as wild as wolf cubs in the forest.

Stop confusing the public with facts. You evil rotten conservatives.

There is a simple solution to this problem. We just need to throw a lot more money at it.
I would really appreciate your vote.

Time for Mooch to demand healthier food for these children so that they can develop brains meant for learning. Oh, and it should be served by millions of newly employed SEIU workers.

Can´t wait to see the Demonrat plan to "fix things", since we are broke and there is no more money to throw at this failed program.

A few months ago I visited a local Head Start program - the physical facility is amazing - large spaces indoors for gross motor activities, classrooms furnished with every imaginable early childhood teaching resource. The day starts with breakfast - the children learn to clean up after themselves - and then, for two hours each morning the 3 & 4 year old children sat through what many of us would consider kindergarten instruction. Review of the alphabet, counting, vocabulary lessons (such as learning the names of common household items). Sign language, recognition of geometric shapes, etc.

Unfortunately there was no context provided for any of this instruction - it was rote drill and memorization. Some of the 3´s still cry for their mommies. It was such an artificial experience - yet the leaders were hopeful it would get them one of the plum grants that would allow them to expand. Worst of all, even play time was regimented.

The best analogy I can think of is like getting a heavy rainstorm after years of drought - the water that normally prepares the soil for plant growth simply runs off the hard earth. Formal schooling is simply not the proper model for early childhood education. Moms and dads who engage their little ones in rich language and activities that allow exploration are the answer. But that can´t be measured on standardized tests.
Ramona (the Pest)

#8 "...Head Start is to give Gov´t school teachers a break, so children don´t show up without being toilet trained, and know how to hold a fork and a pencil.
Most of the children in Head Start are as wild as wolf cubs in the forest…."

So on the money. I worked for Oakland Public Schools in Oakland, Calif. in the ´60´s. I was in the Head Start classrooms. I saw teachers trying to teach 5 year olds to sit at a table and eat orange slices out of a plate. ( Their tendency was to grab a slice and run to a corner to eat it. Somewhat like animals low on the pecking order do.)
And, yes, toilet training was part of the curriculum.
Every classroom had to have enough tape recorders that every child could use one. Same with record players. I was charged with A/V inventory control. Older children were allowed to take tape recorders and record players home. Returning them was mostly the honor system.
New replacement equipment came into the school by the pallet loads. Money flowed like wine!

The ineffectiveness of Head Start has been demonstrated dozens of times over the decades. In Washington, this guarantees two things: more studies and increased funding.