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WASHINGTON, DC -- The House today approved legislation that improves academic quality and accountability in the Head Start early childhood education program but that failed to draw significant Democratic support because it was poisoned by a provision that allows some Head Start centers to discriminate against job applicants for teaching and staff positions on the basis of the applicants’ religion. All Head Start centers receive federal funding.
“This is an important bill to improve the educational and health services needy children receive through Head Start,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “It is regrettable that what was otherwise a very strong and bipartisan bill was marred by the Republicans’ determination to insert a provision allowing organizations that receive federal money to discriminate in hiring based on a person’s religion. That is wrong. It is a violation of our civil rights laws and it has sunk the chances of making this important bill a truly bipartisan bill.
“Despite their rhetoric that they want to run Washington in a bipartisan manner, House Republicans and President Bush succeeded at taking a non-controversial, nonpartisan issue and making it a divisive partisan issue,” Miller added.
Miller cited numerous improvements to Head Start made in the bill – H.R. 2123:
- Improved academic content and requirements;
- Improved coordination between state and local early education programs and Head Start programs;
- Strengthened accountability for Head Start grantees by requiring on-site federal monitoring and by allowing quick revocation of federal funds from poor-performing Head Start programs; and
- Increased funding for migrant, seasonal and Indian Head Start programs.
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION
Miller noted that the bill was crafted on a bipartisan basis and won bi-partisan support when it passed the House education committee in May. But today’s religious discrimination amendment scuttled that and led to the bill’s approval along mostly party lines, by a vote of 211 to 184.
In a letter to Congress this week, a diverse coalition of over 45 religious, civil rights, and education groups opposed the amendment by Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA) that allows organizations to use discriminatory hiring practices for Head Start services based on a person’s religious faith. That provision is problematic for a number of reasons, Miller said. For example, the amendment:
- Assaults workers’ religious liberties and civil rights using federal dollars for the first time in the history of the Head Start program, which was itself intended as a civil rights platform to provide better opportunities for all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion; and
- Shifts the focus away from teachers’ qualifications and onto their religious background, at a time when recruiting and retaining well-qualified teachers for Head Start is already a significant challenge. Head Start teachers should be hired or fired based on their abilities to prepare a child for school, and not because of their faith.
Miller noted that the Senate version of this bill does not include the religious discrimination provision.
Although Miller mainly supports the remainder of the bill, he said that it failed to provide funding for improved teacher salaries or professional development opportunities, even though a Head Start teacher with a bachelor’s degree earns about $25,000 – far less than a kindergarten teacher earns.
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