Head Start is an early childhood development program that is very comprehensive. Studies show that the benefits for kids and families that take part in the Head Start program include increased earnings, employment, family stability, less welfare dependency, lower crime, less grade repetition, and less special education. Simply by reducing crime, society gets a huge pay back from contributing to the Head Start program. This point is made because 80% of Head Start funding is from the federal government and then 20% comes from local agencies, private donors and others.
Parents who participate in the program are found to have greater life satisfaction, better coping skills, less anxiety, depression and illness. The children participating in Head Start and Early Head Start are 8 percent more likely to have all of their immunizations. It is clear that there is a high rate of success in this program, not just for the children but for the families as a whole. Research tends to reveal that the families function at a higher rate than those low income families that do not partake of the program.
There has been a debate since the Bush administration about changing the funding from the federal government over to the states. The National Head Start Association points out that there is most likely not enough funding at the local and state level to support such programs. The fear is that because of local and state funding the number of children and families served in the Head Start program would be reduced dramatically and then the progress made in recent years would dissipate. The other fear is that there are not the means or infrastructure to oversee such a widespread program and the children would suffer for it. The argument is made that Head Start programs in general provide a more comprehensive and higher quality programs than their state funded pre-k programs. If the states take over the funding it is likely that that due to lack of funding they will not be able to afford the same quality of teachers and that the outcome of the children will be what suffers.
