69´«Ă˝

Federal

House Education Panel OKs Reauthorization of Head Start

By Alyson Klein — March 20, 2007 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

The House Education and Labor Committee last week approved a bipartisan Head Start reauthorization bill that aims to expand eligibility for the federal preschool program, bolster accountability for Head Start grantees, and boost teacher qualifications.

The measure garnered overwhelming support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, passing March 14 on a roll-call vote, 42-1, but not before Democrats and Republicans had an acrimonious debate over an amendment that would have allowed Head Start centers affiliated with religious organizations to take an applicant’s religion into account in hiring.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved its own Head Start reauthorization bill last month, with unanimous support. (“Head Start Renewal Advances Amid Debate Over Testing,” Feb. 21, 2007.)

The bills have similar objectives, such as broadening eligibility and improving teacher quality, but in some cases, take very different approaches to those goals. The differences will eventually have to be worked out in a conference committee, after both chambers have approved their respective bills.

For instance, both bills would expand the income criteria for Head Start by increasing eligibility for the program from 100 percent of the federal poverty level to 130 percent. But the House measure would place some restrictions on that requirement to ensure that students from the poorest families were served first; the Senate measure contains no such language.

The House bill would permit Head Start centers to accept students from the higher-income range only if a program had demonstrated community need and made an effort to reach out to families living below the poverty level. 69´«Ă˝ whose families are living above the federal poverty level could make up only 20 percent of a program’s enrollment.

Some Head Start advocates said the proposed expansion of eligibility is long overdue.

“We’ve been wanting this for 20 years,” said Sarah Greene, the president of the National Head Start Association, an Alexandria, Va.-based group that advocates for program employees and families. Since the federal poverty level is a national standard, she said, some low-income working families in areas with high minimum wages, such as Boston and Seattle, have been shut out of the program.

Like the Senate bill, the House legislation would require Head Start programs deemed ineffective to recompete for their grants alongside new applicants. But while the Senate bill calls for programs that have serious unresolved problems identified under the current federal monitoring process to submit to recompetition, the House bill would establish a national panel of experts charged with developing a new recompetition system. That system would operate separately from the federal monitoring process.

The House measure would also largely keep in place the current governance structure for local Head Start centers, in which local governing boards must share authority for budgetary, most personnel, and other operating decisions with local policy councils, panels on which the majority of members are Head Start parents.

The Senate bill would shift final decisionmaking authority to the governing boards, with the policy councils serving in an advisory role.

Education Requirement

The House bill would also set a requirement for half of Head Start teachers to have bachelor’s degrees by 2013. The language would apply to the federal preschool program nationwide, not to individual programs. All new teachers must have at least an associate’s degree, starting in 2009.

The Senate bill has similar language, but sets the 50 percent level for educational attainment as a goal instead of a requirement.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., introduced an amendment to the House bill that would have also made the 50 percent provision a goal. The amendment was defeated on a 39-4 roll-call vote.

Helen Blank, a pre-K expert and the director of leadership and public policy at the Washington-based National Women’s Law Center, said she hoped the congressional appropriations committees, which allocate money for Head Start, would consider the costs of hiring better-educated teachers and training staff members when allocating funding for the program.

“[The bill] takes a lot of positive steps. There’s going to have to be the resources behind them,” she said.

The religious-employee provision has been debated numerous times in Congress over the past couple of years. The Head Start program was originally scheduled for reauthorization in 2003.

Delegate Luis Fortuño, a Republican from Puerto Rico, introduced the amendment, saying that faith-based organizations needed the language so that they could retain their religious character while competing for grants on an equal footing with secular groups. The provision to allow consideration of employees’ religion was defeated on a roll-call vote, 26-19, along party lines.

Committee Democrats said the amendment amounted to an assault on civil rights.

“Discrimination should not be supported with public funds,” said Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Mich., the chairman of the subcommittee that deals with early-childhood issues. “That’s repugnant, and has been held repugnant by this body for many, many years.”

A version of this article appeared in the March 21, 2007 edition of Education Week as House Education Panel OKs Reauthorization of Head Start

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69´«Ă˝
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Federal Video Linda McMahon: 5 Things to Know About Trump's Choice for Education Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate former pro-wrestling CEO Linda McMahon to lead the education department.
1 min read
Federal The K-12 World Reacts to Linda McMahon, Trump's Choice for Education Secretary
Some question her lack of experience in education, while supporters say her business background is a major asset.
7 min read
Linda McMahon, former Administrator of Small Business Administration, speaks during the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee.
Linda McMahon speaks during the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. McMahon has been selected by President-elect Trump to serve as as the next secretary of education.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal What a National School Choice Program Under President Trump Might Look Like
School choice advocates—and detractors—see a second Trump term as the biggest opportunity in decades for choice at the federal level.
8 min read
President Donald Trump listens during a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's 69´«Ă˝," event in the East Room of the White House, on July 7, 2020, in Washington.
President Donald Trump listens during a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's 69´«Ă˝," event in the East Room of the White House on July 7, 2020, in Washington. He returns to power with more momentum than ever behind policies that allow public dollars to pay for private school education.
Alex Brandon/AP
Federal 5 Things to Know About Linda McMahon, Trump's Pick for Education Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump’s selection, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment has long spoken favorably about school choice.
7 min read
Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington on Oct. 3, 2018.
Linda McMahon speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington on Oct. 3, 2018, when she was serving as head of the Small Business Administration during President Trump's first administration. McMahon is now President-elect Trump's choice for U.S. secretary of education.
Susan Walsh/AP