From Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Head Start, the federal program for pre-kindergarten children from low-income families, costs taxpayers $8 billion each year. Congress asked the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study of the program’s effectiveness, the results of which were available last October (but not released until after the election).
The study tracked the progress of 5,000 children, half of whom had been through the Head Start program from as early as age 3 and half of whom had not. The results are bad news.
Despite the vast sums of money spent to ready these children for school, the study found that Head Start had little to no positive impact on the cognitive abilities or emotional well-being of its participants, and it even showed a negative impact in certain areas.
After nearly 50 years running, the flagship federal preschool program Head Start does not give children any measurable head start at all.
Children need stronger families, a mom and a dad, not more government. This is just another example of the government trying to take over the role of the family. We need policies that encourage marriage of a husband and wife, and help them to create a strong home base for their children, rather than sending them away to be educated elsewhere.
