County grapples with federal Head Start cuts
Loss of $400,000 in funding will likely result in cuts to staff, programs
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20130626/NEWS/130629415/1117/county-grapples-with-federal-head-start-cuts&template=fairfaxTimes

After looking at ways to expand preschool services earlier this year, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is now having to consider cuts to Head Start programs due to federal budget cuts.

The county will be losing about $400,000 of its $7.6 million in federal grants for Head Start and Early Head Start preschool services.

Head Start promotes school readiness for children from low-income families by providing educational services from birth to age 5.

County staff proposed ways to absorb the cuts by reducing some services and eliminating two staff positions.

Some supervisors said they would rather bridge the gap using reserve funds until the county completes a long-term plan for how to expand subsidized preschool services and eliminate its waiting list for Head Start and other preschool programs.

“If there is ever a program that we have got to find a way to fund, it is this program,” said Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon). “These children will not have the same chance as others unless we have this program.”

The staff proposal to absorb the federal cuts would primarily affect Early Head Start services, for children up to age 3, according to Anne-Marie Twohie, director of the Fairfax County Office for Children.

It would eliminate one staff position each at the county-run Greater Mount Vernon Community Head Start program and at Higher Horizons, one of the county’s nonprofit partners. Eliminating these positions would reduce the number of children who can be enrolled in Early Head Start by 24.

Both programs happen to have vacant positions, so no one would be laid off, Twohie said.

Other cutbacks would reduce the program year for Early Head Start children enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools’ program by 20 days, affecting 48 children, and eliminating transportation services for about 60 children to and from the Mount Vernon program.

Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee) said he is concerned that eliminating transportation services would effectively mean that those children would not be able to enroll in the program.

While the county has about $8 million set aside to cover federal budget cuts, County Executive Ed Long cautioned that the problem is a long-term one and the county must decide how it wants to address the waiting list for preschool services in an environment of shrinking federal subsidies.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

It could take into next calendar year to complete the long-term plan, which the county is developing in partnership with the school system, Long said.

Easily solved. Someone call Sharon and have her raise taxes again. Its how democrats solve all problems.

Does anybody have any data showing that Head Start actually improves outcomes? I thought I'd read somewhere that there was no demonstrable data proving kids who did the program ended up any better than those who did not.

Tray von Martin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anybody have any data showing that Head Start
> actually improves outcomes? I thought I'd read
> somewhere that there was no demonstrable data
> proving kids who did the program ended up any
> better than those who did not.


No, they don't. In fact most shows that it makes absolutely no difference at all.

Which makes perfect sense when you understand that it's basically a glorified babysitting service with a ton of bureaucratic overhead. Seriously, Early Head Start for ages 0-3? Come on...

WHO CARES?????

The majority of the funding comes from FED aid moron! Keep slashing the budget Fx! I don't want MY taxes raised...

Parents love head start. It frees them up from doing their job as a parent that much earlier.

Blacks should all be fucking geniuses now for as long as Head Start has been going on if it's about education. Perhaps its problem has been not teaching how to read cursive.

The current en vogue belief concerning black children is that they don't hear enough words in their infancy compared to white children (due to stupid/ineffective parents). Apparently it's too late for the black children by the time they hit 3 years old.

Head Start does not work because it does not change the genetics of the children who attend the program. IQ is determined at conception and is generally only affected by malnutrition in childhood. If a child has a normal diet and is breastfed they generally reach their innate potential in terms of intelligence.

Head Start and other government programs are basically a way to make sure non-Asian minority children spend as much time away from their actual parents as possible with the hope that nice white ladies can turn these damn kids around. It's also nice to make 80,000 dollars a year with a degree in Special Ed, General Ed etc.

TM Steve Sailer

Damn Whitey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Head Start and other government programs are
> basically a way to make sure non-Asian minority
> children spend as much time away from their actual
> parents as possible with the hope that nice white
> ladies can turn these damn kids around. It's also
> nice to make 80,000 dollars a year with a degree
> in Special Ed, General Ed etc.
>
> TM Steve Sailer


That's actually just a brutally honest way of saying basically the exact same thing that proponents do in their justifications for the program but in a more PC way.

Not necessarily the "nice white ladies" though since most of the centers aren't located in a place where there are any nice white ladies around but usually it's some folks who are at least a few steps up from the kid's parents anyway.

How long? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Blacks should all be fucking geniuses now for as
> long as Head Start has been going on if it's about
> education. Perhaps its problem has been not
> teaching how to read cursive.

They're very good at math, they know if they steal 2 buckets of fried chicken and add 2 watermelons that equals one home town jamboree!