The Head Start program is one of America's most effective tools for preparing children who live in poverty for school. Because of Head Start, these children get the early education, health care, and family support they need to succeed in school. Started in 1965, Head Start has helped over 20 million low-income children narrow the achievement gap that keeps so many American families from reaching their dreams.
 
Democrats have fought to protect and expand this critical program. The President and his Republican allies in the U.S. House of Representatives have tried on numerous occasions to freeze funding for Head Start and turn it into a block grant that would eventually dismantle the program. But House Democrats, working together with education experts, parents and teachers from across the country, have been able to stop these attempts to weaken this important early childhood education program.

Instead, House Democrats were able to put together a bipartisan reauthorization bill that will improve Head Start’s academic content and requirements while maintaining the program’s comprehensive services, build more coordination between Head Start and state-run pre-kindergarten programs, and expands Head Start to reach more children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers as well as more American Indian families. This legislation also strengthens accountability by requiring more on-site monitoring by the Department of Health and Human Services and allows the HHS Secretary to more quickly stop funding the small number of Head Start grantees that fail to use federal dollars wisely and exclusively for the benefit of children.

There are still some problems that the Republicans have refused to address. The Republican budget for Head Start will not be enough to cover inflation – meaning no raises for teachers, reduced services and as many as 10,000 children cut from the program. And civil rights opponents are putting the entire bill at jeopardy, threatening to add religious discrimination provisions to Head Start that would allow programs using federal funding to hire and fire Head Start employees based on their religious beliefs.
 
Democrats know that Head Start works and are proud to have saved the nation’s premiere early education program from the chopping block. Now that Head Start has been saved, the next steps are to build on its success, increase funding, and expand the program. House Democrats will continue to fight for Head Start to ensure that all our children succeed, no matter their background.